Post and Courier22%
Ex-HGTC president withdraws from new job at Florence college 9%
By Adam Benson0%
8/6/2026, 11:33:00 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 7 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Emotion, Negativity Bias, and Recency Bias, with Status Quo Bias as the most egregious example at 15.2% saturation with 84 hits. Analysis detected 292 faulty-reasoning hits from 553 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 18.8% and a BS Rank of 9% (26,141 of 28,464 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 91.80% of the article peer group.
FLORENCE — Marilyn "Murph" Fore will not serve as interim president of Florence-Darlington Technical College, a revelation that comes less than a week after the former Horry-Georgetown Technical College leader’s tenure was expected to begin.
FDTC originally announced that Fore would start on Aug. 1, but spokesman Andrew Golden said she never began working at the Pee Dee school.
Golden told The Post and Courier that Fore had “withdrawn her intent” to lead the college on an interim basis.
Clint Moore, chairman of the school's governing board, declined to comment.
Reached by phone Aug.
6, Fore said she was unable to comment.
News of Fore's decision comes after The Post and Courier last month reported grade inflation at HGTC, where Fore served as president from 2017 until July 31.
When asked about the grade inflation investigation, Golden previously said the school's commission "consulted the South Carolina Technical College System during its search for an acting President."
Fore previously told The Post and Courier her departure from HGTC was unrelated to the grade inflation investigation.
That probe uncovered 86 documented instances of grade manipulations impacting students across the fall and summer 2024 semesters.
"I can tell you unequivocally they were disciplined," Fore said.
An unprecedented investigation
State officials said this week the HGTC inquiry was the first of its kind by the system, which was established in 1961.
The Post and Courier reported exclusively on July 24 that more than the grades were boosted without professors' consent at the Conway-based institution.
Days later, HGTC officials fired Spanish professor Valerie Falbo-Gasque, who went public with her concerns about transparency and accountability regarding the grade changes.
Falbo-Gasque said she was terminated for refusing to amend a grade from "incomplete" to a "withdrawal."
HGTC officials have said they do not terminate employees for exercising their lawful rights.
"They had a copy of the report," she said.
"Between myself and the state tech office, we didn't want to hide anything from them. ...
They were fully aware of it.
They understand it."
What was found
HGTC leadership told investigators the college opted not to revert the grades because "the spring 2025 semester was well underway and changing grades back would have disrupted students' academic progress," according to the report.
"Additionally, some of the impacted students were dually enrolled and a change to their grade would have impacted graduation,” the report stated.
“The investigation team received documentation stating that judgment calls were made for PACE students (i.e., dual enrollment students) who would not graduate high school unless help was provided.”
* The college’s outside counsel also noted there was no legal requirement to restore the original grades.
* More than a dozen faculty and college officials met with investigators.
* Investigators determined the people who admitted to changing the grades said they did so at the direction of a now-former dean and assistant vice president, according to the report.
The only individual with that title mentioned in the report is Candace Howell, who was serving as HGTC's assistant vice president and dean of arts and sciences in fall 2024.
Howell would not meet with investigators.
The report said the former assistant vice president "declined participation based on unspecified fears of potential retaliation."
Howell has not responded to requests for comment.
Speakers
3speakers24%attributed speech420writer words
Selected voice
0%flagged-word coverageValerie Falbo-Gasque
50 attributed words38% of attributed speech50% writer coverage
Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.
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Analysis
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