Greenville Must Keep University Center

The Greenville News
Friday, January 23, 2009
VOICES
The Greenville New Editorial

The University Center of Greenville is fighting for its financial life. If this consortium of seven universities loses this battle, many people seeking advanced degrees may find higher education no longer within their reach. Then this community that is striving to increase the number of its residents with college degrees will suffer, too.

Gov. Mark Sanford's executive budget released earlier this month proposes to cut $301,000 in the University Center's recurring state funds for the fiscal year that will end in July. On its face this cut seems manageable and small in context of current state budget cuts of almost $1 billion and an upcoming budget likely to shrink by another $200 million to $300 million.

But if Sanford's proposal goes through, the University Center effectively will have lost its state funding. The Legislature has funding the University Center in large part through non-recurring funds since South Carolina began emerging in fiscal year 2005 from its economic problems of the first part of this decade. No one believes those non-recurring funds will be in the next year's budget as this state's economy continues its meltdown, and that leaves another $1.1 million hole in the Center's budget.

As Ben Haskew, chief executive officiser of the Greater Greenville Chamber of Commerce, told The Greenville News, "I think closing it would be catastrophic for Greenville. We are on a mssion to improve per capita income and transition to a new economy. Its all about education."

The University Center of Greenville was invented about 20 years ago as a remarkably creative way to provide access to public college programs to students in this area. Greenville is the largest city in the Southeast without a four-year public university. This amazing consortium helped plug a huge gap in this commmunity, and at a price tag far cheaper than building Greenville County its own public university.

Universities participating in this joint venture are Clemson, USC Upstate, Furman, the University of South Carolina, Lander, the Medical University of South Carolina and South Carolina State.

Those schools serve approximately 2,200 students; the average age is 34, and 80 percent of them are employed full-time. If the programs offered through the University Cneter ceased to exist, many of these working students would find it impossible to work on their advanced degrees.

There's a simple reason business and community leaders are focused on increasing the level of education in this county. Only about 25 percent of adults in Greenville County have a baccalaureate degree or higher, while about 40 percent do in cities considered our competition.

Higher Education is vital to improving the economic base of this county and the lives of the people in it.

The University Center already gets more than a half-million dollars of its funding from its member institutions and that's projected to increase to $650,000 in the next fiscal year. But with sharply declining budgets of their own, the seven colleges cannot be expected to completely pick up the slack.

A viable option is for the University Ceter to dip into its reserve fund of more than $1 million, and that would allow this higher education consortium to limp along for a couple of years. University Center officials also are doing what should be expected, and that's exploring the possibility of local government funds or private funds.

The University Center also should not be immune to the painful cuts taking place throughout higher education in this state. Center officials must look for ways to slash expenses with an eye on protecting programs offered at the McAlister Square campus.

Even in these difficult budget times, however, the University Center deserves a slice of state revenue. It should not be put on the road to destruction.