ORANGEBURG, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) – Members of South Carolina State University’s faculty are calling for two officials to be removed following a pair of deadly on-campus shootings in recent months.
News 12’s sister station, WIS, obtained a copy of a letter sent to S.C. State President Alexander Conyers from the school’s faculty senate dated Feb. 16.
The letter, signed by Faculty Senate President and Chair Alexander Thierry, calls for the removal or resignation of S.C. State Police Chief Richard Johnson and Vice President of Finance and Operations Gerald Smith.
It also states that the two received unanimous votes of no confidence from the faculty senate.
The letter cites a Feb. 12 shooting that left two men dead at the Hugine Suites apartment complex on campus, as well as an October shooting that killed a woman during the school’s homecoming weekend.
“The removal of Dr. Johnson and Dr. Smalls is now an imperative,” the letter states. “Due to their inability to ensure campus security, SCSU has experienced two lethal campus shootings within one academic year. After the October shooting, Dr. Johnson and Dr. Smalls, as the leaders responsible for campus safety, had the clear duty to prevent such a thing from happening again. In this duty, they failed. The University simply cannot wait for another such failure.”
It goes on to state that as recently as Nov. 3, 2025, the faculty senate said its welfare committee submitted a “white paper” to the school administration with recommendations to help with campus safety.
It also wrote that campus safety remained a clear concern among faculty in a survey, but that no official response to those recommendations was given by administrators.
“The evidence of two fatal campus shootings within six months indicates that the current police chief and his supervisor, the Vice President of Finance and Operations, are not doing their job to ensure the on-campus safety of SC State students, faculty, staff, visitors and other stakeholders,” the letter continued.
As of Wednesday, a suspect has been charged in connection with the Feb. 12 shooting, while no arrest directly tied to the October shooting has been made.
An SC State spokesperson told WIS that the university does not comment on personnel matters. Conyers is scheduled to provide another update on Thursday.
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