Meeting of the Winthrop University Board of Trustees Minutes for the Board

Thursday, October 24, 2024 | 9:00 a.m.
Gold Room | DiGiorgio Campus Center

Winthrop University, Rock Hill, SC 

 

Members Present: Kathy Bigham, John Brazell, Ed Driggers, Joel Hamilton, Randy Imler, Glenn McCall, David McDonald, Tim Sease, Janet Smalley, Sandra Stroman, Isaiah Venning, and Gary Williams

Members Absent: Rick Lee, Ashlye Wilkerson

Others Present: President Edward Serna, Tammie Phillips and various members of the Winthrop University community

 

FOIA Compliance Notice

Under state law, Winthrop University published a notice to the public on its website providing the meeting notice in July 2024 and sent an email notification to campus and media on October 21. On the day of the meeting, the Acting Secretary to the Board affixed to the door of the meeting location the agenda for the Board. 

The Board of Trustees met on Thursday, October 24, 2024, on the campus of Winthrop University, Rock Hill, SC.

 

Call to Order and Invocation                                                                          

A quorum being present, Chair McCall called the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m. He welcomed all present and gave an invocation to begin the Board meeting. 

 

Remarks of the Chair

Chair McCall thanked the committees for their work and reiterated the great things that are happening at Winthrop. He reported that U.S. News and World Report again ranked Winthrop number five among Southern public universities, and the university tied for 12th among regional institutions. Chair McCall recognized the contributions of President Serna and the Cabinet who have collaborated with the Board to ensure that Winthrop is continuing to move forward with its strategic plan initiatives. He also thanked Kevin Butler and Jenni Lewis for their budget work as well as Tim Sease and the budget committee for their work.  He noted his special thanks to Provost van Delden and the academic leadership team for all the market-driven programs that will be coming online and getting approved. He was pleased to have had an opportunity to meet with the team from the Post and Courier and believes the partnership with the newspaper is a good one. He thanked Linda Warner and the Foundation for helping fund the activities for the design center at the Thread. He reported that there are 87 students enrolled in cyber security this semester, and he is looking forward to the AI program coming online soon. He noted the CPCC partnership and what that will yield for the University. Chair McCall emphasized the Board’s appreciation for all the great work and expressed its commitment to the President and to the strategic plan, Winthrop: United in Excellence. He said the Board will continue to fund those activities. He also thanked Tammie Phillips, Hannah Small and Ellen Wilder Byrd for supporting the Board during a time of transition. 

 

Report of the President

President Serna began by giving an update on the strategic plan: initiatives are underway, jobs are posted, and candidates as well as vendors are being evaluated. He shared his excitement about the project-based implementation of the plan and the board’s timely approval and financial support of the initiatives. He noted that selection of the 12 projects for the first phase was made based on consideration of funding and organizational capacity. The projects cut across all five of the strategic pillars and every division is taking the lead on at least one. 

Not surprisingly, the first 12 initiatives are heavily focused on revenue. These include enrollment, new academic programs, new marketing, new distribution networks, new modalities such as CBE, and evaluation of our pricing model. Two new development officers will be hired in this first phase. He said one of the things that could not be done was fund the Office of Strategic Initiatives (OSI), which was envisioned to operate as a project management office. As more projects are added in the second phase, consideration should be given for an office to manage and support the plan. 

As far as reporting, each project will have a scorecard or dashboard, and there will be a summary for every project showing how it maps to the pillar(s) and tracking progress and risks. President Serna said that his hope is, at the end of three years, to have 30ish projects that will have been completed and be able to say, here is our investment and here is the impact. Afterwards, the university would move into assessment or recalibration mode in preparation for the next strategic plan. 

 

Chair McCall commended President Serna’s work acting as the project manager and suggested that some funds be moved around to be able to fill the OSI position sooner rather than later. 

 

Committee Reports

Committee on Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, and Enrollment

Committee Chair McDonald noted the positive momentum on campus. He reported on the substantial work Joe Miller and the enrollment team has done: enrollment is up 4% from last year to this year, and the retention rate is at 90%, which is worth noting. For Fall 2025, application numbers are up, and the first round of acceptance letters are going out. He noted the Student Affairs team’s good work on Greek Life and thanked Career Services for its presentation and the work they are doing to ensure students are ready for the workforce. He said the committee approved the request of the Council of Student Leaders to move to a Student Government Association and requested a vote by full committee. He discussed Academic Affairs’ report about the academic landscape, where program offerings are headed and details on some of the new programs. 

