USC’s longest-serving faculty principal leaves after 6.5 years
After six and a half years, David Whiteman is passing on the torch.
At the end of the semester, the faculty principal of USC’s Green Quad is stepping down, and over the last few years, he’s seen that program grow and evolve into its current presence on campus.
When Whiteman took over in the fall of 2006, he, an administrative assistant and a graduate student were the only three people working there. Now, it has a “staff,” of sorts, of about 45, he said.
It consists of faculty members, undergraduates and graduate students, all working to promote sustainability — making lifestyle changes easier and pushing it through changes to campus facilities.
As a part of Sustainable Carolina, the Green Quad Living and Learning Community is located in the West Quad residence hall, and all of the students living there are encouraged to take the same push for “green living” to heart.
West (Green) Quad was completed in the 2004 and serves as the primary meeting place for that effort. A number of courses on sustainability and meetings for community environmental groups are held there as well.
But since 2006, the program has grown from that home base, and it’s changed a lot since Whiteman took over.
More undergraduate students than ever before are working there, Whiteman said, and that’s a change Helen Doerpinghaus, the vice provost and dean of undergraduate studies, has noticed too.
She’s noticed that the number of students in the program has soared and that most of its programs are student-run, products of his vision for a student-focused organization with a “flat hierarchy,” she said.
That makes a difference, she said. Most other university programs ask Doerpinghaus for money to pay for staff, but Green Quad doesn’t.
“He’s really made the Green Quad what it is today,” Doerpinghaus said.
That’s enabled a number of new Sustainable Carolina initiatives that have cropped up in Whiteman’s time, and he said he’s enjoyed working on those program. He’s enjoyed watching them impact USC and the people involved with them.
All in all, he said, he’s been happy with the time he’s spent as the faculty principal, but he still has a few smaller issues he’d like ironed out.
“I do wish I had been able to get the city and university to address the student safety issues on Sumter Street,” he said. “And I’m still waiting for even a small sign that says ‘Green Quad’ somewhere in the West Quad residential complex.”
In the spring, Kevin Elliott, an associate professor in the Department of Philosophy, will be taking over Whiteman’s job. Elliott was the director of the Carolina Leadership Initiative from Fall 2010 through last summer, and he’s been involved with the Green Quad, too, Doerpinghaus said.
Elliott and Whiteman are good friends, she said, and Doerpinghaus thinks Elliott will be a good fit for its garden initiatives. He’s taught the popular course “Zen and the Art of Gardening,” and he’s won grants from Green Quad.
“I’m excited (he) will be the new faculty principal,” Whiteman said. “He’s done a great job with the Carolina Leadership Initiative and has many ideas to build on what we have at the Green Quad.”
Though Whiteman will drop his title, he’ll still be connected with Sustainable Carolina. He will take over as the faculty coordinator for curriculum and leadership for the initiative, starting next semester. In it, he’ll work alongside faculty and students to increase the number of sustainability-related courses offered at USC. He’ll also still be working in the political science department.
It’ll be a change for Whiteman, who Doerpinghaus thinks has become the longest-serving faculty principal USC’s ever — in any program.
Whiteman won’t take the credit for the Green Quad’s success, and he said the growth would not have been possible without the help and support of others on campus, like Student Affairs, University Housing and the Office of the Provost.
And he hopes, too, that growth will continue, but for now, he’s ready to reflect on the years behind him.
“Most intriguing and satisfying to me has been the ability to help create and be part of a community — the first time I have felt part of a real community on a university campus,” Whiteman said. “Being part of the Sustainable Carolina community has certainly re-energized me, providing me a work environment that is fulfilling and even inspiring.”
Editor’s note: News Editor Thad Moore contributed reporting.