President pledges to avoid unnecessary tuition hikes
USC President Harris Pastides wants state legislators to reform a funding process that he said largely ignores the number of students a university educates and the quality of that education when allotting money.
On a cool Wednesday morning, while the impending rain held off, Pastides used his state of the university address to forecast a “perfect storm for higher education.”
“High tuition, high debt loads, poor state funding, limited financial aid,” Pastides rattled off. “At what point will South Carolina take on the hard issue of looking at how institutions are fulfilling their mission of educating South Carolinians and rewarding those that do a good job?”
The issue, which Pastides said he looks forward to discussing with state leaders at Gov. Nikki Haley’s higher education summit next month, followed the list of efforts USC is undertaking to bring a college degree to more South Carolinians than ever before. Among them: online courses through its Back to Carolina and Palmetto College initiatives; the Gamecock Gateway program, which allows students who just missed the cut to transfer in from Midlands Tech in their sophomore year; and the Gamecock Guarantee, which subsidizes expenses to allow students from low-income families to attend the university.
Pastides boasted about what was, this year, USC’s lowest tuition increase since 1999 and the lowest increase among all SEC public institutions. South Carolina’s tuition is still the highest among those universities, but he renewed last year’s pledge not to increase it unnecessarily, to be “conservative and restrained when planning for next year’s cost of attendance.”
With a reiteration of Provost Michael Amiridis’s plan to combine the Summer I and II terms into a third semester — in which students could take a full course load and open themselves up to early graduation and more flexibility in their college careers — Pastides painted a picture of a university doing all it can to make higher education a viable option for all state residents.
“Our USC system awards more baccalaureate degrees than all private institutions in the state combined and accounts for nearly half of all the baccalaureate degrees awarded by public universities,” Pastides said. “Still, we can’t be complacent. We must do more.”
Student Body President Kenny Tracy said he thought that the message would resound particularly within the student body.
“He made a point to clarify his stance on higher ed funding,” Tracy said. “We’re working to drive the cost of higher ed down, and to have a president who is committed to that is a good thing for students.”
After welcoming the 120 new faculty hired this fall — all told, 315 are set to join USC by 2015 — Pastides brought up this year’s 3 percent faculty raises. He said he knows the raises are “not enough,” after promising to consider “more significant” increases last year when the university’s 2011 bonus plan received the same complaint from faculty.
“I will continue to seek additional increases that are more in line with the rising cost of living that everyone faces,” he pledged.
Throughout the speech, the president weaved references to the university’s new unified marketing campaign, “No Limits,” and recognized several students and faculty whose individual stories he said epitomized the spirit of the campaign.
The festivities involved the usual refreshments, raffle, Cocktails a cappella performance and Gamecock decor. The marching band entered with a booming performance that rang out across the Horseshoe, but members silently filed out during the speech; they were gone by the time Pastides finished talking.