Board of Trustees pledge major gifts; Social Media Listening Center grant; Elevate Well-Being

DAILY NEWSLETTER
FEBRUARY 21, 2025

Good morning! Board of Trustees Chair Kim Wilkerson ’80 and her husband, Avery Wilkerson, along with Trustee David E. Dukes ’81 and his wife Karen Royster Dukes '82, pledged gifts to the University. There's also big news from the Social Media Listening Center, a new well-being blog series and more.

Clemson Board of Trustees Chair Kim Wilkerson ’80 and her husband, Avery Wilkerson pledged $1 million to the University as the lead donation to establish The Presidential Leadership Lecture Series at Clemson University.

Trustee David E. Dukes ’81 and his wife Karen Royster Dukes ’82 pledged $500,000 to endow the David E. Dukes ’81 Family Distinguished Professorship in Economics and provide annual faculty support for the department.

The Social Media Listening Center (SMLC) received a major research instrumentation program grant from the Division of Research to elevate its social media listening capabilities. The grant will allow the SMLC to develop new pathways for interdisciplinary research initiatives and social media curriculum development across the University.

Nathan McNeese, the McQueen Quattlebaum Endowed Associate Professor of Human-Centered Computing, thinks DeepSeek is just the beginning of artificial intelligence transformation.

In the new “Elevate Well-Being” blog series, Kathy Bush Hobgood, associate vice president for Auxiliary Enterprises, shares her insights into how she balances life as a wife and mother with her leadership responsibilities at Clemson and as president of the Association of College and University Housing Officers – International .

Students, faculty and staff now have access to multiple new amenities at the Adobe Studio and Makerspace, located on the fifth floor of Cooper Library. All Adobe Studio and Makerspace equipment is available to anyone with a valid CUID.