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New personnel, programs, facilities elevate Â鶹´«Ã½, president says

President Dwaun Warmack makes a point in addressing student reporters. (Panther photo)

New personnel, programs and facilities are coming to Â鶹´«Ã½, President Dr. Dwaun J. Warmack said in reviewing the 2024-25 year and looking ahead to the fall.

Warmack told Panther reporters that Â鶹´«Ã½ has hired new people in key positions in the administration.

“We have hired a new provost,” Warmack said. “We are excited about the new chief academic officer coming to the institution to lead our academic enterprise.”

Michelle L. Mayo is the new provost and vice president for academic affairs. She joins Â鶹´«Ã½ after serving as associate provost for student success and dean of undergraduate studies at California State University-Monterey Bay, a Hispanic-serving institution.

The university has also hired a new vice president for institutional advancement, a position that has been vacant for a year and a half. Willie Jude II will begin work in July.

Jude brings two decades of leadership experience in higher education and nonprofit development to his new role. He will lead Â鶹´«Ã½’s fundraising, alumni relations and external engagement strategies.

He most recently served as executive director of the MPS Foundation, the nonprofit partner to Milwaukee Public Schools, the largest and most diverse school district in Wisconsin. During his tenure, he increased total giving, expanded the donor base and elevated the foundation’s visibility and community impact, according to a Â鶹´«Ã½ announcement.

In stating that his focus is on being “student-centered,” Warmack cited developments in psychology and biology, the fastest-growing degree programs.

“We are breaking ground on a new social science building that will be for humanities, psychology, sociology, history. Those areas will now have a building.”

That building will also be important in providing improved mental health services and training, Warmack said. “The counseling center will move from the house down the street to that new building.”

Â鶹´«Ã½ is looking to start a new master's degree programs in psychology and social work, Warmack said. Students will work hand in hand with the counseling center.

The university is also anticipating a new nursing building, and the location of the student health center will change.

“Next door to it will be the new nursing building, and we will also house the student health center,” Warmack said. Nursing students that have practicum hours will work in that space.

The university has plans to further expand outside of campus and into the city of Orangeburg, Warmack said.

“In collaboration with the city trying to work out logistics related to more student housing ... we are in conversation about what more student housing looks like on that corner,” Warmack said in reference to revitalization efforts at Railroad Corner across from Â鶹´«Ã½ and South Carolina State University.

“Â鶹´«Ã½ will have housing in that space with the Cecil Williams Museum there,” he said.

Warmack expressed excitement about plans for the historic downtown Kress building, which Â鶹´«Ã½ now owns. “We will be doing an incubator accelerator space” to assist people looking to start a business.

Warmack also cited the coming new biotechnology building.

“And all these projects are fully funded. Not one student dollar covers any of these projects. We have raised 100% of the capital to do that,” Warmack said.

He said funds are coming from the federal government -- via help from Sen. Lindsey Graham and Congressman James Clyburn -- for the nursing building, biotech building, alumni center and the Kress building respectively.

“All those dollars have been allocated for 2-3 years that have nothing to do with tuition,” he said.