University provost and executive vice president William Tate and the Office of the Provost met Friday morning and discussed the future schedule of the academic year, diversity in the university and outside demonstrators coming onto campus.
University President Bob Caslen said the university is facing a “convergence of three pandemics at once”: the coronavirus, racial inequality and outside demonstrators coming onto campus with anti-LGBTQIA+ and anti-BLM ideologies.
Caslen said the demonstrators and their ideologies are “contrary to what we stand for as Gamecocks,” and he said he has heard student calls for something to be done about the demonstrators.
“We are going to do this, to put a committee together to re-look at our laws and our regulations. We are a law abiding institution, and we will obey the law. But we got to examine what options are available out there, and we must look at the lawful and the right ways to protect free speech but at the same time to maintain our campus culture,” Caslen said.
Vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion Julian Williams said there is a “tremendous opportunity” for USC to become a leader in diversity and inclusion but that USC also needed to remain vigilant of racial inequality in the United States.
"I believe that it's time for us to be proactive. We gotta provide direction, we've got to intentionally demonstrate our commitment to this, not just by words but, actually, by what we do. I wanna say that folks I think are tired of reading about our values and want to feel them," Williams said.
Williams said he wants to establish the university as a “national leader” when it comes to diversity and inclusivity at the university.
“The why is pretty clear. The why is because we have to. The why is if not us, then who? And if not now, then when?" Williams said. "Actually, one of our faculty members, in a conversation we had a couple of weeks ago, Bobby Donaldson, said that around the imperative of the university to add some complexity to the question, to reckon with who we are as a university in terms of inclusion and excellence.”
Williams said that while there are many areas of opportunity, the university still has work to do compared to peer schools, or schools the university can be compared to.
Vice provost and dean of undergraduate studies Sandra Kelley spoke on updates regarding spring planning and general academic schedules. One point she made was that on Election Day and Labor Day, all classes needed to be asynchronous.
“You cannot demand students attend classes on those particular days, and particular for Election Day. Students need that time to vote, if you demand that they actually be in a class at a particular time they may not have time. So, we’ve received a number of concerns about that,” Kelley said.
According to Kelley, the university is currently planning for the spring semester and has the start and end dates of the semester in place. Social distancing and mandatory mask usage will be in effect, and class sizes for in-person teaching must be below 100.
"We really would like all classes that have no alternatives should be offered in a 100% online format in addition to any format with face-to-face teaching," Kelley said. "This is for a substantial number of students who have chosen to be 100% online because of health concerns, not wanting to be on campus. So making sure they can progress toward a degree."