Old School

Who would you nominate to be the next president of the University of South Carolina?

Sometime this year, the University of South Carolina trustees will select a new president to carry on the academic and scientific vision set in motion by President Andrew Sorensen. The trustees have put in place a system that allows anyone to nominate candidates to be the next president. Nominations can be sent here:

Presidential Search Candidate Search Committee, c/o Thomas L. Stepp, Board of Trustees, Osborne Administration Building,  University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208. Or, send your nomination to this e-mail address: pressrch@sc.edu.

The State newspaper also would like to know who you think would make a good president for the University of South Carolina. If you'd like to take part in a public discussion of potential candidates, send your suggestion to me at this address: jhammond@thestate.com

Keep in mind that we might publish your suggestion, with or without your name, as you wish.

Universities need big ideas to attract big donors

Twice recently, I've heard South Carolina university representatives comment on the need to have big ideas that attract big donors.
It seems people with multiple millions of dollars to invest in scholarships or programs that span generations want the program to be life-changing for more than just a few people.
Today, Pickens County developer Jim Anthony announced he'll give 355 acres of scenic mountain land and $10 million in cash to create a Teacher Renewal Center on the Keowee River. His idea is to refresh the passion of thousands of teachers for their craft.
Jorge Calzadilla, Executive Director of the Clemson University Youth Learning Institute, had a major role in developing Anthony's dream. Calzadilla said today, "Jim said, 'Jorge, you have to think big'."
Clemson President James Barker, who has driven development of the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research in Greenville, has never been accused of thinking small. He used Anthony's announcement as occasion to pooh-pooh traditional excuses why South Carolina cannot or should not have big dreams.
"I can't tell you how excited I am today," Barker said. "I can't tell you how many times I've heard people say, well, we're a small, poor state."
"After today, there's no reason to ever say that again," Barker said.
Clemson will be a partner with the South Carolina Department of Education to develop a program and operate the Teacher Renewal Center.
Anthony talked about the transformative power of a good school teacher.
"I think many of you would say that the reason you are here is because of a special teacher," Anthony said. "I don't know what would have happened to me if Mrs. Murphy had decided to quit the year before I was in her class."
Jim Anthony's big idea, nurtured by Jim Barker and  Jim Rex, is to  renew  those  teachers'  passion  so they'll go back to their classrooms and inspire more children.
Another man with a big idea was Robert C. McNair of Houston, Texas. He has put up $30 million to pay for a USC education for dozens of high-achieving students.
Michelle Dodenhoff, USC associate vice president for development, says big donors only give big money to big ideas.
"I’ve seen money left on the table because the donors were not asked for enough. The McNair scholars program was a big idea,” Dodenhoff said. “It is a transformative program. And that’s the kind of thing major donors are looking for.”
These are two lessons for South Carolina leaders about getting big donors to invest in our universities.

Houston's Robert McNair paves way for smart young people to become South Carolinians

Robert C. McNair believes it is good for South Carolina, and for his alma mater the University of South Carolina, to attract as many high-achieving students as possible to attend college here. He believes it so much that he gave USC $20 million to establish the McNair Scholars program for out-of-state students to attend the Columbia campus.

Many will get their education here and return to their home states. But some will settle here, become professionals, entrepreneurs, community leaders and good citizens. It is one piece of a multifaceted state effort to reverse a century-old brain-drain that has intellectually impoverished South Carolina. We have seen artists such as Dizzy Gillespie (of Cheraw), business and government leaders like Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke (of Dillon), and public servants such as National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell (of Greenville) leave the state because of the limited opportunities that existed for them here.

Today, the state is playing catch-up in creating opportunities with business, cultural and academic centers to rival those in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles or Atlanta. There has been progress. People travel from all over the world to attend the Spoleto Festival in Charleston. USC, Clemson, and MUSC are creating academic centers that will increase opportunities for rising scientific and academic stars to stay here and work. But these efforts are incomplete. And South Carolina no longer just competes with North Carolina and Georgia economically. In today's global economy, the competition extends to Korea, China and Japan.

Robert McNair grew up in Forest City, North Carolina. He earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of South Carolina in 1958. He is the founder of Cogen Technologies in Houston. His thoroughbred horse farm in Kentucky has produced winners of many major races.

