New chancellor to receive $185k as head of online program
USC’s board of trustees named Susan Elkins, a vice president at Tennessee Technological University, the first chancellor of the fledgling Palmetto College program Monday.
The university received about 40 applications for the new position, which will oversee a new online college and the USC system’s four existing regional campuses, according to Provost Michael Amiridis.
Elkins rose to the top of the pool of applicants because of her experience at Tennessee Tech, Amiridis said, where she’s worked for more than 20 years. She’ll start at USC on Feb. 18.
Since Tennessee Tech started its Web degree programs about a decade ago, Elkins has been heading them up, and the program, which fuses physical campuses with online coursework, enrolls students in about a third of the state, Elkins said.
She was named the school’s vice president of extended programs and regional development in 2006 and also works as the dean of the college of interdisciplinary studies.
Elkins will be paid a total of $185,000 at USC, less than the university’s three other chancellors, who receive total compensation between $194,000 and $205,000, according to Chris Byrd, the vice president for human resources. At Tennessee Tech, Elkins earned $131,500, said Monica Greppin-Watts, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Board of Regents.
The hire represents a big step in the development of the program’s administration, which will continue to fill in this spring.
Elkins will have a hand in picking candidates for open dean positions at three of the Palmetto College’s four two-year campuses, in Lancaster, Sumter and Union. Those search committees will begin culling their lists of prospects over the next two weeks, Amiridis said.
Elkins has experience with such young programs and decided to take the helm of another one because she felt a sense of passion for long-distance education at USC, she said.
Plus, she added, having the support and name of the state’s flagship school will help bring more students into the program.
The university expects between 500 and 1,000 students to enroll in the fall, Amiridis said, and Palmetto College will introduce a stronger Web presence in the next few weeks and will likely hit airwaves, billboards and mailboxes throughout the state to promote the program.
“In order to be successful, we need to be closer to 1,000 than 500,” Amiridis said.
The program is still in a pilot stage and will launch this August in earnest with seven degree programs — in criminal justice, nursing, business, human services, elementary education, liberal arts and organizational leadership — though Amiridis said it’s possible that not all of them will be ready to go come fall.
Over the last semester, as the search committee winnowed its slate of options, Amiridis, its chairman, said it was Elkins’ energy that set her apart.
She’s planning to speak with students and faculty on each of USC’s campuses, university President Harris Pastides told trustees Monday morning, and she’s planning to visit each of the state’s counties.
“She said, ‘I want to be in every county; I want to be in every rotary club. I want to make sure people understand what we are trying to do for their local communities,’” Amiridis said. “To me, that was a sign of passion.”
As she travels through the state, Elkins will encounter the primary challenge facing Palmetto College, other than developing high-quality, relevant courses, Amiridis said: how to appeal to students from a wide range of backgrounds.
That’s something that hits Elkins personally, she said. She’s a first-generation college graduate, and she lives in a small, rural county, where she’s worked as a middle school math teacher and a rural mail carrier and moved up the ranks of her alma mater, Tennessee Tech.
“I understand that it’s great for people to have opportunities, no matter where they are, to have a better education,” Elkins said.