Robert Louis Caslen Jr. (born 30 November 1953) is a retired United States Army officer who served as the 59th superintendent of West Point from 2013 until 2018[1] and as the 29th president of the University of South Carolina from July 2019 until May 2021.

Between January and May 2019, Caslen was senior counsel to the president and interim chief financial officer at the University of Central Florida.

[2] On 19 July 2019, the board of trustees of the University of South Carolina elected him as the school's 29th president, a position he assumed on 1 August 2019.

[7] He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1975, where he played center for the Army Black Knights football team.

[10] During Operation Desert Storm, Caslen served as executive officer of the 2nd Battalion, 187th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault).

Following the attack, he re-entered the Pentagon, helping search for wounded and working on reversing the air conditioning system in order to remove smoke from the building.

[20] Following his retirement from West Point, Caslen was in January 2019 appointed as chief accountability officer at the University of Central Florida to oversee the reformation of the finance and administration operations, a position from which he resigned in May.

Caslen sent a letter to the board withdrawing himself from consideration in the new search, stating, "“I am sorry that my record and my reputation had caused such a clamor at your university and were so polarizing to your faculty and student body .

[25] However, it was revealed on 8 July, that South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster was urging members of the board to meet by the end of the week to vote on Caslen's candidacy for president.

[28] One trustee, Egerton Burroughs, believed that the opposition to Caslen was entirely political, stating, without evidence, "A lot of the people that are demonstrating are from out of town.

I heard some of that Kamala Harris crowd is there … got this thing all tied into the Democratic primary", though Burroughs was unaware his comments were being broadcast.

[39] Caslen co-authored The Character Edge: Leading and Winning with Integrity, with West Point Psychology Professor Dr. Michael Matthews.

[42] On 11 May 2021, an article was published in WLTX news stating "Caslen offered to resign his job over two controversies involving last weekend's graduation but the chairman of the school's board of trustees rejected it.