Coastal Carolina University trustees approve new master’s program
The new degree provides opportunities for students interested in careers in bioscience fields, which represent a rapidly growing business sector nationally and in South Carolina. No other university in the northeastern section of the state offers a graduate program in bioscience, and the local region provides environments and organisms not readily found elsewhere in the state, such as Carolina bays, for research and field-based opportunities.
Degree programs must be approved by the South Carolina Higher Education Commission and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) before being officially added to the University curriculum. CCU currently offers a master's degree in coastal marine and wetland studies and a doctoral degree in coastal and marine systems science.
The board also approved ratification of the 2016 Campus Master Plan. CCU's master plan, adopted in 2011, has been updated by the planning and design firm Sasaki Associates Inc. to reflect completed projects, recent land and road acquisitions, as well as new building placements.
The board approved a motion to hire a consultant to review the University's diversity and inclusion initiatives. Damon A. Williams, Ph.D., senior vice president for programs, training and youth development for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, is a recipient of the Inclusive Excellence Award for Leadership from the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education. He will meet with University leaders and students to review CCU's diversity demographic data, key reports and job descriptions, and he will give a public lecture on the importance of diversity in the campus community.
The board approved a motion to expand its scholarship/waiver program for the dependents of CCU employees. Currently, the program offers a 50 percent scholarship/waiver to dependent children of full-time employees for undergraduate-level coursework. The expanded program extends the scholarship/waiver to all dependents and family members of full-time employees, as defined by the Public Employee Benefit Authority (PEBA), for undergraduate-level coursework. In addition, a scholarship/waiver of 30 percent on graduate-level coursework for all dependents/family members of full-time employees, as defined by PEBA, was approved by the board.
Five property lease agreements or renewals were approved by the board, which also granted an easement to Grand Strand Water & Sewer for the operation and maintenance of a sewer lift station located on campus. The board approved distinguished dean and professor emeritus status for retiring faculty dean Nelljean M. Rice.
The board also received and accepted the institution's annual audit, prepared and presented by Cline Brandt Kocheower & Co., P.A. For the ninth consecutive year, CCU received a clean and unmodified opinion. The term "unmodified opinion" means that the institution's financial statements are fairly presented and are free of material misstatements. The auditor had no findings or adjustments to report.