Category: Letters

Tuesday will be my two-week anniversary as Clemson’s president.  What a great 14 days it has been!

In the blur of post-holiday activity, Beth and I have met thousands of new friends who welcomed us to the Clemson community and the Clemson family.   Thank you for that warm welcome.

Now that classes have started, our family is settling in and the focus is squarely on academics.  Two of our four children are still at West Virginia University, but Grace is enrolled at Edwards Middle School and Hannah has transferred to Clemson.

Thank you to all the faculty and staff members who helped Hannah and her classmates get registered, housed, fed and ready to have a successful semester.

I’m very happy to add “Clemson Dad” to my resume!  But I’m truly proud to be joining the Clemson faculty as Professor, School of Computing, College of Engineering and Science.  My paperwork went through the tenure review process and was approved by Dr. Nadim Aziz and President Jim Barker in December.

Duty calls me to Columbia tomorrow, however, and I will be sorry to miss the first Faculty Senate and Staff  Senate meetings of 2014, as well as the ceremony presenting the Class of 1939 Award for Excellence to the very deserving John Ballato.  Congratulations, John!!

I met recently with Faculty Senate President Kelly Smith, past-president Jeremy King and Professor Fran McGuire.  Among other things, we discussed the Provost search, which will get under way in the very near future.

This will be a very important appointment for the entire campus community.  Please send me your thoughts on what we should look for in Clemson’s next academic leader.  We will keep you posted on the process through regular updates in Inside Clemson.

Since I’m a computer scientist and a hands-on gadget guy, I’ll be using technology to communicate with the campus in some different ways.  I’m tweeting @ClemsonPrez, and I hope you’ll follow me.  I plan to share longer messages on this blog.  And to reach me directly please feel free to email me at president@clemson.edu.

Thank you for all you do for Clemson.  Have a great semester!

Jim Clements 

I am thrilled to have the incredible opportunity to serve as president of Clemson University, and I am eager to get started in January. I deeply appreciate the warm welcome and good wishes that we have received from members of the Clemson family. Their passion and love for this university is obvious – and it is contagious!

I have been a follower and admirer of Clemson for many years and have actually based a number of initiatives at Towson University and West Virginia University on Clemson models. Having the opportunity to lead this great research university – which is one of the most outstanding land-grant public institutions in the country — is both exciting and humbling. I know that Jim and Marcia Barker will be a very tough act to follow, but I promise that we will do our best. We will rely heavily on their advice and guidance in the years to come.

For those of you who were not able to be present when the Board of Trustees announced their selection, I would like to introduce the Clements family. First, my wife, Beth – who is beautiful in every sense of the word. She is a great wife, a great mother and a great first lady. Our son Tyler is 21 and in his fourth year at WVU, studying a combination of business, leadership and political science. Our 18-year-old twin daughters, Hannah and Maggie, are freshmen at WVU – Hannah studying special education and Maggie majoring in elementary education. I should mention that their mother is a former teacher, so they have obviously had a great role model. Finally, our 13-year-old daughter Grace is a seventh-grader and the joy of our life.

Our extended family includes many Clemson connections: Two of Beth’s brothers and a sister-in-law are Clemson graduates. My brother-in-law, Greg, serves on the advisory board of the Spiro Institute. The Championship Awards Room in the golf clubhouse is named for Beth’s parents – Clif and Priscilla Smith.

I enjoyed and learned much from my meetings with faculty, staff and student leaders. Clemson is clearly blessed with strong leadership of these important constituencies. Over the next few weeks I will be visiting by phone and in person with many of you as I begin my orientation. Now that I have an official Clemson email account (president@clemson.edu), you can contact me directly if you have ideas or information you wish to share.

I look forward to working with the trustees, faculty, staff, students, Extension agents, alumni and our many partners in government, business, industry and communities all across South Carolina to help Clemson achieve its goals. I also look forward to cheering for the Tigers in all sports, enjoying performances at the Brooks Center and taking advantage of Clemson’s beautiful campus and surroundings.

Clemson is a great university with a great history – and a great future. It is truly a gem in higher education. I promise you that I will do my very best – working with you — to fulfill the vision set forth by Thomas Green Clemson.

Go Tigers!!!