President talks tuition, growth, student issues

Dr. Dwaun J. Warmack was dress for Spirit Week when he met with Panther reporters. (Panther photo)

Claflin University in 2025-26 is expected to have a tuition increase for the first time in five years, President Dr. Dwaun J. Warmack said. 

Tuition was among topics when Panther reporters met in-person Nov. 21 with the university’s ninth president. Warmack delved into issues and successes during the five years of his presidency, saying he is proud there has been no tuition hike during his tenure.

“Tuition will be increased this year because of inflation and everything that comes behind it,” Warmack said. 

Claflin is known for being an affordable private HBCU with tuition at approximately $28,000 a year. By comparison, private HBCU Spelman College in Atlanta has tuition at approximately $49,000 a year.  

Warmack does not know how much the tuition increase will be. He says it will not be “anything astronomical,” but the increase is necessary to keep the doors of Claflin University open. 

The university's board of trustees must approve any increase.

Warmack said his focus remains on elevating and transforming Claflin, where there is a lot of recent activity, including: 

• The university’s endowment has increased from $26 million to $74 million. 

• Net and total assets have increased.  

• The retention rate has increased to 80%. 

• The renovated Hubert V. Manning Library has reopened.  

Claflin has seen growth in infrastructure, Warmack said. The new student center was unveiled in March, and in January 2025, Claflin will begin the process of constructing a new academic building.  

“In January we’ll break ground on the new nursing building,” Warmack said.  

Social science majors will also receive a new academic building. The building will be located near the student health center.  

Warmack plans to build a "robust" science and technology center in the coming year. 

The building will encompass AI, computer science and biotechnology facilities. A goal is to see the building promote an increase in faculty and student research.  

Claflin’s infrastructure will spread to downtown Orangeburg with utilization of the former Kress Building, which Warmack said is historically significant as a location where Blacks were denied access to the lunch counter until the 1960s civil rights era.  

“It's an old, historic building that has a pretty horrible historical context. African Americans were not allowed to enter at one time. ... What about if the first and the oldest historically Black college and university now has that facility to create an incubator, an accelerator space?” Warmack said. 

The Kress building is to be an accelerator for street-level and minority women-owned businesses.  

While Claflin has seen much success in the last five years, there are still student concerns. 

At the start of the academic year, some Claflin students were complaining about housing complications and saying there is leaking and mold in some residence halls. Also, students had difficulty applying for housing. 

As to the application process, Warmack cited students' lack of attention. 

"We have a process regarding housing,” he said. “And we know there probably is a large percentage of students who don't follow that process.” 

Warmack said students frequently miss the deadline to apply for housing. Students who miss the deadline still try to secure housing even though their spot is taken. 

Warmack said making the housing system/process completely digitized will help everyone.  “We are fixing our system.” 

Warmack said the university is 155 years old with a number of historic buildings, which can explain some of the problems in residence halls. 

Claflin is continuously working to restore the dorms, he said. 

The university tests dorms for black mold, he said. None is present in the dorms. 

“We don’t have a black mold issue,” Warmack said. 

There may be some mildew in the dorms due to age or other conditions. The cause for some of the mildew, according to Warmack, is propping open doors in the dorms. With hot and cold weather conditions, propping these doors promotes formation of mildew. 

Residence halls such as Kleist, Commons, SRC’s and High Rise have received restoration, including new flooring and fixed roofs, he said. “We have put multimillion dollars into maintenance.” 

As to the university’s loss of a top-10 ranking by U.S. News & World Report magazine earlier this year, Warmack said, “I was devastated in a lot of ways. Not devastated because we dropped but devastated on how it happened.” 

He said the university did not underperform, but the criteria used by U.S News & World Report changed. They removed alumni giving and Pell Grant-eligible graduates from the ranking process, negatively affecting Claflin.