A Year End Conversation with President Andrew Hsu

President Andrew Hsu joins Speaking of… College of Charleston to look back on a landmark academic year for the College. In this year‑end conversation, he highlights record‑breaking philanthropy, major academic expansions, and the continued rise in student demand that’s shaping the future of the university.

The episode explores transformational gifts supporting new facilities and programs — including the Michael and Amy Bennett School of Hospitality and Tourism Management and the expansion of the School of Business. President Hsu also discusses the launch of high‑demand academic offerings such as the joint BS in Nursing with MUSC, along with growth in engineering, computing, and STEM programs.

Listeners will hear standout stories from across campus: NCAA tournament appearances, CAA championships, national research awards, and student achievements reaching the International Space Station. President Hsu also welcomes new academic leaders and shares a heartfelt message to the graduating Class of 2026.

A celebratory, forward‑looking episode for students, families, alumni, and anyone invested in the future of the College of Charleston.

Transcript

President Andrew Hsu Year End Review

[00:00:00] You've done this for the last couple years. We really appreciate you taking the time to be here with speaking of College of Charleston, and we're gonna talk about all of the highlights. For the past year, we've had a record breaking year with philanthropy and with. Student admissions. Can you talk about that a little?

Sure, indeed. Uh, thank you Amy, for having me back to this podcast. Uh, certainly this is yet another record year for our philanthropy and, and, uh, we had probably. Four of the last five years set, new record. And this year we are certainly setting yet another, uh, record with still three months, uh, in, in the academic year.

We've already exceeded all of our previous years, and in fact, uh, we received this year one of the largest. Gift to the university in, in its history, which is in the form of the [00:01:00] John Carroll building on Market Street in East Bay at, um, at, at Union Pier. And the, the other large gift that we have received is.

We have established the very first named school at the College of Charleston in our 250 year history, which is of course, the Michael and Amy Bennett School of Hospitality and Tourism Management. That's very exciting. That's that's a huge crew for, for the university. And then we have several other large gifts.

Uh, we had a gift for. Mac Brown, uh, museum of Natural History in the Science Center. We have, uh, a gift from the Shone Foundation to support our military and veteran students in, and all of those contribute to our future success, right? We [00:02:00] had another year of very successful recruitment efforts. This fall, we're gonna have another.

Record year of large freshman class coming into the college. That's very exciting. New faces on campus. That's es especially important considering many other universities are suffering. Right. From uh, low enrollment. Right. Credit to your success. That's been true of the last Well, it's the team of success.

Success of the College of Charleston, right? Yeah. The team. We've had a lot of academic growth with new programs and a new program with MUSC. Can you tell us a little bit about that? For the last six, seven years, we've been focusing on one, uh, help South Carolina and help the low country develop its workforce.

And secondly, we're trying to meet student demand. Certainly this new generation of students ask. For a number of programs that we use not to [00:03:00] have, we have significant growth in terms of enrollment in engineering programs. And we started a new partnership with MUSC on biomedical engineering program, which will be approved.

Uh, it's already been approved by the Senate, uh, by faculty Senate. Another very exciting. Um, opportunity for partnership with MUSC is gonna be our joint, uh, BS nursing program. This is the very first time the two institutions came together and developed a joint, truly joint academic program will be offering nursing programs on our campus, uh, starting next year, which will be great for the state.

We have shortage of nurses. I think so we'll be contributing to that. Certainly it'll be, uh, good for the workforce need, uh, [00:04:00] in the state of South Carolina. But it also is a critical need from students. The number of students who want to study nursing is, is very, very large. Right. We can't forget, we've also had a lot of successes with athletics and, um, especially our women's basketball team.

Indeed, our women's basketball won the CAA championship. For the very first time in our school's history and went to NCAA tournament for the very first time, very, uh, exciting development is that we hired, uh, new basketball coaches for both our. Men's and women's basketball programs. Many other achievements in athletics are women's golf claim to their seventh CAA championship and are going to the NCAA tournament in May.

It's with the College of Charleston Athletics. On the PROWL podcast, we did an episode with one of the golfers [00:05:00] on that team. So listeners can also tune into our athletics podcast to hear more about the women's golf. We have very impressive student athletes. We also have very impressive students and faculty.

Um, we can't forget to mention their successes as well. Can you, can you highlight a few for us? Yeah. We certainly had a lot of students and faculty getting national honors. For example, we have an astrophysics major or two of them, Eva Godwin and Gail Gonzalez. And, uh, a, um, astrophysics Professor Joe Carson, they developed imaging equipment for NASA to send to the International Space Station, which actually made, uh, national news.

We have a sophomore marine biology major, Al s from Bluffton, uh, was named, uh. Prestigious National [00:06:00] Oceanic and Atmosphere administration's, earnest Hollands Scholar, and as a triple major in astrophysics and mathematics. Our student, Alexander Bill Key was named a Barry Goldwater scholarship Scholar for the 2026 and 27 year.

He represents the kind of. Deep curiosity. Um, high achieving students, we strive to cultivate one who is prepared to contribute meaningfully to the future of scientific research. Very impressive. We also have, uh, several new academic leaders, right, that, uh, we, uh, we have welcomed or well, welcome to our campus new engineering dean, our.

Founding Engineering Dean, uh, Dr. Steve Shriner just wrapped up his first year as the inaugural Dean of the School of [00:07:00] Engineering Computing and Mathematics. I think the provost has just appointed two new leaders. Uh, they're not on campus yet, but they will be soon. Uh, Dr. Juliet Spencer from, uh, Texas Women's University, who was just appointed as the new.

Dean of the School of Natural Environmental Sciences, uh, she's gonna start this summer, and I believe the provost also just appointed Dr. Scott Kissel from UNC Charlotte as the first associate Provost for research, and also as the dean. Of the graduate school here on the College of Charleston campus.

That's exciting. So we look forward to having these outstanding academic leaders joining us in the next few weeks. Before we know it, we will have commencement, which is always a very special day for our students. Um, and a lot to celebrate. And are there any [00:08:00] parting words or, or messages that you hope that they'll walk away with?

So commencement of course, is one of the most, uh, meaningful moments in the life of a, of a university because it represents years of hard work, perseverance, and, and personal growth coming to fruition. I want our graduates to know how incredibly proud. We are of them. I'm certainly very, very proud of our graduates.

Not just for earning a degree, but for everything it took to get there. The discipline, the setbacks, so they overcome, the relationships they build and the resilience they developed along the way. My hope is that they leave with confidence in what they have accomplished and excitement about what comes next.

They are prepared, they're capable, and they have something valuable to [00:09:00] contribute to the world. I also hope, uh, they remember that. Whatever life takes them or wherever life's take them, they will always be part of the College of Charleston family. Most of all, I want to wish them well to encourage them to lead with integrity, stay curious, serve others, and approach the future with both ambition and gratitude.

We are very grateful to have you come into the studio and share all of those amazing highlights from the past academic year that we have a lot to be proud of and a lot to look forward to. Thank you, Amy, for having me again. Indeed. We had such a great year, so congratulations. Congratulations to the entire College of Charleston team.

That's right. Thank you.