TheState.com: Education

Meals, housing increase college burden

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 21:46 EDT

Tuition increases generate headlines and are mentioned in newscasts.

But the cost of meal plans and housing at the state’s largest public colleges has risen faster than tuition over the past four years, adding to the already heavy financial burden of paying for higher education in South Carolina.

Meal plans, in particular, have dramatically risen in cost.

Seniors at Clemson and the College of Charleston this fall will pay 30 percent more for the least expensive meal plan available compared with what they paid if they chose the cheapest food plan as freshmen.

The cheapest meal plan at the University of South Carolina’s Columbia campus is nearly 18 percent more this fall compared with the least expensive food plan option at the school four years ago.

USC names Amiridis provost

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 21:46 EDT

Michael Amiridis, dean of USC’s College of Engineering and Computing, has been named vice president for academic affairs and provost, the school said.

William “Ted” Moore had been interim provost since January, after Mark Becker left to become president of Georgia State University. Moore will become chief financial officer and vice president for finance.

Amiridis, who joined USC in 1994 as an assistant professor, was named vice president for academic affairs and provost after the school conducted a two-month internal search.

“When I first arrived at the University of South Carolina 15 years ago, I could never have imagined as an assistant professor that I would reach the provost’s position one day,” he said.

Amiridis has been credited with helping the engineering and computing college boost its enrollment by more than 25 percent over the past three years, creating new academic programs in biomedical engineering, engineering science and nuclear engineering.

College of Charleston spearheading project

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 21:46 EDT

The College of Charleston is working to build a digital library with more than 50,000 items drawn from Lowcountry archives.

The Medical University of South Carolina, the Gibbes Museum of Art, the Historic Charleston Foundation, the Beaufort County Library, The Citadel and the Charleston County Public Library are working with the college on the project.

“This is an important and ambitious project that allows for the sharing of priceless historical documents through the use of cutting-edge technology,” Charleston president P. George Benson said. “I’m pleased that the College of Charleston is spearheading this effort.”

A $305,000 grant from the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation will allow the project, called the Lowcountry Digital Library, to grow from its current 7,000 images to 50,000 over the next three years.

— Wayne Washington

Lexington 3 schools, offices close next week

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:12 EDT

Lexington 3 schools and offices in Batesburg-Leesville will be closed July 6-9 because of staff furloughs to reduce expenses.

The offices also will be closed Friday, July 10, since school employees switch to a four-day work week in summer.

• Prosecutors’ group honors Rep. Spratt

ROCK HILL — U.S. Rep. John Spratt is getting an award from a national group of prosecutors.

The National District Attorneys Association cited the Democrat’s efforts to help prosecutors and public defenders.

Federal funds to add, save teaching jobs

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:33 EDT

The Lexington 1 school board adopted a $175.2 million spending plan Tuesday that adds seven teachers.

The plan relies on federal stimulus aid to hire the new teachers as well as to retain 26 others initially slated for elimination.

• Judge won’t reconsider Brown estate ruling

BAMBERG — A South Carolina judge has denied a request to reconsider a court-approved settlement agreement over how to parcel out James Brown’s wealth.

Law clerk Carra Henderson said Judge Jack Early ruled Tuesday that his previous decision approving the settlement would stand, but has not filed an official order.

Benedict College appoints trustees

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 22:16 EDT

Benedict College added some corporate and political heft to its board of trustees at a recent meeting, appointing Chuck Beaman Jr. and Steve Benjamin as new members.

Che Sutton, a senior biology major, was appointed to a one-year term as a student trustee.

Beaman, president and chief executive officer of Palmetto Health, has worked in the health care field in South Carolina for 36 years. He has served as president of Palmetto Health since 2007.

Benjamin is a partner at the law firm of McAngus, Goudelock and Courier in Columbia. He served as director of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services during the administration of former Gov. Jim Hodges.

Benjamin won the Democratic nomination in his ultimately unsuccessful 2002 quest to become attorney general in South Carolina. He has been mentioned as a possible candidate for mayor of Columbia.

2 Anderson University students honored

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 22:42 EDT

Two Anderson University students won awards at a national competition for graphic designers.

Savannah Springer and Stephanie Wilson won “Addy” awards at a competition in Arlington, Va. The awards are the first national awards in that field for Anderson.

The Addy Awards are held each year by the American Advertising Federation to honor the best work in design and advertising across the country.

