Dear Colleagues:
I hope that your summer is off to a wonderful start. I’m sure you’ve noticed that campus has been bustling with Orientation sessions, various camps, ST-ARTS, daily admissions tours and more. It has been great to see and feel the positive energy that these events inject into our busy days, and I hope that when you see our visitors and campers you’ll offer them a warm Winthrop welcome.
Meanwhile, the vice presidents and I have been brainstorming and narrowing down a new set of initiatives for phase two of our strategic plan, Winthrop: United in Excellence. More to come on that, and the vice presidents are currently drafting a final status report of the phase 1 initiatives in their areas, which will be shared in a future e-mail.
Here also are some important updates and happenings…
Budget
Thanks to Governor McMaster, state representatives and senators, and the efforts of a number of individuals who are working to enhance our reputation in Columbia, Winthrop received the following in the 2025-26 S.C. State budget:
$39.6M in recurring funds (including $2.3M in tuition mitigation)
$10.9 in non-recurring funds, broken down as follows:
$4M for maintenance, renovation and replacement
$4.62M for the renovation of Tillman Hall into a student services hub
$2.3M for academic renovation (Rutledge HVAC, etc.) and new strategic academic programs
We appreciate all of these investments, and they will allow Winthrop to continue with our tuition transparency initiative and make progress on much-needed facilities projects. We are very grateful to our legislators for hearing our requests, recognizing our needs and providing us with the vital financial assistance to continue our path forward. Also included in the overall state budget is a 2% salary increase for state employees, which will be reflected in July 1 paychecks. Please consult the June 23 e-mail from HR for more information on this.
Investing in Winthrop Summer Edition
I am pleased to provide you with the latest edition of our facilities update, Investing in Winthrop. In this iteration, read more about various building renovation projects, summer refreshes to residence halls, roof replacements, projects in the queue and more.
Enrollment and Orientation
I have some very good news to pass along regarding our fall enrollment outlook and this summer’s Orientation sessions. Joe Miller has shared with me that the admissions staff exceeded its deposit goals. To date, 1,031 freshmen and 280 transfer students have put down deposits to attend this fall. While these preliminary new student enrollment figures are encouraging, there is still a lot of work to do to finish the class, with roughly two months still remaining before the start of the fall semester. In others news, our Orientation sessions this month were very successful, and there are a few more transfer and freshman sessions to come. A huge thank you goes out to our admissions, financial aid, and New Student and Family Programs staff for getting these students to campus!
June Board Meeting
The next meeting of the Winthrop Board of Trustees will be June 25-26. Be on the lookout for the meeting agenda.
Please enjoy the rest of the summer. Before we know it, we’ll be welcoming our newest class of Eagles at Convocation on Aug. 25!
Edward
Edward Serna
President
