Harris Pastides: S.C.’s flagship university aims to be bigger, better
Op/Ed by USC President Harris Pastides originally published in The State
South Carolina’s public schools got some well-earned recognition this week from Education Week for raising graduation rates over a 10-year period, from last in the nation to 37th. While that’s not where we want to be, or where we need to be, it’s real progress worth celebrating.
More high school graduates means more young people are ready to take the next step in their own educational development and our state’s growth. The University of South Carolina is fully committed to providing them with that opportunity.
This year, the university received a record number of applications, and we expect to welcome one of the largest freshman classes ever. One reason that growth may occur is that we have resolved to do something about the spiraling rise in tuition.
The numbers facing us would lead an objective observer to expect a huge tuition increase: The USC system has lost $55 million in state budget cuts over the past year, and the university now receives the same amount in state funding it received in 1973, 36 years ago, adjusted for inflation. Whereas previously state support was the mainstay of the university, state appropriations now make up only 16.3 percent of the total system budget.
We are certainly not complaining about the support from our General Assembly, which is struggling with horrific setbacks in revenues. We are deeply grateful in particular to the principled stand and political risk that House and Senate leaders took in making sure our state received its share of federal stimulus funds.
Still, the $29 million in stimulus USC is slated to receive in the coming fiscal year cannot make up for $55 million in cuts since last July. Stimulus dollars are not recurring and should be used for one-time needs, not the basic operating budget that state funding has traditionally supported. Stimulus funds will be used for unique initiatives in our Focus Carolina planning process, for single-shot targets of opportunity that only come once in a lifetime.
The Focus Carolina strategic plan is the product of hard work by hundreds of faculty, students, staff and alumni and would be completely unfunded without the stimulus. Further, we will have an internal competition to make sure stimulus dollars flow to the very best one-time ideas, ones that will advance the university’s mission of serving South Carolina in ways that would otherwise have been unfeasible.
Stimulus funding can free recurring funds that otherwise would go toward one-time items. That helps to reduce, but by no means eliminates, pressure on tuition. Nevertheless, the university’s administration and trustees were determined to do everything possible to keep tuition down and to keep a college education accessible to the growing number of high school graduates with whom our state is blessed.
We are limiting tuition to the changes in the Higher Education Price Index, which currently shows average college costs rising at 3.6 percent a year. It’s our smallest increase since 2001. HEPI is essentially the rate of inflation. Our tuition increase of $159 per semester for in-state undergraduates at the Columbia campus will bring in $7.74 million for recurring needs such as paying professors and supporting and advising our students. To deal with the full $55 million in budget cuts, we have closed hundreds of class sections, and many positions have been eliminated. We will not, however, reduce the ability of any student to graduate on time or to achieve degree objectives.
Our state’s future is at stake, and at the University for South Carolina, we are determined to do our part to make that future brighter than our past. Public colleges and universities often debate whether to be bigger or better — to open the doors to more students, or to excel in creating new knowledge. Our flagship university must do both.
We are accomplishing the better: We are one of only 23 public universities in the nation to receive the Carnegie Foundation’s highest ranking in both research and service to their communities.
In the past five years, our faculty have created 25 new technology companies. The university ranks 19th out of 155 research universities nationally in the number of start-ups created, tied with Johns Hopkins, Cornell and Northwestern.
One reason South Carolina lags behind much of the nation in income is that we rank 43rd in the nation in the number of adults with a college degree — only 23 percent. If South Carolina increased the college education rate to 30 percent by the year 2030, we would rank 14th in the nation, using today’s data. Is that a bold goal? Absolutely. But it’s the right one.
In 1801, our state’s leaders had the vision to establish one of the first public colleges in this country. Today, we award nearly half of all the baccalaureate, masters, doctoral and professional degrees conferred by public institutions in South Carolina.
We are determined to do more, because that’s what our state needs for us to do. Keeping our tuition to the inflation rate is one way — and a major way —we are keeping our compact with the people of South Carolina.
Dr. Pastides is president of the University of South Carolina system, with eight campuses and more than 41,000 students.