Office of the President Records, Constantine William Curris
Collection
Identifier: Series-0104
This series contains budget documents, correspondence, memoranda, and reports. The series spans 1979-2001 with the vast bulk of the material from July 1995 through June 1999 when Constantine Curris served as President of Clemson University. A number of files related to controversies in the Athletic Program from the 1980s were left for the review by succeeding presidents. Noteworthy subjects included in this series are the athletic program, budgetary matters, construction projects such as the Madren Center and Martin Inn project, development and TIWET. Some Office of the President Records from Curris' successor, James Barker, has not been included in this series.
There are ten boxes of files concerning personnel and students that are restricted under provisions of the South Carolina Freedom of Information Law.
Constantine William Curris assumed the presidency of Clemson University during May 1995 and was formally invested as the thirteenth president on September 8, 1995. He served until July 1999.
Constantine William Curris was born on November 13, 1940 in Lexington Kentucky. A 1958 graduate of Grant County High School, Curris then graduated in 1962, magna cum laude, from the University of Kentucky with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and minor in Speech Communication. In 1965 he received a Master of Arts in Political Science (Public Administration emphasis) from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. He then pursued a Doctorate of Education in Student Personnel Services with a minor in Public Policy from the University of Kentucky and graduated in 1967.
During the following decade, he assumed increasingly more responsible administrative positions in higher education working in various capacities for Midway College, 1965-1968; the West Virginia Board of Education, 1968-1969; Marshall University, 1969-1971; West Virginia Institute of Technology, 1971-1973 and culminating in becoming president of Murray State University, Murray Kentucky in 1973. At Murray State, he oversaw extensive campus renovations including a new 130,000 square foot student center that is named in his honor. He served in this position for a decade until assuming the presidency of the University of Northern Iowa in 1983. There he led the school in raising admissions standards and improving the general education program. The College of Business Administration is named for him at UNI.
Arriving at Clemson in 1995 during the implementation of the restructuring of the University, he oversaw the completion of this process. During his presidency budget shortfalls and athletic controversies served to be challenges. The campus witnessed several major construction projects including the Madren Center/Martin Inn golf course complex. He participated in the successful searches for several senior level administrators and worked to stabilize enrollment.
President Curris announced his resignation on April 29, 1999 in order to become the third president of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.
He is married to Jo Hern Curris, a tax attorney and they have two children, Robert Alexander and Elana Diane.
Information for this biographical sketch is from Series 38, Constantine Curris folder and the folders in this series titled President Curris-Personal.
28.75 Cubic Feet (58 document boxes, one cassette tape, one VHS tape and one oversize folder)
English
This series contains budget documents, correspondence, memoranda, reports, and other material organized in an alphabetical subject file.
The files reflect the Office of the President's alphabetical/subject filing system and are arranged alphabetically by folder title or the last name of the correspondent. The documents within each folder are arranged in chronological order with the exception of the alphabetical files which are organized in alphabetical order by the last name of the correspondent.
These records originated in the President's Office and are part of accessions 03-48, 05-42, 05-50, 06-19 and 06-77.
Michael Kohl processed this series in 2007 with help from student assistants Emily Estes, Deanna Panetta, Micheal Peay and graduate intern Drew Land.
The conversion of this finding aid to Encoded Archival Description format was made possible with a grant from the South Carolina State Historical Records Advisory Board in 2009-2010. The finding aid was prepared for encoding by Kristi Roberts.
Part of the Clemson University Libraries Special Collections and Archives Repository