Lawmakers divided over how to remove SC State board
The current S.C. State University board continues to work as the S.C. House and Senate remain divided on how to replace trustees at the financially struggling school.
While bills to oust the board have stalled, S.C. State’s trustees Monday approved a three-year, $20 million fundraising campaign. Last month, those same trustees fired President Thomas Elzey.
South Carolina State’s trustees will continue to help the school in its fight to keep its accreditation, which will be reviewed this month, board Chairman William Small said.
The fundraising campaign is part of the effort in addressing the school’s $17 million deficit, he said. “It shows we’re not waiting for the bell to ring so we can go home.”
Lawmakers agree they want to send Small and S.C. State’s nine other trustees packing ahead of its accreditation review. But they cannot agree on how to pick their five temporary replacements.
The Senate sent a bill to the House March 5 that would have the temporary trustees selected by Gov. Nikki Haley and legislative leaders.
The House sent a bill to the Senate on March 19 that would have the temporary replacements selected by the five members of the S.C.State Budget and Control Board, a group of elected officials led by Haley.
Both proposals are sitting in committees while legislators take time off around the Easter holiday. The House and Senate do not return together until April 14, the same day an accreditation review team arrives at S.C. State.
A state senator said Tuesday he was hopeful the House would adopt the Senate’s version of the trustee bill.
“I don’t know why it’s taken so long,” said Sen. Darrell Jackson, D-Richland. “We should have done it before the (Easter) break.”
But House leaders said they won’t adopt the Senate proposal. That means lengthening the debate over the trustees issue, adding negotiation in a House-Senate conference committee.
“We’re waiting for the Senate,” said House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Brian White, R-Anderson.
House and Senate leaders said they are concerned delays in replacing the board could hurt S.C. State’s accreditation review. Students at unaccredited schools cannot get federal financial aid. More than eight in 10 students at the state’s only historically black public college receive aid.
The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges placed the school’s accreditation on probation last year, citing concerns about its finances and governance. After the accreditation review team visits the Orangeburg campus from April 14-16, a commission vote is planned in June.
Lawmakers want to show accreditors they have a plan to turn around S.C. State, including having a new board in place by the June vote.
The fuss over the trustees does not matter much to accreditors, a commission leader said Tuesday.
“We just want to know that they have an independent board running the school,” commission President Belle Wheelan said.
S.C. State furloughs pass
Gov. Nikki Haley has a bill before her that would allow S.C. State University to furlough its employees for up to 20 work days in each of the next two years.
The S.C. Senate gave final approval to the bill Tuesday, a move intended to help the financially struggling school save money.
The school is not expected to make its nearly 700 employees take 20 days off before the state’s current fiscal year ends June 30. But S.C. State leaders could ask workers to take unpaid leave for a shorter period.
Andrew Shain
This story was originally published March 31, 2015 at 8:27 PM with the headline "Lawmakers divided over how to remove SC State board."