A native of Tampa, Fla., McNair was awarded an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from the university in 1999. The founder, chairman and CEO of the NFL's Houston Texans, McNair is at the University of South Carolina this week to celebrate the 10^th anniversary of the McNair Scholars Program, which he and his wife, Janice, established in 1998 with a $20 million gift to the university.

McNair's gift helps the University of South Carolina attract some of the highest achieving high school graduates in the country to attend college here. The program not only produces future South Carolina citizens, but also helps build the university's growing reputation as a destination university for the nation's best and brightest students.

McNair will give a talk, titled "Bob McNair a la carte," at 2 p.m. Friday, Feb. 29, in the university's Russell House theater. His talk is free and open to the public.

 

Endowed Chairs, Success or Failure? You Decide.

    This week, House Speaker Bobby Harrell put his clout on the line when he asked House members to approve legislation to remove limits on future funding for the Centers of Economic Excellence, aka endowed chairs.

    Some members clearly would have rather spent the $30 million a year on something else. But they held their noses and voted as their leader urged them to vote.

    Gov. Mark Sanford had sought the previous day to stall Harrell's legislation, sending letters to members urging them to vote against it. The governor had described the program as a failure, and something that the state could not afford during a tight budget year.

    The House responded by approving Harrell's bill by a vote of 107 to Zero. It still must win support in the Senate to become law. Sanford is expected to veto it if it reaches his desk. Harrell, who sees the investment in research as an important legacy and economic necessity for the state, will be urging his allies in the Senate to make it veto-proof there as well.

    The endowed chairs, with $2 million to $5 million of lottery funds apiece, have so far attracted 15 world-class scientists who have agreed to move themselves, their research and their associates to South Carolina. Some bring with them lucrative research grants from corporations or the federal government. Their expertise ranges from automotive sciences to medicine. Clemson University, for example, says the $18 million awarded for endowed chairs at its International Center for Automotive Research has attracted another $200 million in research investment on the Greenville campus.

    Here are some of the people now living and working in South Carolina, heading up research teams that may one day spin off the successor companies for the likes of Microsoft, Exxon, or Boeing:

    Robert Adams, Medical University of South Carolina, CoEE Chair in Stroke. Specializes in stroke prevention and novel delivery of stroke care. Moved from Medical College of Georgia in Augusta.   

    Gary Aston-Jones, MUSC, Chair in Neuroscience. Studies brain function behind conditions such as attention deficit disorder and autism. Moved from University of Pennsylvania. Continuously funded by the National Istitutes of Health since 1983.

  Brian Benicewicz, University of South Carolina, Chair in Polymer Nanocomposites. Studies fuel cell membranes, and other polymer composties. Moved from director of New York State Center for Polymer Synthesis.   

    Todd H. Hubing, Clemson University, Chair in Vehicular Electronic Systems Integration. Studies compatibility of electronic systems in vehicles. Moved from University of Missouri-Rolla.

  Thomas R. Kurfess, Clemson, Chair in Manufacturing Integration. Studies precision systems, controls, automation, and robotics. Moved from Georgia Tech.   

    John J. Lemasters, MUSC, Chair in Advanced Technologies. Studies microscopy to examine cell reoxygenation, which is key to recover from heart attack or stroke. Moved from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

  Jay Moskowitz, USC, Chair in Clinical and Translational Research. Studies development and delivery of patient care, with the goal of improving both. Moved from the National Institutes of Health in Washington. 

     Miguel A. Pappolla, MUSC, Chair in Neuropathology. Studies methods to protect humans against aging and disease.

   Iain Sanderson, Chair in Medical Informatics. Studies methods for healthcare systems and universities to share data. Moved from Duke University Health System.

  John J. Schaefer, Chair for Patient Simulation and Research. Studies and develops patient simulators upon which medical staff can practice before attempting high-risk procedures on humans. Moved from Pittsburgh.   

    Charles D. Smith, MUSC, Chair in Pharmacy. Designs new drugs to fight cancer. Previously taught at Duke University and Penn State.

  Richard Swaja, MUSC, Chair in Regenerative Medicine. Studies ways to restore structure and function of damaged tissues and organs. Moved from Oak Ridge National Laboratory. 

