ORANGEBURG, S.C. — The former president of South Carolina State University is suing officials with the school for salary he says he's owed from his time leading the school.
The lawsuit, filed this week by Dr. James Clark's attorneys, is against the school's Board of Trustees and several other officials tied to the school. It seeks $570,000 in compensatory damages and $1.2 million in punitive damages.
Clark led the school from 2016 until he was terminated in July of 2021. In the suit, he said he is owed a salary supplement held in an account by the Board's foundation. This money, contained in a leadership fund, was in addition to his state-funded salary, and was supposed to pay him an additional $195,000 a year.
The lawsuit details a long back and forth over the supplement. According to his lawyers, after being promised the supplement as part of his contract when he was hired, he voluntarily declined the money in the first year because of the financial difficulty the university was dealing with. However, Clark said an agreement made in 2018 between him and the school guaranteed that he'd get that money back. In 2019, he was paid almost $50,000 out of that account, according to the lawsuit.
However, his lawyers say problems began between Clark and the university in 2020. In May of that year, the lawsuit claims that while working on a two-year extension of his deal with the school, the president of the school's alumni association tried to persuade the board not to give Clark a new contract, claiming Clark wasn't doing a good job. Ultimately, however, the board did approve the deal, the suit states, including keeping the salary supplement.
But Clark says in September of 2020, a new board chairman was appointed, and that person also became a vocal critic of Clark, joining the alumni president.
In the filing, Clark maintains all of the criticisms levied at him were false.
He said in the coming months, an effort took place to block the money from being paid to him or a memorandum of understanding that the deal would still be honored. He also said money was no longer being put into the fund for this payment. Ultimately, he says he did not receive further payments before his firing.
News19 reached out to the university for comment on the lawsuit. In a statement, a spokesperson said the school could not comment on current or pending litigation.
Clark is an MIT graduate and has worked at General Electric, Gillette, Exxon, and AT&T. He also served on Benedict College's Board of Trustees for 18 years.