Editorials from across South Carolina: Clemson protests, secret superintendent selection, terror detainees in Charleston

Clemson protests

(A)fter a student-led protest disbanded because the students said they were “unwilling to wait” for administrators to answer their complaints, (Clemson) university officials took a first step in that direction. … But to be more than that, there needs to be demonstrable progress on each of these issues by the time students return to campus in the fall. And students should be kept aware of what progress is being made and what efforts are being undertaken in each of these areas.

Notably absent from Clemson’s response was a pledge for the university’s Board of Trustees to discuss changing the name of Tillman Hall, one of the most prominent buildings on campus that is named for a man who left a stain on South Carolina’s history.

We understand that a state law exists that requires legislative approval of a name change to a building such as Tillman Hall. But that law does not prevent the Board of Trustees from having a public discussion on the issue, something it has thus far refused to do.

No doubt, simply changing the name would not end the problems on campus. But it would show students that the administration understands the problem and is willing to take difficult, public action that addresses those problems.

Secret superintendent

Who will be the next superintendent serving McCormick County’s public schools?

That’s a bit like watching a game show, such as “The Price is Right.” Do you want the candidate behind door No. 1, door No. 2 or door No. 3? Except in this case the option is among candidates A, B and C. No names, even though the names of the three being considered have already been publicized. …

The board should be forthright and tell the public who they offered the job to, and in more detail as to its reasoning. If for some reason that offer falls through, then the board should openly name who was next in the running and make an offer. This procedure allows the board to keep shrouded in mystery who its true front-runner is or was, and that’s doing a disservice to the voters and taxpayers.

School should teach students the ABCs, but the board should not reduce its selection of a new superintendent to a mystery A, B or C candidate until the ink is dry on a contract just to save itself some potential embarrassment.

Gitmo detainees

The Obama administration’s protracted push to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and move the terror suspects detained there to a U.S. population center has always been ludicrous at best, reckless at worst. Yet the president refuses to abandon that ill-advised quest, despite bipartisan congressional prohibitions on putting those prisoners anywhere in our nation.

So it was worth the trip to Capitol Hill for Gov. Nikki Haley to testify before the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Oversight and Management Efficiency on Thursday. She delivered another forceful reminder that South Carolina firmly rejects the folly of placing terror detainees at the Charleston Consolidated Naval Brig in Hanahan — a facility within a booming tri-county area that is now home to more than 720,000 people.

Yet the brig is one of the U.S. sites that the Defense Department, at the direction of the White House, has evaluated as a potential new home for terror suspects from Gitmo.

Gov. Haley told the subcommittee Thursday: “You could pay the state of South Carolina to host these terrorists, and we wouldn’t take them. For any amount of money.” …

Gov. Haley fairly stressed, too, that South Carolina — and Charleston — saw more than enough of the face of hate with last June’s mass murder at Charleston’s Mother Emanuel AME Church.

This story was originally published May 2, 2016 at 1:47 PM.