Clemson trustees to go over FY 2026-27 budget Lauren Pierce Jun 24, 2026 Updated 1 hr ago CLEMSON — The Clemson Board of Trustees will host a series of quarterly meetings Thursday that include approval of the university’s fiscal year 2026-27 budget, compensation for Clemson’s top leadership and multiple reports from officials.
All meetings are being held at the Nieri Family Alumni and Visitor Center in Clemson. All meetings will run sequentially, with the next meeting starting immediately after the prior meeting finishes.
Thursday’s meetings kick off with the board’s Educational Policy Committee at 8 a.m. for a report from provost Cole Smith, followed by the Institutional Advancement Committee at 8:30 a.m. to discuss naming opportunities, advancement updates from senior vice president for advancement Brian O’Rourke and Clemson University Foundation updates from board of director Cheryl Holland.
Next, the Finance and Facilities Committee will meet at 9:25 a.m. to discuss approvals for the FY27 tuition and student fees and the FY27 budget. Senior vice president for finance and operations and chief financial officer Rick Petillo will lead the discussions for the university’s financial updates.
During April’s committee meeting, Petillo outlined a preliminary fiscal year 2027 budget that reflected both stability and mounting pressure. Petillo told trustees while Clemson continues to grow revenue, the pace has slowed — a trend affecting higher education nationwide. At the same time, Petillo said expense growth — though moderating — continues to outpace revenues, creating what he described as an unsustainable dynamic if left unaddressed.
At the time, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley urged the university’s administration to move beyond relying on tuition and fee increases.
“We need real solutions, and it’s OK if we have to hurt for a little bit, because if you don’t hurt a little bit now, you’ll hurt a lot later, and this is going to require vision,” she said in April. “But you can’t just come back to us and think that tuition and fees are going to fix everything, because we’ve done that over and over. … Cutting doesn’t solve the problem. Reforms solve the problem.”
Clemson’s current budget for fiscal year 2026, which runs until June 30, includes just over $2 billion in revenues and expenses. The upcoming budget is expected to trend higher as expenses increase.
The Compensation Committee meets at 10:30 a.m. to discuss executive leadership and academic leadership compensations.
Topping out the health center
Trustees will then take a break to attend a topping out ceremony for the new 90,000-square-foot health center that will replace the aging Redfern Health Center.
The new facility was made possible through a partnership with the Medical University of South Carolina. It is expected to expand Clemson University’s current medical, counseling and psychological services to include advanced imaging, employee and occupational health access, a human performance research center, and a sports medicine and ambulatory surgery center operated by Prisma Health Blue Ridge Orthopedics.
Clemson and MUSC officials first broke ground on the new health center in February. The topping out ceremony on Thursday is a centuries-old tradition that celebrates the placement of the final beam at the highest point of a building, representing the completion of the structure’s structural frame.
After the ceremony, the trustees’ Executive and Audit Committee will convene at 12:15 p.m. for athletics updates, approval of a CapCo agreement and approval of an IPTAY agreement from athletics director Graham Neff. Trustees chair Kim Wilkerson will also discuss an “approval for presidential authority.”
The full board will gavel in at 2:30 p.m. as the last meeting on Thursday to review approvals from all the committee meetings. University interim president Bob Jones will deliver what is presumed to be his final report since Clemson hired its next president, Kevin Guskiewicz, in May.
Other reports in the meeting include the last executive secretary’s report from April Purvis who will be moving on to lead Clemson University Foundation. Trustees will celebrate Purvis’ time with the board with a resolution recognizing her.
Interim vice president for institutional excellence Josh Barnes will also give an update on Clemson Elevate, the school’s 12-year plan built on three pillars — delivering the No. 1 student experience, doubling research by 2035 and transforming lives statewide and beyond.
On Friday and Saturday, the trustees are expected to host a retreat at the Nieri Family Alumni and Visitors Center at 8 a.m. and 9 a.m., respectively.
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