Knighton named director of access and equity at Clemson University

Published: April 6, 2011

CLEMSON — L. Jerry Knighton Jr. of Anderson has been named director of Clemson University’s Office of Access and Equity.

Knighton has worked in access and equity at Clemson since 1989. Prior to that, he worked for five years as director of economic and community development for the city of Anderson. He previously was a disability examiner for the S.C. Vocational Rehabilitation Department.

Knighton, a Clinton native, received a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master's degree in public administration from the University of South Carolina. He is pursuing a Ph.D. in educational leadership at Clemson.

Knighton teaches courses in labor and employee relations and the sociology of work and leisure as an adjunct professor at Southern Wesleyan University. He also was a diversity facilitator for the South Carolina Technical College System Leadership Academy and taught freshman CU101 courses at Clemson. He is a National Coalition Building Institute diversity trainer and SafeZone trainer for Clemson.

He has worked in collaboration with Clemson’s Charles H. Houston Center for the Study of the Black Experience in Education to secure grant funding from the S.C. Commission on Higher Education to research ways to expand Clemson’s Emerging Scholars program to other colleges in the state. In 2003, Knighton served on the Miles to Go: South Carolina task force, a joint effort between the higher education commission and the Southern Education Foundation. The Miles to Go report focused on achievement gaps among students by race and socioeconomic status in South Carolina's K-16 system. Knighton received grants from the foundation to present recommendations from the report at town meetings across the state and organize a program in Clarendon County to commemorate the 50^th anniversary of the Brown vs. Board of Education decision.

In 2007, Knighton was outreach and special projects coordinator for the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR) in Greenville to lead efforts to increase minority business participation. After achieving 51 percent minority business participation on the CU-ICAR Plaza project, his role was expanded to coordinate minority business participation efforts on all Clemson University capital projects, both public and private. The university received an award from the Minority Economic Development Institute in Greenville for its achievements in 2007.

Knighton served two terms as president of the South Carolina Professional Association for Access and Equity and is state coordinator for Region IV of the American Association for Affirmative Action. He also is Clemson’s liaison to the Southern Regional Education Board’s Doctoral Scholars Program.

The Office of Access and Equity coordinates the development of policy, procedures, programs and services related to equality of opportunity in employment, business access, admissions, retention, academics, advancement and general treatment for faculty, staff, students and visitors. It monitors the university’s compliance with all federal, state and university policies related to equitable treatment and discrimination. The office also implements the Emerging Scholars program as one of its outreach efforts.

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