 

Committee on External Engagement and Athletics

Committee Chair Williams reported that fundraising is strong, with over $2M raised from 472 donors in the fiscal year thus far. He said Kevin Hughes’ team is acting on recommendations from the campaign readiness assessment and that larger gifts are the number one priority. He encouraged trustees to participate in Homecoming events November 4-9. He noted the fantastic academic successes of student-athletes like Valentine Savioz, Big South Woman of the Year, the volleyball team’s dominance on the court, record attendance at men’s and women's soccer, e-sports’ back-to-back national championships, and athletic involvement in the community. He commended Chuck Rey’s team on external partnerships, with over 60 corporations involved this year, providing more than $300,000. He said the Eagle Club is off to a great start with 239 members so far, compared to 93 last year. The committee was glad to hear the progress of the branding and marketing initiative and looks forward to a vendor being determined soon. 

 

Committee on Strategic Planning and Facilities

Committee Chair Driggers thanked Gary Simrill for his remarks at the previous day’s meeting about the strategic plan and President Serna for providing a more detailed update today. He thanked everyone on campus for the work that they have done to get to this point. He then reported on the facilities assessment shared by partner Gordian Sightlines and the challenges Winthrop has as a historic campus. He said with aging facilities, there are hard decisions that will need to be made as the campus footprint is considered for the future. He said James Grigg updated the committee on much of the work that is currently happening on campus but encouraged trustees to get out and see the progress for themselves. He thanked the facilities team for their efforts. 

 

Committee on Finance

Committee Chair Sease commended Kevin Butler and his team on an incredible job and asked Jenni Lewis, finance and business AVP, to introduce herself to all in attendance. She did so, then Chair Sease briefly recapped the three action items from the committee. He reported that there were no material findings from the recent audit of Winthrop’s financial statements and said auditor Ben Kochenhour was very complimentary of the Winthrop team. Regarding the Courtyard acquisition, the committee voted for President Serna and the team to move forward to look at potentially purchasing the property, including meeting all the state requirements that are needed. Finally, the team identified $3.85M from revenues in excess of budget and from budgetary savings that could be reallocated to fund mission-critical needs. Coming from the committee and not requiring a second, Chair McCall asked for a vote in favor of all three resolutions. Resolutions passed by unanimous vote. 

 

Report of Affiliated Groups

Report of Faculty Conference

Chair of Faculty Conference Adam Glover reported that faculty have been visibly engaged in numerous activities--teaching, advising, building programs, developing courses, and so forth. In addition, he noted faculty involvement in the finance and business affairs VP search and his own participation in the Winthrop Budget Committee to advise and recommend actions to the President. He discussed faculty governance items such as the review of the general education program which will take place in the spring. He concluded with praise for Provost Sebastian van Delden for his “What If” presentations which initiated good conversations among faculty on the possible future of academics at Winthrop. 

 

Report of Staff Conference

Chair of Staff Conference Taylor Degen reported that all positions on staff assembly have been filled and discussed upcoming events.  He thanked President Serna for responding to questions from staff related to the strategic plan.  

 

Report of Council of Student Leaders 

Council of Student Leaders President Sean Pennington noted that the CSL application process opened early this year to provide a longer period of time to allow for more student interest, and a record 29 applications were received. He noted this was the first year students were turned away and all open positions were filled. He said he appreciated the Board’s support of transitioning the organization to one where there is more student voice in choosing representation across campus, with the new model having 19 elected positions instead of the current two. CSL also is working to make Winthrop a tobacco-free campus and targeting student organizations to provide a wider variety of opportunities representing student interests. He thanked Kevin Butler for providing him a seat on the Winthrop Budget Committee and also thanked the Emergency Management Team for all the work they did to communicate with students during Hurricane Helene. 


Chair McCall said a resolution to change the student governance of Winthrop University from Council of Student Leaders to the Student Government Association came from the Committee on Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, and Enrollment, and he called for the vote which was unanimous in favor of the motion.

 

Consent Agenda
Trustee Driggers moved to adopt the amended consent agenda related to resolutions passed by the committees the previous day and to accept the minutes of the June 27, 2024, and September 30, 2024, meetings as written. The motion was seconded and approved by unanimous vote. 

 

Executive Session--pursuant to S.C. Code Ann. §30-4-70(a)(1) and (2) for the purposes of discussion of employment matters and contractual items related to Winthrop University

Trustee Williams moved with a second from Trustee McDonald to move into executive session pursuant to South Carolina Ann. §30-4-70(a)(1) and (2) for the purpose of discussion of employment matters involving certain present university employees and contractual items related to Winthrop University. The vote was unanimous in favor of the motion.  

President Serna and Acting Secretary to the Board Tammie Phillips were invited to remain for the executive session.

Trustee McDonald moved to end the session with a second from Trustee Sease. The vote was unanimous to end executive session with no action. 

 

Adjournment

Hearing no objections, Chair McCall adjourned the meeting at 10:22 a.m.