‘Once a Chanticleer, always a Chanticleer': Benson reflects on Coastal Carolina presidency

Yahoo

03-05-2025

CONWAY, S.C. (WBTW) — Coastal Carolina University President Dr. Michael T. Benson is entering his final days in the position before making the move to West Virginia University to be the Mountaineers' new president.
Benson announced in February he'd be leaving Teal Nation. He sat down with News13 to discuss his nearly five-year journey in Conway and what it meant to be a Chanticleer.
Going into his last commencement ceremony at CCU next week, Benson said graduation is one of, if not his favorite, time of the year.
'I love seeing our students succeed. That's my favorite part of it,' he said. 'I mean, we're all here because of students. In just a few days, I'll be able to shake every hand of every student that walks across that stage. And those will be the highlights. Seeing those students accomplish a really singular thing in their life, that they can now go out into the world and say they're a Coastal graduate. That, to me, is the most memorable.'
Over the years, Benson has had many milestone accomplishments, including securing $40 million for library renovations and bringing in a record freshman class each year since 2021, and many more.
Benson said none of it would've been possible without every faculty and staff member. With him being president of several different universities for roughly 24 years, he said his relationships at CCU were special.
'Everywhere I've gone, I've tried to emphasize that I may have a nice office and I may have a title, but I'm no more important than the person that helps keep our campus beautiful, or the engineer in the boiler room or the junior faculty member or anybody else,' Benson said. 'I would like to say thank you to the board that gave me this chance back in 2020 when I was hired. I told a group of students the other night, I want you to call or text or email somebody who's taken a chance on you and thank them.'
CCU faculty and staff say they're going to miss Benson's vibrant personality and the kind person he was to all. Dean's on campus said he was a president who fully immersed himself with the student body and community and made the university a better place, adding that the next president has big shoes to fill.
'Under his leadership, we developed our new strategic plan 'CCU Reach,' and that is just been, I think, the legacy that he'll leave is this new strategic plan that we've begun implementing. We could not have done that without him and his leadership and his insight,' College of Education and Social Sciences dean Jamia Richmond said. 'He'll do great wherever he goes because he's really intuitive, and he pays attention to the environment where he's going. His personality, the way he connects with individuals, you know, he helps students, faculty, feel seen and heard.'
Students on campus who knew Benson closely said that since their freshman year he was a president to look up to since the very beginning. They said that he would always be out at every event and interacting with the students.
'I just think that Coastal is going to miss President Benson, but we're all really proud of him,' CCU Student Body President Gabrielle Ryder said. 'Accomplishments and the growth that has happened through Coastal under President Benson's leadership, I think that it creates a lot of hope for the future of what Coastal is going to become in the next 5 to 10 years.'
Ryder said it's full circle to be in a way graduating together from Coastal alongside Benson and is excited for him to be chasing his dream job at WVU.
But at the end of the day, Benson says:
'Once a Chanticleer, always a Chanticleer.'
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Gabby Jonas joined the News13 team as a multimedia journalist in April 2024. She is from Columbus, Ohio, and graduated from Kent State University in May 2023. Follow Gabby on X, formerly Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, and read more of her work here.
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