President Hsu Announces Approval of Engineering Program

President Andrew Hsu sent the following message to the campus community on June 6, 2019.

Dear Campus Community:

I write today to announce an exciting new academic program that will be offered at the College of Charleston.

As you probably know, for the past year, the College has been working with regional industry partners, elected officials and higher education leaders around the state to create new engineering programs at the College. The College went before the Commission on Higher Education today to seek approval for our new academic programs in systems and electrical engineering. I’m pleased to report that our systems engineering program was approved on the consent agenda. This is great news for the College! This new academic program will strengthen our academic offerings and help us attract a new kind of student. Unfortunately, our proposed electrical engineering program was not approved.

RELATED: Learn more about the new Systems Engineering Program at engineering.cofc.edu.

I want to thank Interim Dean Sebastian van Delden, Physics and Astronomy Chair Narayanan Kuthirummal, Interim Provost Fran Welch, former Provost Brian McGee, former President Steve Osborne and the Faculty Senate for their hard work in helping move these academic programs through the proper approval processes – internal and external of the College. I know a great amount of time, energy and effort was spent over the past few weeks on these programs, really over the past year, and that is not lost on me.

I would also like to commend the leadership of Governor Henry McMaster and Secretary of Commerce Bobby Hitt. They were both early proponents and vocal supporters of the College’s efforts and saw the benefits of having an engineering program at the College and the program’s potential to not only fulfill the needs of current industry, but to also recruit future businesses to the state.

Like many of our faculty, I can’t wait to welcome our first class of engineering students in fall 2020. I am very optimistic about the College’s bright future – and it is very bright indeed.

Sincerely,

Andrew

Andrew T. Hsu, Ph.D.

President

College of Charleston