When President P. George Benson steps down at the end of this academic year, he will have amassed many visible and lasting achievements that have helped to raise the quality and national reputation of the College of Charleston.
During Benson’s presidency, from 2007 to 2014, the College significantly elevated its national profile, achieved five consecutive years of record fundraising, increased scholarships and financial aid and moved from the Southern Conference to the Colonial Athletic Association.
The College expanded its academic portfolio with the establishment of more than 30 new or revised degree and certificate programs. For example, the College launched a long sought-after M.B.A. program in 2010.
During the Benson years, the College graduated nearly 18,000 undergraduate and graduate students, increased student applications by 28 percent and continued to rise in national higher education rankings for quality and affordability. Benson also pushed for the development of the College’s first-ever diversity strategic plan and for substantial new investment in creating a more diverse campus community.
And while such high-profile accomplishments establish a solid legacy for the outgoing president, future generations of students, faculty, staff and alumni also will benefit from many of the less-visible accomplishments of George Benson.
FOUNDATION FOR THE FUTURE
For every major gift Benson helped secure for the College, he was working behind the scenes to green-light critical infrastructure improvements, such as campuswide technology upgrades, structural renovations of centuries-old buildings and security and safety enhancements.
For every new academic program and community partnership that was developed and celebrated under his watch, Benson was also working to elevate the overall professionalism of the College. He streamlined administrative units and reporting lines, he insisted on hiring the best people, he pushed for new policies and procedures to help protect the College and its assets and he worked to ensure that the university complied with myriad local, state and federal regulations and met the strict requirements of its academic accreditation.
Despite a decline in state appropriations to the College, Benson consistently advocated for increases in faculty and staff salaries to reward top performers and to address disparities between the College and its peer institutions.
Efforts to improve university infrastructure and administration usually don’t make headlines. But, as Benson will tell you, they are essential to building a strong foundation upon which the modern College of Charleston can grow and thrive.
“No other university in the U.S. can match the College’s potential for greatness,” Benson says. “My goal for the past seven years has been to unlock as much of that potential as I could and to enhance the academic and administrative foundations of the College so even more potential could be realized in the years ahead.”
The stable footing on which the College now stands was achieved in spite of the national economic downturn that began early in Benson’s presidency. While guiding the College through the Great Recession and repeated state budget cuts that reduced the institution’s state appropriation by nearly half, Benson made private giving to the College a top priority. Under his leadership, the College rebuilt its fundraising operation, expanded its donor base and increased private gifts to record levels. The result has been awards of significantly more institutional aid to deserving and high-achieving students from South Carolina and around the country. Benson has worked closely with many friends and benefactors of the College to create increased access to the College and expand the opportunities available to students.
Prior to Benson’s arrival, the College did not have any full academic scholarships. Today, through the establishment of the Colonial Scholarship, the College now offers 10 such awards with which to attract top high school students from South Carolina.
As part of Benson’s emphasis on establishing a campus culture of philanthropy, the College’s Comprehensive Campaign has thrived. Started in October 2009 and set to launch publicly in the fall, the campaign is already the most successful in the College’s history.
CHARLESTON FOCUSED
Another hallmark of Benson’s presidency has been his focus on strengthening ties between the College and the people, organizations and communities of Charleston and the Lowcountry. He has advocated for the local economic and cultural assets that make Charleston unique, such as its port, its arts community and its importance in African American history. He invested in the development and growth of academic programs aligned with those assets to help distinguish the College from other universities around the world.
As a former business school dean and economic forecaster, Benson often spoke candidly in speeches and writings about the vitally important role of the business community in the success and future of both the College and the Charleston community as a whole.
He served on numerous local and regional committees aimed at improving Charleston’s economy and quality of life. He advocated for local public schools and worked to strengthen the College’s partnerships with area school districts. Benson also sought to deepen the relationship between Charleston’s thriving arts community and the College, including the expansion and strengthening of the school’s longtime partnership with Spoleto Festival USA.
