CofC names Hsu its next president

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The College of Charleston board of trustees voted unanimously on Wednesday to name Andrew Hsu the 23rd president of the school.

Hsu, currently the provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at the University of Toledo in Ohio, will be the first person of color to serve as president in the college’s 248-year history.

“I think that it’s quite amazing for someone like myself who came to this country as an immigrant and was received with open arms to eventually achieve my own American dream of being a university president,” said Hsu, who was born in China. “This can only happen in America.”

Hsu will succeed interim President Stephen Osborne, who has served since July after Glenn McConnell’s retirement. Hsu’s start date has not been announced.

“The fact that the College of Charleston, as a pre-Revolution university, is one of the oldest in the U.S., that was extremely attractive to me,” Hsu said. “I wanted to be able to contribute to an institution with a history of offering well-rounded liberal arts and sciences education.”

Hsu holds an undergraduate degree from Tsinghua University in Beijing, and he earned a master’s and a doctorate in aerospace engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology. Before joining academia in 1997, he worked in industry with Sverdrup Technology Inc., a contractor for NASA, and for Rolls-Royce.

In a message to the campus community, board of trustees Chairman David Hay said, “We believe that we have chosen a person who will uphold our institution’s core values and will work strategically and tirelessly to lead the college into its next great chapter.”