  Kenneth Tew, MUSC, Chair in Cancer Research. Develops cancer drugs.

  Richard A. Webb, USC, Chair in Nanoelectronics. Studies computer electronics and information technology. Moved from the University of Maryland. 

  John Ziegert, Clemson, Chair in Automotive Design and Development. Designs instruments and machines for high-precision measurement and manufacturing. Has taught at University of Hawaii, Brown University, and California Institute of Technology.

  That's 15 who have accepted South Carolina's invitation to do great science here. Officials say that the $180 million already appropriated could one day support 50 such chairs.

   Success or failure? You decide...

The Legislature Giveth, & The Legislature Can Take Away

    South Carolina families had better get ready for state colleges to reach deeper into students' pockets to pay the cost of their education.

    Lottery profits are sagging, and within the next year or two, the General Assembly may put a cap on how much taxpayer money they are willing to add to the pot to keep college scholarship eligibility and awards at today's levels. When the lawmakers reach their limit, there are just two ways to limit the cost: either reduce the number of people who can get the scholarships, or reduce the amount of the individual grants.

    Then there is the looming economic downturn. Rep. Chip Limehouse, the chairman of the higher education subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee, warned college presidents this week to plan for budget cuts ranging from 5 percent to 10 percent in their spending plans for the financial year that will begin July 1, 2008. To illustrate the distance between the institutions and lawmakers on next year's state spending, both the University of South Carolina and Clemson University asked for $20 million additional dollars for operations next year.

South Carolina's Legislature has not been as generous to state colleges, or their students, in recent years as have other states. South Carolina already has the highest state college tuition in the region. For example, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, the average in-state undergraduate tuition and fees in Florida is $2,941, versus $7,337 in South Carolina.

South Carolina's state colleges have been raising their academic standards in recent years, and the public response has been more and better qualified students apply for admission. The institutions are going to guard their gains in academic reputation jealously. That also means protecting their budgets, which they see as a vital tool to continue improving their reputations. But someone must pay for those improvements. If state appropriations shrink, the only place they can go to make up the shortfall is the student body.

Unless the colleges and the General Assembly make an affordable college education a priority, the cost of attending a state college will remain the highest in the Southeast, and climb even higher.

Governor foreshadows curbs on college scholarships

          Gov. Mark Sanford's higher education budget, unveiled Monday, focused on his repeated admonitions that the 33 institutions need more centralized supervision and that they should curb duplication of services. He singled out Greenville Technical College's expansion to include campus residences for students as an example of mission creep for the institution.

        He said he would oppose a bond bill or appropriations for new university facilities in a year when belt-tightening is the order of the day.

        He proposed increases in funding for lottery-and-taxpayer funded scholarship programs to address the increasing demand for the LIFE, Palmetto, and Hope grants. But he offered the first official signal that the state government's willingness to fund the currently open-ended commitment to the state-funded grants may be near an end.

        His budget narrative proposed that "the overall scholarship program be re-evaluated to strengthen the qualifications for receipt of scholarship assistance."

        Such a move to raise the academic standards to receive a scholarship would shrink the pool of high school students who could qualify for a grant.

        From the beginning, the LIFE, Palmetto, Hope and other lottery funded scholarships also had taxpayer funds in the mix. Last year, it was estimated that taxpayer funds would for the first time exceed lottery profits as a source of the grants. Legislative leaders, including Senate Finance Committee Chairman Hugh Leatherman, have said it might be necessary to cap the taxpayer's cost of the program.

        Such a cap would require either reducing the number of people who receive the grants, or reducing the amounts of the individual grants.

     Sanford said he was not proposing any specific means of reducing the cost of the program, but he said open-ended entitlements such as this one inevitably outgrow the means of paying for them.

     The legislative process begins today as the General Assembly returns for its 2008 session. The House Ways and Means Committee begins this week to draft its own version of the budget. The Senate will then get a crack at it. The governor has a second bite at the apple with his line-item veto. And the General Assembly then has the opportunity to see if they can override the vetoes. By June, the new budget will be clear.

How high is the water, mama?

In his classic ballad about a country child experiencing a flood for the first time, the late Johnny Cash sings:

“How high is the water, mama?”

