Claypool: Dorm builder EdR needs to work with Columbia, USC

Just over a year ago, the University of South Carolina’s alumni association started construction of our university’s first-ever alumni center. This private effort was designed to support students, reconnect alumni and build business in Columbia. Our Board of Governors made it a priority that we honor our neighbors and support our community.

We added doors to our delivery bay so that as you sit at Hickory Tavern, you don’t watch our back-of-house operations. We will ventilate our enclosed dumpster area from the ground level to the third floor roof to ensure that you can enjoy the Hilton pool without interference. We pointed our most hospitable areas — our front door and patio — toward the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center so we can support one another in bringing business to Columbia. We took these steps to be a good neighbor in our home town. We didn’t view these extras as cost burdens; we saw them simply as the right things to do.

We honored our local community, and 35 percent of our business partners are owned by women and minorities. We met frequently with local leaders to ensure we were doing our best to support the Columbia community. We listened to their input and adapted to their ideas.

Now, we are seeing the antithesis of our approach. EdR, an out-of-state developer/investment company, is looking to build a 15-story eyesore at the gates of our alma mater’s historic Horseshoe. To the leadership of EdR, I have a message. We worked with our community to benefit our university and our city. We have proven we can do both — and so can EdR. We can celebrate growth and honor the integrity of a decade-long planning process.

EdR needs to work with our university and community. It needs to quit trying to play one against the other. It needs prove it cares enough about our university and community to be entrusted with our most valuable trust — our students. Thanks to outstanding leaders, our university is on a steady rise in academic excellence. In partnership with our city’s leaders, we are growing a live-work-learn-play city center that is pushing Columbia’s reputation for livability and bringing new business to our community.

I invite EdR to become a good neighbor with us. If it can’t, I must stand with our students and alumni in support of our university to #SaveOurHorseshoe.

Executive Director, My Carolina Alumni Association

Columbia

This story was originally published June 30, 2015 at 7:10 PM.