The Trustees of Clemson University strive to adhere to the highest standards of ethics in the discharge of their individual and collective responsibilities. To ensure that these standards are met, the Board has adopted this Policy to provide guidance to individual Trustees in their activities related to their service on the Board.
Trustees of Clemson University are "public officials" as that term is defined in the South Carolina Ethics Act. As public officials, all Trustees are required to conform to the provisions of this Act. The rules of conduct set forth in the Act state that no public official may knowingly use his or her public office to obtain an economic interest for [a] the public official, [b] a member of the public official's immediate family, [c] an individual with whom the public official is associated, or [d] a business with which the public official is associated. The Act also states that a public official may not use his or her public office to influence a governmental decision in which [a] the public official, [b] a member of the public official's immediate family, [c] an individual with whom the public official is associated, or [d] a business with which the public official is associated has any economic interest. Finally, the Act prohibits a public official from accepting, asking, soliciting or agreeing to receive anything of value from another person in exchange for taking or withholding any official action. See, S. C. Statutes Annotated, Sections 8-13-700, et seq.
The Board recognizes that if any affiliation in a profession or with an organization that touches on some aspect of the University's activities were to be considered an exclusion from service on the Board, the University would lose the benefit of the contributions of time, talent and energy from a number of qualified individuals.
The Board provides the following guidelines to Trustees with regard to the appropriate disclosure and management of any potential conflict of interest.
February 2012