“Three feet high and risin’.”

South Carolina college students who either didn’t qualify for merit-based scholarships, nor for need-based funds allocated to the poorest families, must feel a little like that child in the Johnny Cash ballad. When is the tide of tuition increases going to stop?

Most stories that I write about the state’s flagship university (The University of South Carolina) and other state-assisted institutions bring questions from readers about the high and rising cost of a college education in South Carolina.

Those people who call me about the cost certainly feel the flood is up to their armpits -- and risin’.

Neighboring states manage to make a college education at state-assisted institutions much more affordable for their residents. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, for example, charges $5,340 annually in tuition for a North Carolina resident. But at Winthrop University, South Carolina’s most expensive state institution, South Carolina residents pay more than $10,000 per year in tuition. The difference, the institutions point out, is in the amount the legislatures of the two states appropriate to assist the universities in educating their young people.

South Carolina students who do not qualify for the lottery-funded LIFE scholarship pay the highest tuition in the Southeast at state-assisted institutions. Members of the General Assembly have it within their power to curb those rising costs, by providing more taxpayer subsidies to the colleges. Alumni and trustees can help hold down student costs by giving more private gifts.

Universities rest on a multi-legged stool for their financial support, from direct student fees, taxpayer funds from the General Assembly, private gifts, and federal grants. In recent years, the burden increasingly has been shifted to students and their families. And in South Carolina, many of those families struggle just to pay the rent, electric and grocery bills.

Questions:

Can South Carolina’s taxpayer-assisted colleges curb their appetite for ever-higher tuition and student fees? Will elected officials acknowledge their responsibility to South Carolina’s families to make a college education a reality for a more diverse pool of South Carolina children? Will those people whose college education has made them wealthy decide to give back to their alma-mater, as USC Trustee Darla Moore has done? The Lake City native’s $70 million in private gifts to USC’s School of Business has helped its international business program maintain a No. 1 ranking among public colleges.

South Carolina’s colleges and universities are experiencing record levels of interest in enrolling here. And that demand has allowed the schools to accomplish the hat trick of boosting enrollment while at the same time raising standards for admission. Maintaining those standards will require investment, by private donors and by South Carolina taxpayers. It cannot be done on the backs of students alone.

So how high is the water, mama? It threatens the future of many South Carolina children if they are priced out of a college education.

And it won’t only be the children whose futures are drowned. South Carolina’s economy will become waterlogged with undereducated workers. And businesses may find markets soaked with consumers with incomes too low to afford their goods and services.

We all must find ways to pay forward to the new generation if the American dream is to be realized here in South Carolina.

Semester's Over; It Was a Great Experience

I missed a few classes because of the demands of my work.

I failed a couple of daily tests.

But overall, my grades on the exams and research projects that I completed helped me see that I'm still up to facing the rigors of the classroom. And I learned a lot about the history of our state in the process.

I learned that the political culture we live in today has been shaped by the rebel culture that began with the Assembly in Charleston overthrowing the government of the Lords Proprietors in 1719. Their descendants did it again in 1776. And those people's grandsons again rebelled against an external government, this time in Washington, with disastrous consequences. The Civil War crippled an economy that had been the richest among the North American colonies, and set the black and white races against each other. We still live with the consequences of our ancestors' failure to end slavery with reconciliation and justice.

I learned about the rich heritage we have inherited from the mixing of Indian, African and European cultures, from language to the food we eat. We can even see it in the faces of many among us, those who are genetic heirs of more than one race. We have more in common than many South Carolinians have been willing to admit in the generations since Europeans first sailed into the Ashley River and began building a settlement there.

We are products of the collective experiences of our ancestors. The more one studies the history, the more one sees the truth in that old adage that those who forget their history are condemned to repeat it.

This ends the blog on Walter Edgar's South Carolina History course. Dr. Edgar said he enjoys having a few old-timers among his younger students.

But I'm going to keep this blog site active as a forum to talk about higher education issues in South Carolina.

Please stay tuned ...

Not the Age of Aquarius

The outcome of one of our recent tests was enough to drive Dr. Edgar to drink.

