S.C. State's new president has a vision and a plan for the future
S.C. State's new president has a vision and a plan for the future
By NINA BROOK
Associate Editor
SOUTH CAROLINA State University President Andrew Hugine recently did a couple of those small things that set you at ease about a person and his leadership ability. As he concluded a meeting with the editorial board last week, he asked us to come visit him in Orangeburg. I think he really means it.
OK, I'll admit that only journalists are laughing at that last line. But trust me, if you're one of us, the invitation is a breath of fresh air and more. Because for a number of years, through a number of examples of upheaval and woe, South Carolina State's administration - whichever administration - had one response: Roll up the drawbridge and stop talking. Dr. Hugine and his vice president for institutional advancement, Mechelle English, promised a different approach, one that is open and accountable.
Dr. Hugine also offered a small nod toward the future and the emergence of technology in higher education. He gave us his biography, inaugural address and other pertinent information about S.C. State on a nifty, credit-card sized CD. I know these have got to be the wave of the future, because the only other one I've ever been given was from a high school student promoting her school. At least Dr. Hugine understands the marketplace he is competing in for students.
Again, those are small things and, at least on some level, symbolic ones. But our deeper discussion with Dr. Hugine, along with his actions since being named to the post in May, offer encouragement about S.C. State's future.
There are some serious issues he must work to address. Legislators, through their funding decisions, have neglected the physical plant at S.C. State. That hampers the school in offering a 21st century education. And of greater concern for parents, there have been serious health and safety issues in the dorms. State Sen. Kay Patterson, who received his master's in education from S.C. State, pronounced a dorm that his grandson lived in unfit for human habitation.
S.C. State has suffered from a lack of private capital to augment those state resources. Its endowment stands today at less that $5 million.
The school recently weathered a storm over financial controls, when the head of procurement was charged with misusing more than $10,000 of the school's money.
Dr. Hugine, who was formally inaugurated in February, is working to address the school's weak points.
This summer, S.C. State is scheduled to break ground on new student residences, the first such construction in more than a decade. The public-private partnership is building an apartment-style structure, the type of living arrangement that many colleges are moving to in response to student demand.
The school has begun an effort seeking to get each of its graduates to donate $10 a month for the endowment. A regular infusion of donations like that could provide the spade work to begin a major capital campaign in the future.
Dr. Hugine hopes to boost S.C. State's enrollment over the next decade from the present 4,500 to 8,000. However, that doesn't mean scooping up just any student, anywhere. Dr. Hugine proposes a strategic route to help develop and attract more students into some specific disciplines with potential for future growth.
Through its land-grant mission, S.C. State is charged with economic and community development. That can include things such as assistance to struggling school districts in rural areas, a service that could net S.C. State more college-ready students.
In addition, Dr. Hugine has restructured academic programs at the university, moving from five to three undergraduate schools. He believes that will save money, as well as help the school offer the right type of programs to help attract students and place graduates.
S.C. State also offers unique programs designed to help increase the pool of minorities working in science and technology, with nuclear engineering and transportation programs that are not available anywhere else in the state.
One thing that S.C. State has long had in its favor is a number of highly successful graduates working at the tops of their fields in South Carolina and around the country. The school now plans to tap that expertise more regularly, by recruiting and maintaining a board of visitors.
Dr. Hugine titled his inaugural address, "Embracing our legacy and building our future through excellence." In it, he returned often to the refrain, "why not," drawn from Robert F. Kennedy's oft-quoted dream of achieving worthwhile things that have long been denied.
Dr. Hugine's why-nots include such things as a $10 million-plus endowment, educational programs worthy of the 21st century and prosperity for those living in the bottom tier of South Carolina's economy.
If Dr. Hugine's execution proves as well-crafted as his vision and his plan for his school, there is no reason he cannot achieve those lofty goals, and more.
Reach Ms. Brook at (803) 771-8458 or nbrook@thestate.com.