Big news for the Gamecock nation:

University of South Carolina President Andrew Sorensen plans to announce at 3 p.m. today that he intends to retire July 31 of next year.

Sorensen took office in July 2002, following six years as president of the University of Alabama. His formal investiture as USC president took place Dec. 14, 2002.

He will be 70 years old next July.

Board Chairman Herbert Adams said the “driving force” behind Sorensen’s retirement plans is the need for the university to mount a major funding raising campaign, which could last as long as five years.

“We just can’t start that under one president and finish it with another,” Adams said.

Adams said Sorensen has agreed to stay on beyond the July 31 date if no new president is ready to take office at that time. It is the board’s wish that there be a direct hand-off from Sorensen to the new president, without an interim president.

Sorensen and Board Chairman Herbert Adams told The State in September that they were engaged in talks about a succession plan.

How long beyond his 70th birthday Sorensen might serve had not come up formally before the board. The university has no mandatory retirement age for the president. But the topic had circulated informally among trustees of the flagship state university.

Sorensen and Adams said in September they were in “amicable discussions” about how much longer he might serve as USC president. [JAMES T. HAMMOND - The State]

(h/t Brad Warthen)