He had just been telling his wife what a good class he had this year. Then he graded a daily test on the Nullification and secession crisis that began in the 1830s and culminated in South Carolina leaving the union in 1860, setting off the disastrous Civil War.

As a class, more people did poorly than did well on the test. It was important material, setting the stage for perhaps the most important period in the state's history.

"After grading those tests, I got myself a double malt. I almost got a triple," Edgar said. "I almost brought in that old song 'the Age of Aquarius,' to play for you, because nothing was aligned for that test."

It's remarkable how a class that generally does well on exams can just crash on the same day, like a flock of geese following their leader into collision with a skyscraper.

As a consequence, we all got to take the same test over again. It was that important, he said, and we would see the material again on the final exam. With the semester rushing to conclusion, everyone is trying to calculate how these last few grades will affect the final grade. Since I'm not taking the course for credit, I have less at stake than most of my classmates. Some of them are scheduled to graduate this month. But I still have my pride and would like to make a good showing on the final exam.

The period between 1830 and 1860 saw white South Carolinians adopt a tougher line toward opponents of the ownership of black slaves. They appropriated money for the militia and started two military academies to train leaders (The Citadel in Charleston and the Arsenal in Columbia). They passed laws to monitor and harass people arriving in South Carolina who might be abolitionists. Their public statements about their "rights" to own slaves became much more belligerent. John C. Calhoun said that if South Carolina left the union, it would be over the issue of slavery. South Carolina had thumbed its nose toward federal authority before, by jailing black crew members of ships that docked at Charleston. Many did not believe they would have to defend a decision to leave the union on the battlefield. White South Carolinians were  about to be hit by a train wreck of history.

"We call them the antebellum (before the war) generation, but they did not know they were antebellum," Edgar said in his lecture on Tuesday. They could not see that they were descending into an abyss of war and destruction.

That reminded me of a scene in the film "Gladiator." A Roman general portrayed by the actor Russell Crowe is preparing for a battle against "barbarian" forces on the Roman frontier, a fight that the Romans fully expect to win. One of the general's aides asks, "Don't these people know they are going to lose this fight?"

Crowe looks at the officer, and responds with the question: "Would you?"

Words have consequences, and the rhetoric of the late 1850s in the South was increasingly bellicose. White planters feared the loss of their "way of life," meaning they feared the loss of their "property," their slaves. They lost far more in the conflagration that sprang from their actions.

Exams aid learning for some, frustrate others

    I look forward to receiving the graded tests we take in each class. I know that the response to any question I have answered incorrectly will be burned into my brain after Dr. Edgar reviews the test. I won't likely answer it incorrectly again. Getting it wrong once focuses the mind and helps me learn.

    But I know that's a minority view in the class. Most of my classmates have more at stake than I do. I'm not seeking academic credit for the course, just knowledge. I do not have at stake a LIFE scholarship, which requires students to maintain a B average in order to continue to receive the state grant. For seniors in the class, having a bad day on a major test could cost them a spot in the winter graduation next month.

    Testing is a necessary burden for degree-seeking students. But the system distorts the object of college life, and makes the grade the primary objective rather than the knowledge gained from the  experience. Dr. Edgar's grading system is about as fair and helpful to learning as it can be. He gives a 10-question quiz each class period. Over the course of the semester, the lowest five grades on the daily tests are discarded. If he sees that too many in the class are having trouble with a particular chapter, he will give another daily test on the same material to ensure that the students review it. He frequently emphasizes that this point, that trend, or another fact WILL be on a major, 50-question test. He goes over the questions and correct answers for all of the tests. Students have plenty of opportunity to know what they are expected to learn from the course.

    My frustration is with the institutional requirements, not Dr. Edgar's methods. I wish all the students could see an incorrect answer on a daily quiz as a learning aid, instead of a pitfall that could cost them a $5,000-a-year state scholarship.

    I have been more or less satisfied with my grades in the class. So far, I have not been guilty of not reading the material before a class. A couple of times the material didn't sink in, and I failed the daily tests twice. But most of my grades have been in the 80-100 range. This has been an experiment to see if I could still stand the rigors of the classroom. I believe that if I were retired and focused solely on the school work, I could do even better. But, it is also clear to me that even for an amateur historian and avid reader like myself, mastering the details of a university course can still be daunting.