A Campus Transformed

ndrew T. Hsu walks through the Cistern Yard each morning on the way to his office on the second floor of Randolph Hall. Since 2019, when he became the 23rd president of the university, he has enjoyed this short commute from his home at 6 Glebe St., the Bishop Robert Smith House, walking along the herringbone-patterned sidewalks and throughways, careful of uneven bricks where the live oak roots push upward.

Some mornings it is quiet; others, he sidesteps students and professors hurrying to make class. No matter the day or the activity level, that walk through the Cistern Yard calms him and readies him for his duty to steward the oldest institution of higher learning in South Carolina so that others may enjoy moments like this for years to come. This space is an open sanctuary of sorts – a place to come together and a spot to escape the day’s worries.

Today, higher education is at an inflection point – with artificial intelligence disrupting classroom instruction, demographic decline in traditional-age college students and changes in student demand. Each day can be a roulette wheel of old and new challenges, but Hsu finds that the best way to cope with any stress is to focus on what you can control – or at least what may make an impact. And a campus that dates to the birth of this country and was originally fashioned out of Revolutionary War barracks provides plenty of challenges to occupy one’s thoughts.

In his engineer’s mind, Hsu is programmed to identify problems and then formulate possible solutions. Facilities, since he first stepped on campus, have taken up a particular area of concern. He remembers several years ago, when clouds of steam rose from various manhole covers. For his youngest daughters, it gave a distinctly Victorian-era London feel, but it also meant that old steam lines were failing, and the campus was not operating efficiently. Romance had to give way to finance. Getting those underground lines repaired required years of hard work from the facilities team and an army of outside contractors. Now, the central utility system is working, meaning students, faculty and staff can do the business of the College with fewer disruptions.

One of the philosophical underpinnings of the current 10-year strategic plan, Tradition & Transformation, is to retain the historic character of campus while bringing things like academic programming, student services and buildings into the 21st century. It is a delicate balancing act, but the College has been moving back and forth on that tightrope for a long time.

Since 2020, the College has made significant investments in its infrastructure, academic and student facilities and campus grounds, to the tune of more than $250 million. For example, the Simons Center for the Arts received a major overhaul and reopened in 2024; several residence halls – Berry, Buist Rivers, Craig and McAlister – have undergone extensive renovations; and 207 Calhoun St. (the home of the Center for Sustainable Development) has been restored, earning a Carolopolis Award (Pro Merito category) from the Preservation Society of Charleston in 2026. Much has been done, and much more is yet to be done.

Historically, many of these transformational projects have been made possible through strong state support and disciplined financial stewardship. Increasingly, however, private philanthropy has become an essential partner in shaping what comes next. Projects like the Edward J. Tuccio ’91 Student Success Center, the future School of Business building and the Michael and Amy Bennett School of Hospitality and Tourism Management reflect this new era of partnership between public investment and private generosity.

Standing there in the Cistern Yard, Hsu turns from Randolph Hall and immediately takes note of two projects in his peripheral vision that will transform the student experience. When he thinks about the Collegeʼs other facilities, he imagines the new buildings along and north of Calhoun Street, the renovation of Grice Marine Lab across the Charleston Harbor and the expansion of campus to East Bay and North Market streets. Once considered a “sleepy little college” – something Hsu has heard repeatedly from alumni and community members for years now – the university is waking up, stretching and ready to take on a new day.

And that vision of a new day is coming into clearer focus through several current and future projects reshaping the campus.

Since it came online in 1979, the Simons Center for the Arts on St. Philip Street has been an artistic home for both the campus and the city of Charleston. Performances there, by students and visiting professionals alike, have added to the dynamic artistic conversations happening throughout the greater Charleston community, whether with the Spoleto Festival USA, Piccolo Spoleto, the Charleston Gaillard Center, the Charleston Symphony or the Gibbes Museum of Art.

The multiyear, multimillion-dollar renovation included upgrades such as new seminar rooms and enlarged classroom spaces, a state-of-the-art costume shop, a digital lab/multipurpose room, a technologically advanced sculpture studio, reimagined printmaking studios, new music practice rooms and new mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems.

“The renovation is truly more than an architectural transformation,” says Jayme Klinger Host, dean of the School of the Arts. “It is an act of institutional faith in the power of creative life. When our students step into the new two-story black box theater, when they gather clay in a studio flooded with natural light, when they hear their own compositions ring with clarity in our recital hall, they are not simply using a building. They are inhabiting a declaration – a declaration that their work matters, that their vision deserves a stage worthy of its ambition.”

The Center for Intentionality, just west of campus on Rutledge Avenue, and its supporting student club were born out of a course taught by philanthropist and businessman Ben Navarro. Since 2023, Navarro has led this class in the School of Business, drawing its wide-ranging curriculum from his experiences, reflections and years of observing commonalities among highly successful people. The new center makes the course’s same principles available to a greater number of students.

“Students not only discover who they are, but also work toward the selves they aspire to become,” says Hsu. “It is a place where curiosity meets purpose and reflection turns into direction.”

In October 2025, Ben Navarro wrote in a guest column in The Post and Courier, “We have purchased the abandoned Carroll building at Market Street and East Bay – in my view, one of the ugliest buildings in all of downtown at one of the most dangerous intersections. We are giving this land to the College, and we will work with them to build a world-class business school worthy of its students.”

The building, less than a 10-minute walk from the current School of Business building, the Beatty Center, will extend the boundaries of campus and fully integrate the College within the greater Charleston business community.

“This site gives us a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build a business school that is deeply connected to Charleston,” says Paul Schwager, dean of the School of Business, “educating future leaders, partnering with industry and contributing to the economic and civic vitality of our city.”

The opportunity, of course, is not simply to construct a new facility, but to create a defining space that embodies the university’s commitment to innovation and community partnerships.

“In all of these building projects, we talk about transformation,” says Hsu. “And I know we may overuse that word to an extent where we risk losing its meaning. But I cannot overstate how truly transformational the new home of the School of Business on the corner of Market and East Bay will be for our university. The location is one of the most visible in the city, and the more than 8.5 million annual visitors to Charleston will see our institutional brand in a new light. There are moments in our university’s history where we have made bold moves – across George, across Calhoun and across Coming Street. Now, we will establish a foothold on a new part of the peninsula in an area that is being overhauled as part of the Union Pier redevelopment.”

As most alumni will acknowledge, the College of Charleston has done admirably with a relatively small footprint for its first 256 years. Now, it’s time to think differently and see the campus more fully integrate within Charleston so that both may fully flourish for the next 256.