“The recent National Addy Awards were selected from the cream of the crop of the entire nation,” said Timothy Speaker, an assistant professor of art who teaches graphic design at Anderson. “I am proud to announce that not only did an AU student emerge victorious, but AU was the only school to receive multiple awards. Once again, this is a tribute to our fine students and diligent faculty in the graphic design and fine arts program.”

• New film collections leader named

Claflin raising goals, lifting hopes

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 23:25 EDT

ORANGEBURG — There is a military spotlessness to the Post-It-note small campus at Claflin University.

Grass is cut just so. Trash, not even cigarette butts, is nowhere to be seen.

Landscaping and maintenance crews keep Claflin clean, but pride in a spiffy campus started elsewhere — with President Henry Tisdale, whose 15-year tenure has seen the school attract more accomplished students, fatten its endowment, renovate buildings and improve its graduation rates to levels that far exceed those at most other historically black colleges and universities.

One magazine rates it the best historically black college in the nation.

Verlie Tisdale, who is distantly related by marriage to the president and serves as dean of the university’s School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, said President Tisdale made it clear he would be involved in all aspects of the university.

MUSC names chief of cardiothoracic surgery

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 23:02 EDT

CHARLESTON — The Medical University of South Carolina soon will have a new chief of cardiothoracic surgery.

Respected heart surgeon Fred Crawford is stepping down from the post he has held for 30 years, and John Ikonomidis will take over Wednesday.

Cardiothoracic surgery includes heart transplants and other procedures of the heart and chest.

The division is housed in the university’s Heart and Vascular Center in the Ashley River Tower.

Ikonomidis is a professor of cardiothoracic surgery at MUSC and the surgical director of the heart transplant program.

Charter school planner is confident

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 07:00 EDT

It will likely be another two weeks before organizers of a Richland 2 charter school learn whether they will gain state approval to proceed with the proposed elementary school.

But a top organizer of Hope Academy Charter School said Wednesday he is “100 percent confident” the school will be certified.

The S.C. Charter Schools Advisory Committee on Tuesday gave the leaders of the school seven days to provide additional information about its plan to open in northeast Richland County, said Joel Medley, charter magnets associate for the S.C. Department of Education.

A three-member panel “is going to look at that information and make a recommendation to the full committee and then there will be a vote to certify it as legally compliant or not,” he said.

The Rev. Michael Letts, who led the petition drive for the charter, said the changes requested were mainly procedural and could be handled easily.

A school ahead of its time

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:46 EDT

An exhibit opening Friday allows a glimpse into the lives of young women who came to Columbia at the turn of the last century to earn college degrees and develop careers.

An upstairs room at the Hampton-Preston Mansion downtown replicates a dormitory room from 1915.

At the time, the mansion had been converted into Chicora College for Women, a four-acre campus where hundreds of women studied not just art and music, but physics, chemistry and business, curator John Sherrer said.

Course work — along with physical education that produced a competitive basketball team — reflected a cultural shift from the old “finishing school” concept to preparing women for the business world.

“It was very forward-thinking for a Southern women’s college,” said Sherrer, director of collections and interpretation for the Historic Columbia Foundation.

Layoffs will continue despite aid, Rex says

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 07:00 EDT

MYRTLE BEACH — Stabilization funds amounting to $185 million will start flowing July 1, helping to ease, but not resolve, a state budget decrease of $500 million, State Superintendent of Education Jim Rex said on Wednesday.

“We’re going to see some improvement for a difficult situation,” Rex said at an annual event sponsored by the S.C. Association of School Administrators. “But we’ll still have cuts; we’ll still have layoffs.”

The funds will save about 500 teaching jobs and can be used on after-school programs, materials and instructional aids.

Instead of this “State of the Schools” update being a formal speech only for conference attendees as in years past, it took the form of an interview with anchor Judi Gatson from WIS in Columbia before an audience of about 800 school principals at the Embassy Suites at Kingston Plantation.

Rex answered questions from Gatson, from a live streaming online chat and from a few members of the audience.

Richland 1 approves budget

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 06:51 EDT

The Richland 1 school board Tuesday night approved a $238.4 million budget for the 2009-10 academic year.

The document, which comes in $9.5 million below the 2009-09 budget, reflects the addition of $5 million in federal stimulus funds. That money will build back the general fund shortfall, provide for more SmartBoards and other technology and help with financing additional kindergartens and staffing, Richland 1 budget director Edward Carlon said.

But even with those additional federal dollars, superintendent Percy Mack expressed caution about the economy and future budgeting cycles.

