USCBe Informed: News & Happenings

New USCB Mace Reflects the Lowcountry's Natural Environment

At a reception for dignitaries before USCB’s Spring 2024 Commencement ceremony, Chancellor Al M. Panu unveiled the university’s latest point of pride: the institution’s new mace. USCB’s decision to commission a mace is a symbol of its growing status and academic rigor, and highlights the university’s unique coastal location within the University of South Carolina System.

Originally a weapon of war in medieval times, the mace became a symbol of authority when knights carried them as ceremonial staffs during processions with their kings. In the modern era, university maces are treated as symbolic representations of a university’s academic authority. They are used during formal academic processions and ceremonies including graduations, convocations and inaugurations.

Created by Beaufort-based woodworker and artist David Lunin, the USCB mace is a symbolic representation of the university and the Lowcountry. Its long staff is made of tiger maple wood inlaid with rings of sand from local beaches. The top portion of the mace is engraved with the USCB and USC seals, USCB’s shield, and the South Carolina state flag. Carved in Roman numerals are four important dates that mark the university’s founding and history. Each of the four pillars on the head of the mace represents an important building on USCB’s campuses in Bluffton and Beaufort and on Hilton Head Island.

“The blue wave on the head of the mace represents our coastal waterways, and a small shark fin signifies the Sand Sharks, USCB’s mascot,” Chancellor Panu told the audience after he unveiled the mace.

Lunin is an expert in woodturning, an ancient craft that uses a wood lathe with hand-held tools to cut a shape that is symmetrical around the axis of rotation. In 2023, USCB formed a committee chaired by registrar Gary Sutton and comprised of faculty, staff and students who gave Lunin input on the design for the new mace.

"Creating the mace for USCB was the honor of a lifetime. It was a thrill to design an object that will symbolize an institute of higher education.,” Lunin said.

University of South Carolina President Michael Amiridis, who spoke at USCB’s commencement, brought the USC mace and Sand Shark Amari Stanton carried it in the ceremony’s processional march. USCB officials will use their new mace when the president – and his mace — aren’t present.