Winthrop University names Edward Serna as its new president

ROCK HILL, S.C. — Winthrop University has chosen one of its own to be its next president.

Winthrop’s Board of Trustees on Friday unanimously selected Edward Serna, former president at the University of Maine Farmington, to be its 12th president, The Herald reported. He will begin his tenure July 1.

Serna graduated from the Rock Hill, South Carolina, school in 2002. Since then, he’s spent a large part of his professional career as a senior business analyst and strategic management consultant in the private sector before entering higher education as an assistant professor at Athens State University.

He later served as the interim chancellor at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith before taking the mantle at UMF in 2019.

Serna told the board on Friday that his love for higher education began at Winthrop.

“I want to thank the board and the entire Winthrop community for this opportunity,” Serna said. “It’s not lost on me how truly blessed I am to be able to return to an institution that has had such an impact on my life. My experience at Winthrop is the reason I serve the critical mission of public higher education today. And this is an opportunity to pay forward that life-changing experience.”

Serna will replace George Hynd, who has served as university president in an interim role since January 2020.

More than 150 people applied for the position, board members said Friday. Myers McRae, a Georgia-based higher education consulting firm, helped the board with the search.

Serna was announced as one of three finalists earlier this month. The others were Neal Weaver, who serves as president of Georgia Southwestern State University, and Martin Roth, who serves as president of the University of Charleston in West Virginia.

Glenn McCall, the chair of Winthrop University’s Board of Trustees, told The Herald in an interview that Serna’s business and academic acumen was what made him such a compelling candidate.

“He’s a dynamic, innovative leader who has both the academic and business side, and I think in higher ed, as a CEO, I think that really helps,” McCall said. “He just had everything that we felt we needed at this time for Winthrop.”

McCall said Serna’s top priorities once his tenure begins will be to “right-size” the school’s budget, as well as to stabilize and grow student enrollment.

Student enrollment at Winthrop is down by almost 500 students since the 2017-18 school year, according to a report released by the Palmetto Report earlier this month. According to its most up-to-date profile on the US News and World Report — fall of 2020 — Winthrop’s total undergraduate enrollment is 4,406.

“No. 1, we have to focus and invest on increasing enrollment,” McCall said. “All of higher ed is pretty much dealing with that, but we’re behind the curve, if you will, because we’re in one of the most exciting areas in the state but also in this region, with Charlotte, with the Panthers coming, with everything going on. So we’ve got to harness that and leverage that.”

( WATCH BELOW: Winthrop University down to 3 finalists in search for next President)

Winthrop University down to 3 finalists in search for next President

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