“We’re looking two years out,” when the stimulus money will end and the economy may still have not recovered, he said.

Mack said he still does not have a firm figure on the total number of teacher reductions the district will face in the budget year, although he knows there will be fewer teachers in the ranks compared to the current academic year.

Charter school in Richland 2 faces key test

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:57 EDT

A state Department of Education advisory committee will decide today if a group of Richland 2 parents may proceed with plans for a public charter elementary school that would initially serve about 220 students.

The Hope Academy Charter School, which would operate as a K-5 year-round school, is the second charter proposed in the Richland 2 district. Under state law, the Richland 2 school board will have the final say.

In a district known for its extensive magnet programs, “I tell parents it will give them another viable choice,” said the Rev. Michael Letts, who is leading the drive to gain parent and community support.

Earlier this month, the 11-member S.C. Charter School Advisory Committee certified the Richland 2 Charter High School, which will serve 80 nontraditional students beginning in the summer of 2010.

That school, which will operate from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., was advocated by former Richland 2 board chairman Robert Dozier. It will be housed on the campus of W.R. Rogers Adult, Continuing & Technology Education Center.

Lexington-Richland 5 staff cuts reduced

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:57 EDT

The Lexington-Richland 5 school board on Monday approved a $141.9 million spending plan that retains about 70 of 84 staff jobs slated for elimination.

Addition of $4.5 million in stimulus aid averted more layoffs in Irmo-Chapin area schools, officials said.

Unpaid days off for teachers and staff also are on hold.

Photo feature: Outdoor performance at USC

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 00:49 EDT

The Palmetto Concert Band, a group of professional and semiprofessional musicians from South Carolina, performs a free ‘Concert in the Park’ at USC’s Horseshoe on Sunday. The concert featured marches, patriotic music and classical selections. Hundreds of spectators brought blankets and lounge chairs and picnicked.

See more photos from the concert at our photo gallery.

Colleges announce tuition increases

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 22:21 EDT

State supported S.C. colleges have begun making decisions on tuition and fees for the 2009-10 academic year.

A down economy prompted lawmakers to cut higher education funding by roughly one-fourth this year. Tuition, the only revenue stream colleges control, has been rising.

But colleges, mindful of the tough economy, kept the increases modest.

Here is what students will pay in the fall. (Fall tuition for Lander and Winthrop universities, both state-supported schools, has not been set.)

• S.C. State, up 8.4 percent to $8,460

S.C. student going to national Braille finals

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 22:21 EDT

A South Carolina student will compete in the National Braille Challenge Finals in Los Angeles this weekend.

State officials say Charleston School of Arts 10th-grader Brianna Murray is the only student in South Carolina to ever make it to the national competition.

The two-stage competition includes tests on interpreting Braille graphs and charts, Braille reading speed and comprehension and proofreading Braille text. Just 12 students in Murray’s age group nationwide were selected to participate in the finals.

Staff writers Lee Higgins and Noelle Phillips and The Associated Press contributed.

Stimulus funds let schools cut cutbacks

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 22:06 EDT

Two of the Midlands’ top-rated school districts are using stimulus aid to undo nearly all of the 120 job cuts settled on six weeks ago — and, in one, even add 10 teachers.

Lexington-Richland 5 is preparing to retain about 70 of 84 support staff as part of a plan to use $4.5 million in federal help immediately, officials said Friday.

But it still will eliminate 62 teaching positions — mainly in elementary and middle schools — as a result of what its leaders consider overstaffing.

The aid use plan, awaiting school board approval Monday, would save such initiatives as literacy coaches, which educators call a valuable supplement to what is taught in classrooms.

“We are doing the prudent thing, using half the money to keep things considered important needs for students and putting away half for a (financial) rainy day,” superintendent Herbert Berg said.

NIH money fuels expansion of Winthrop science research

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 07:40 EDT

While much of Winthrop University's campus quiets down during the summer, the Sims Science Building bustles with students and faculty focused on intensive research into some of society's most complex diseases.

In a room on the third floor, senior Lyndsey Powell analyzes slides under a microscope, gathering data about a protein that's been linked to Alzheimer's disease.

Down the hall, seniors Lee Varnedoe and Joshua McClellan experiment with disodium salt and palladium. They're working on new ways to make medicines.

The students' work is funded by the National Institutes of Health, which recently awarded Winthrop a $442,000 grant. The money is part of a five-year cash infusion under the Idea Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence program, created to expand scientific research at undergraduate and research universities in states that haven't received significant government money for science.

Boosting the caliber