Hsu details power of 'change' at Chamber meeting
Moultrie News June 24, 2024
The winds of change were blowing at the June 20 Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce Luncheon at the Omar Shrine Temple, as College of Charleston President Andrew Hsu (pronounced SHOE) highlighted continued progress and innovation as critical elements for the success of his institution.
To accentuate his message, the fifth-year president asked the audience to guess how long it took for the telephone to attract 100 million users (58 years) and followed by posing the same question for newer types of technology (TV, internet, Facebook and ChatGPT). In every case, each technology form required significantly less time to gain the same amount of users, with the most recent offering (ChaptGPT) taking all of two weeks to reach the stated marker.
"As a higher education institution, if we don't change with time, we're going to be left behind," began the Beijing-born Hsu, who proudly apprised the local crowd of his recent relocation from Downtown Charleston to Mount Pleasant.
"The world is certainly changing and change is accelerating, and in fact, Jason — he said to the 2024 winner of the Joe Brinson Memorial Scholarship, Jason Gould — when you graduate from college, you may be looking for jobs that don't even exist."
Hsu added that he's currently in the process of hiring someone to help CofC develop, apply and teach the multiform aspects and uses of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The 68-year-old administrator's technology musings were a table setter for his update on the university's three A's: academics, athletics and admission.
On the academic front, Hsu shared the school's efforts to adapt to an evolving local economy that has seen the Lowcountry transition from being primarily a tourist destination in recent years.
The emergence of foreign corporations (i.e. Volvo, Mercedes-Benz, Bosch, etc.) has created the need for specific types of employee skill sets.
In response to these new demands, CofC has paved the way for a new school of engineering, which debuts next month, per Hsu.
In addition, the Charleston-based school opened a health sciences school about a year-and-a-half ago to address the needs of a burgeoning medical industry in the region. Further, the college will soon be offering two new doctoral programs in education and business administration.
CofC's commitment to become a "more comprehensive university," according to Hsu, has also materialized in the development of its new EMBA course of study for professionals with full-time jobs.
In terms of athletics, the married father of four daughters acknowledged the success and popularity of CofC's basketball team, which has sold out the TD Arena three years running.
Similarly, the baseball program has made strides in its own right by finishing as regular-season champion, only to lose in the final matchup of their conference tournament.
The golf team, he added, recently notched its seventh national championship.
When tackling academics, Hsu filled in listeners on his objective of boosting student applications upon arriving in the Holy City in 2019. The plan was to raise the total of roughly 10,000 applicants by 50 percent.
Five years later, he reported, that number has grown to 32,000 aspiring CofC scholars, with many of them coming from the Northeast and California.
"So, we're no longer a Lowcountry, regional university in the minds of students and parents. And, as you can imagine, when you have that many applicants for 2,200 seats in [our] freshman class, the [acceptance] rate has to go down. I sympathize with our students. It's no longer as easy to get into the College of Charleston," remarked Hsu.
