With dwindling public financial support, the University of South Carolina is making a priority of convincing South Carolina lawmakers to end “arbitrary” college funding and give more money to schools that educate a larger number of in-state students, President Harris Pastides said in his annual state of the university address Wednesday.

Pastides said he looks forward to stating USC’s case at a higher education summit called by Gov. Nikki Haley next month.

The head of South Carolina’s flagship university pushed a measure to base college funding on enrollment, institutional awards and financial stability in the General Assembly this year. By those measures, USC would win a larger chunk of money distributed in the state budget.

“We are nearing a perfect storm for higher education -- high tuition, high debt loads, poor state funding, limited financial aid,” Pastides said speaking on the USC Horseshoe. “At what point will South Carolina take a look at the hard issue of looking at how institutions are fulfilling their mission of educating South Carolinians and rewarding those that do a good job? … This may be our last chance for reform.”

Pastides also touted the school's recent academic and athletic successes in his speech and welcomed USC's new branding campaign featuring the slogan "No Limits" and the tail feathers of the Gamecock logo.