[January 12, 2009]

Sanford's budget-cut proposal includes closing USC-Lancaster

(Herald, The (Rock Hill, SC) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Jan. 10--South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's $5.8 billion spending plan for next fiscal year would close three University of South Carolina campuses, including USC-Lancaster.

Losing the campus, a major employer, could hit the local economy hard, adding to Lancaster County's 12.2 percent unemployment rate. But that's unlikely, said S.C. Sen. Mick Mulvaney, whose district includes Lancaster County.

"I think it's a symbolic move on the governor's part," Mulvaney said. Sanford is making a point that he's made before, Mulvaney said, which is that higher education in South Carolina runs inefficiently.

"To single out USC-Lancaster, I think is an oversight," he said. The school is an example of one that runs efficiently, he said.

USC-Lancaster officials declined to comment Friday and directed questions to USC's Columbia office.

USC spokeswoman Margaret Lamb wrote in an e-mail that campus closings "must be weighed very carefully, given the enormous impact on students, faculty and staff, and on the (local) economies."

Students reacted to Sanford's proposal with a mix of surprise and bewilderment. Spring semester classes don't start until Monday, but a few people milled around campus late Friday afternoon.

"You close down this school, and Lancaster pretty much has nothing," said Michael Clark, a 19-year-old student from Great Falls.

Sanford released his budget Friday. Higher education would lose $32 million in a plan to consolidate two- and four-year college administration. The Republican governor also wants a two-day furlough for state workers, higher health insurance premiums for retirees and nearly $40 million in education spending cuts.

The Education Department cuts would include delaying textbook purchases for a year. Sanford said that would send more money to classrooms. The proposal comes on top of a nearly $165 million cut for the agency made last month.

The plan would restore some money cut this year from health programs for the poor.

USC-Lancaster opened in 1959 and has roughly 1,200 students from Lancaster, Chester, Chesterfield, Kershaw, Fairfield and York counties.

The campus runs a cooperative nursing program with York Technical College that trains registered nurses who have associate degrees and practical nurses who have diplomas.

Students said the college is important.

Clark works at a Food Lion store and takes afternoon and night courses at USC-L. He hopes to transfer to South Carolina's main campus in Columbia next year, where he'll study to become a physical education teacher and coach.

"For some people coming out of high school, their grades really aren't good enough to get into a major college right away," he said. "It's a great gateway."

Across campus, 19-year-old Kentez Montgomery manned the front desk at the school's health and wellness center, where students shot hoops and lifted weights.

"It's a good place to start," Montgomery said about the campus. "Being able to come here first, you get a sense of preparation for what's to come. Don't get me wrong, the classes here are hard just like USC."

Montgomery grew up in Lancaster's Westwood neighborhood and graduated from Lancaster High School at No. 15 in a class of about 470. A business finance major, he'd like to become an investment banker.

"I just wasn't ready for the big transition of leaving high school in a small town and going to a big college," he said.

Montgomery and others said the professors at USC-Lancaster help students get ready for the jump.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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Copyright (c) 2009, The Herald, Rock Hill, S.C.
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