Benson’s belief in the interdependent relationship between the College and the city of Charleston is so strong that he made sure it was articulated and called out as a core value in the College’s Strategic Plan.
Charleston Mayor Joe Riley is pleased that Benson intends to remain as a member of the College’s faculty after concluding his presidency. “Thereby, he will continue to enrich the educational experiences of the students as well as be a valuable and contributing member of the Charleston community,” Riley notes.
The campus itself looks different today than it did when Benson arrived. He has overseen the completion, construction or enhancement of several campus facilities. Major on-campus capital projects completed during his tenure include TD Arena, Cato Center for the Arts, the School of Sciences and Mathematics Building and the Mace Brown Museum of Natural History, the construction of a new admissions office at Craig Hall, and the renovation of Randolph Hall, Towell Library, Porters Lodge, the Cistern Yard and many other historic buildings. In September 2013, Benson presided over the grand opening of the College’s new 19,000-square–foot George Street Fitness Center.
In addition, several building and renovation projects are being planned or are underway as Benson winds down his presidency. They include the opening of a new store and welcome center on King Street (under the Sottile Theatre marquee), the renovation of the Hollings Science Center, the construction of a new building for the Grice Marine Laboratory at Fort Johnson, and construction of a new building in North Charleston to house the College’s North Campus and the Lowcountry Graduate Center.
Another capital project that has been near and dear to Benson’s heart is Dixie Plantation, a 900-acre parcel of pristine riverfront, pine forests and marshland along the Stono River. Benson has overseen numerous building and infrastructure enhancements with the goal of establishing Dixie as an education and research hub for environmental sciences and sustainability.
LASTING LEGACY
Far from easing through the final months of his presidency, Benson has been deeply involved in advancing a proposal that could dramatically reshape the future of the College. The idea, which has been a hot topic since Benson first floated it in the fall of 2012, is to merge or greatly increase collaboration between the College and the Medical University of South Carolina to establish a true research university in Charleston.
In some of his earliest public speeches as president, Benson pointed to the absence of a research university in Charleston as an impediment to the region’s economic growth. Back then, however, he stopped short of calling for the creation of one, citing the economic downturn, the political climate and other factors.
The arrival of Boeing changed all of that. Virtually overnight, Boeing demonstrated that Charleston has the potential to compete alongside some of the biggest and most successful cities in the country – cities that have strong research universities.
Inspired by Boeing’s growth in the Lowcountry, Benson began publicly describing Charleston’s rapidly transforming economy as “New Charleston.” He argued that for New Charleston to be able to compete with regions and cities like Raleigh-Durham; Austin, Texas; Boston; and Silicon Valley, Charleston needs its own research university and that the College should be a major player in its development.
Benson has previously stated that such a university would complement – not duplicate – the work of USC and Clemson. In fact, Benson would prefer the new research university to offer only a handful of doctoral and master’s degree programs in targeted areas that would benefit Charleston, the Lowcountry and South Carolina.
In dozens of speeches over the past year and a half, Benson has described several possible options for developing a research university: The state could designate the College of Charleston a research university, it could merge the College and MUSC or it could allow the two universities to work toward significantly greater collaboration.
Before he left MUSC to take a position with the University of Texas System, former president Dr. Ray Greenberg joined with Benson to advocate for more collaboration or a merger. Other leaders and organizations, including Mayor Riley and the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce, have become proponents and helped galvanize support in Charleston’s business community. A joint College of Charleston/MUSC committee has been studying the idea, and legislation for the merger was introduced in January.
Benson has made no bones about his desire to see a full-blown merger happen. But he has also cautioned that a marriage of two universities with different missions and different cultures would be an extraordinarily complex undertaking and that it could take many years for all the pieces to come together.
If a merger or increased collaboration should come about, there will be many people deserving of credit for having paved the way. One name at the top of that list would be President P. George Benson.
