ORANGEBURG, S.C. — The Board of Trustees at South Carolina State University has agreed to resolve the ongoing legal battle with the school's former president who was suing the school over money he said they owed him.
The trustees unanimously approved an arrangement Tuesday to try and end the lawsuit filed by Dr. James Clark. Clark sued the school in 2022 over salary he says he was owned from his time leading the university, and sought $570,000 in compensatory damages and $1.2 million in punitive damages.
Clark was fired on July 13, 2021 after five years on the job. The school's trustees said back then that they terminated Clark for cause under the terms of his contract but did not specify further why they let him go.
As part of the resolution approved Tuesday, however, the trustees agreed to withdraw the statement that he was fired with cause and to now say he was fired without cause. They also agreed to give SC State Trustees Board Chairman Douglas Gantt the ability to settle and resolve any remaining claims by Clark. They did not lay out publicly how that resolution would happen.
Finally, the school said it would not object to giving all remaining money from a leadership fund created by the South Carolina State Foundation to Clark. A dispute over that money had been the central part of Clark's suit.
Clark had said in the lawsuit that he was owed a salary supplement held in the leadership found account by the Board's foundation. This money was in addition to his state-funded salary and was supposed to pay him an additional $195,000 a year.
Clark argued that as part of his contract, the school was to have put money into the fund. But he said there was a lengthy back and forth about the money during his tenure including an effort to block the money from being paid to him.
Clark had worked at General Electric, Gillette, Exxon, and AT&T before coming to SC State. He also served on Benedict College's Board of Trustees for 18 years.
