Clemson University trustees approve new economic research center, Class of 1960 landscaping project at fall meeting

Published: October 16, 2009

William C. Smith Jr.
Vice Chairman image by: Clemson University

CLEMSON — At their fall quarterly meeting on campus, Clemson University trustees heard reports on research funding, facilities, educational programs and budgets. 

Vice President for Research and Economic Development Chris Przirembel reported Clemson’s research funding totaled $141 million for FY 2009, down from the university record of $151 million last year. The decrease occurred because of reductions in state and local government funding for Clemson’s research program, Przirembel said. Federal government and industry funding and support from other sources increased over last year.

The trustees approved a proposed new academic Center for Economic Research on the Family (CERF) in the College of Business and Behavioral Science. CERF will be launched as a virtual, collaborative center, highlighting and stimulating research on family and economics. The center will have a Web site highlighting the faculty work and providing links to accessible databases on family issues and a literature index.

The construction and naming of the privately funded Class of 1960 North Green, a landscaping project for the green space between the Carillon Garden and Outdoor Theater on campus, was approved. The area will feature a terraced green, new sidewalks, lighting, benches and improved access routes. Steps will highlight four major transitions at Clemson in the 1950s and 1960s: the transitions from a military to a civilian school, from a male to a coeducational school, from a college to a university and from an all-white student body to an integrated one. Class of 1960 members raised the funds for the project.

The trustees adopted a new university disaster-planning policy that in the case of an emergency, such as a pandemic or act of terrorism, allows the president to take steps without delay to avoid or mitigate loss or damage to persons and property until a quorum of the board can be convened.

In other action, the trustees approved:

• leases related to office space for information technology at Eagles Landing in Seneca and the vehicle service center parcel at the Restoration Institute in North Charleston, and leases to Storm Rider Technologies LLC and Gulf FiberOptics Inc.;
• an easement request from North Charleston Sewer District;
• Phase 1 concept for a small-ruminant research facility;
• changing the department name of agriculture and biological engineering to biosystems engineering in the College of Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences;
• program modifications in location and delivery of academic courses for the Ph.D. in International Family and Community Studies and Graduate Certificate in International Family and Community Studies and added concentrations in audio to the Bachelor of Arts in Performing Arts program and chemistry to the Bachelor of Arts in Science Teaching; and
• an undergraduate admissions policy.

William C. Smith Jr. of Columbia, chief executive officer of Red Rock Developments, was elected vice chairman of the board. He was elected a Clemson trustee in 1996 by the South Carolina General Assembly. He has served on various city, state and regional chambers of commerce and development councils. Smith graduated from Clemson in 1982 with a bachelor’s degree in administrative management and was on Clemson’s 1981 national championship football team.  

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