South Carolina State University’s ongoing debacle of climbing debt, dropping enrollment and lamentable graduation rates may spur state lawmakers to draft legislation that divines whether any state-backed university is still a boon for the Palmetto State. Or whether it has become a boondoggle.
It’s just that, it doesn’t seem like the legislature is any hurry to do so. And that doesn’t sit well with one major player at the Statehouse leader — State. Rep. Brian White, the Anderson Republican who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee.
Two weeks ago, a House Ways and Means subcommittee floated the idea of closing the state’s lone historically black university for at least three semesters so it could reorganize. In the process, it suggested reassigning almost 3,000 students at state expense.
Last week, the full committee decided against that option. Instead, members voted for a one-year budget proviso to clean house in the administration.
In the Senate, GOP and Democratic leaders agreed to a joint resolution that called for a similar plan. But like the proviso, it would still have to be passed by both chambers and escape the governor’s veto pen.
State Sen. John Courson, the Columbia Republican who chairs the Senate Education Committee, said he hoped to have the resolution ready for a full Senate vote by Thursday.
Seeking a long-term fix
The Ways and Means proviso wouldn’t take effect until July 1, when the new fiscal year begins and the next state budget starts. That means the proviso and the resolution are short-term fixes, devoid of long-term policy and statutory power.
But budget leader White wants something more solid and comprehensive. He said he’d prefer it sooner rather than later. White foresees near-future problems for similarly-sized state higher education institutions as state financial “resources get scarcer.”
Over the last decade, state higher education institutions have seen their direct budget support from the state budget shrink ominously. Whereas some state institutions used to receive as much as 40 percent of their annual budgets from the state, according to state records, many routinely now only receive between 7 and 11 percent.
White, who never finished college, said he believed the entire state higher education system needs to be revamped so state government can intervene and take control before trouble snowballs at any one of the state’s 33 public colleges and universities.
“At the least, so we don’t have to go through what we’ve had to go through with S.C. State,” said White.
CHE wants to be part of the solution
Richard Sutton has been the executive director of the S.C. Commission on Higher Education (CHE) for the past two years. His office helps oversee the state’s higher education system, which includes public research universities, other colleges and universities, two-year branches of the University of South Carolina and the state’s technical and comprehensive education system.
“Last week was a big week in the legislature for us,” Sutton said, referring to the focus on higher education at the Statehouse.
When asked what the CHE would like from the legislature going forward, Sutton said his commission wants to be part of the solution.
“We are already working toward adopting a strategic plan, complete with accountability and outcomes,” said Sutton, adding CHE has already been “engaged” with the state’s universities to come up with that matrix.
When asked for more detail, Sutton was vague as to what exactly would comprise the matrix and offered no specific timeline.
Meanwhile, Courson said the first place to look when gauging a college or university “would be in its financial statements.”
Same situation, different day
White has been down this road before, but with the state’s K-12 education system. Last year, he co-authored a bill that would better define how and when the state could step in and take over a failing school district.
The bill didn’t make it out of committee, and has yet to be debated on the floor of the House.
White said the difference was that the school district wasn’t passing muster in terms of student achievement, in contrast with SCSU’s primarily financial woes. Still, he said, to protect the state “and the institution from the whims of a legislator that might not like a university president,” something stronger was needed.
White said the legislature, or the governor, needed to have the flexibility to address K-12 schools and districts, as well as higher education institutions, whether they are struggling academically or fiscally.
We’re all to blame, one leader says
State Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter (D-Orangeburg), who voted last week in unanimity with the other members of Ways and Means, charged legislator ultimately created the problems at S.C. State.
“We take very lightly, very lightly, who we put on the South Carolina State board,” said Cobb Hunter, a graduate of a historically black college or university (HBCU), Florida A&M. “There are men and women who have served on that board who would never … ever … be selected to the Clemson or USC or MUSC boards.”
Cobb-Hunter added that the fiscal problems at the school have been an ongoing problem for more than 25 years.
Subcommittee member Rep. Bill Clyburn (D-Aiken) called for diversity that reflects sensitivity to the background of the student body in the interim and future boards at the HBCU.
Finding a solution, or a series of solutions, for the school will continue to be a sensitive issue, as Cobb-Hunter said last week:
“White legislators don’t want anyone accusing them of being racist, and members of the Black Caucus could want to yield to alumni who finished from the institution.”
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