Grant resigns from S.C. State board

South Carolina State University trustee Anthony Grant resigned Thursday, saying he wants to leave on his own terms as lawmakers continue to discuss removing the entire board.

“Our state leaders are saying, ‘We’ll be willing to do what’s necessary, we just don’t want you all to be a part of it,’” Grant said during Thursday’s board meeting.

That’s all right with him as long as it’s for the betterment of S.C. State, he said. At the end of the meeting, Grant read a letter saying he was resigning effective immediately.

Grant joined the board for the second time in 2011. During his first period on the board, he served as chairman when trustees ousted President Dr. Barbara Hatton in 1995 and named Dr. Leroy Davis president in 1996.

During their meeting, trustees discussed efforts to help the institution deal with a $17 million deficit, including a $6 million state loan.

Trustee Dr. William Small Jr. said too many employees have been laid off and too many programs cut at the university. South Carolina’s lawmakers need to talk about how cuts in spending will affect S.C. State’s mission, he said.

“How much are we expected to devalue ourselves – to erode ourselves in the means of correcting ourselves?” he said. “We have gone far enough in marginalizing this institution.”

Small made a motion, “that we don’t make any more cuts in programs, in staff, in any reduction of the assets of this institution until we have a conversation about the future.”

The motion was not seconded.

Several trustees said they felt the board has been blamed unfairly for the school’s financial woes.

Trustee Dr. John Corbitt said no one in Columbia “wants to talk with us.”

The board is a scapegoat for the university’s problems, he said.

Grant agreed, “whether you want to call it a scapegoat or a sacrificial lamb.”

Small said he’d tell legislators who won’t talk with the board, “that’s fine. Take it from this point on, but don’t expect us to continue to do the cutting in this manner.”

In other business, Acting President Dr. W. Franklin Evans gave trustees a report on a recent visit by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. The institution is on probation with the accrediting body for issues related to governance and finance.

Evans said that while the S.C. State’s financial problems are still a concern, he believes the university has shown it is in compliance with guidelines for governance and organizational structure.

“It seems as though we’re moving in the right direction,” he said.

A five-member team from the university will be meeting with SACS on June 8, Evans said. If the state legislature gives the university more money before June 8, that could be reported to SACS.

SACS will come to a decision about S.C. State’s status after the June meeting, he said.

The accrediting agency could decide that “everything is wonderful at the university and remove probation or it could also extend probation for another six or 12 months,” Evans said.

“What we don’t want them is to say, ‘No, you’ve not done it,’” he said. All three of those options are possible.

Auditor Stathis Poulos of the firm BDO told the board the university has received a clean audit for 2014. The agency found that S.C. State’s accounting methods and financial reporting complied with government standards.

Poulos also told trustees that while the audit showed some areas of weakness, it showed improvement in others.

One weak spot was understaffing in areas such as finance, financial aid and grants and contracts.

Poulos also reported that the S.C. State University Advancement Foundation submitted its financial statements this year. For some years, the foundation has failed to turn the documents in on time.

Trustees met in closed session for almost six hours to discuss contractual matters, personnel issues and receive legal advice.

When trustees opened the meeting back up to the public, they unanimously approved a memorandum of agreement with the S.C. State Real Estate Foundation. The university did not immediately provide a copy of the agreement, saying changes had to be made.

Though the agenda included a vote on a similar agreement with the S.C. State University Foundation, the issue did not come up.

The board also voted unanimously to hire the law firm of Childs and Halligan to represent it in former President Thomas Elzey’s lawsuit. He sued after the board fired him in March.

Ken Childs has represented the board since last June.

Additionally, the trustees unanimously voted to confer a doctor’s degree on commencement speaker U.S. Sen. Tim Scott.

This story was originally published April 23, 2015 at 10:34 PM with the headline "Grant resigns from S.C. State board."