S.C. State University’s Provost, Frederick Evans, has resigned. The announcement was delivered via email to his colleagues the evening of July 16. Mr. Evans was appointed as interim provost in 2021, and permanently took on the role in 2023, leading the school as vice president of academic affairs.S.C. State is South Carolina’s only public Historically Black College or University, with around 3,200 students. It sits about an hour from Columbia in the city of Orangeburg. He did not give his reasoning in the email to staff, but said that he was departing “with a heavy heart,” and would continue to support the university from afar. “Serving in this role has been one of the greatest opportunities of my professional life, and I am sincerely grateful for the confidence and trust President Conyers placed in me to help lead the academic enterprise of this historic institution,” Evans wrote. During his tenure, S.C. State expanded its research efforts, earning an R2 university in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, which denotes “high” research activity. It’s part of the school’s “comeback” from the enrollment struggles that helped oust its former president.In an email to staff, faculty and students sent July 17, university President Alexander Conyers said a nationwide search would be conducted to find Evans’ replacement.
