Last week, University of South Carolina President Harris Pastides sent an email to alumni and members of the USC community bracing them for cuts in state funding of higher education currently being considered by the South Carolina House of Representatives. The “Budget Message” email, sent on March 2, emphasizes not only the extent of anticipated cuts but also the effect of earlier cuts.

USC President Harris Pastides. File photo.

“We face a new 21 percent cut in state funding, in addition to the 32 percent cut we have experienced since July 2008,” Pastides wrote. “Therefore, by July of 2010 our cumulative cut would be 46 percent ($103 million) for the University system, and state funding would make up approximately 12.5 percent of our total budget.”

USC Chief Financial Officer Ted Moore elaborates on Pastides’ statements.

“The [pending House] bill calls for, in round numbers, $32.7 million in cuts for the USC system,” Moore says. “This will include about $27 million for USC-Columbia and medical school combined.”

While the current budget proposal has only recently cleared the House Ways and Means Committee and won’t go to the House floor for debate until March 15, the figures cited by Pastides and Moore are essentially in line with the cuts being discussed in the Legislature.

State Rep. Joe Neal (D-Richland & Sumter), who sits on the House Ways and Means Higher Education subcommittee, says that all state agencies will undergo cuts this year, but acknowledges the severity of the proposed cuts to higher education.

“When you look at the last two years, higher ed has taken a pretty hefty cut to date,” Neal says.

Still, he says, the cuts have to come from somewhere.

“The thought [behind the new cuts] is that they are probably in somewhat better shape than others to take cuts,” Neal added. “The impacts are really going to depend on the resources these schools can find. Some have more fat than others.”

House Ways and Means committee member Kenny Bingham (R-Lexington) stresses that the Legislature is still “early in the process” but agrees that significant cuts to higher education are inevitable.

“I’m not sure if it’s quite [21 percent] or not,” Bingham says. “It depends — you’ve got recurring dollars and you’ve got non-recurring dollars. And sometimes you get, depending on how you look at those, and how you want to claim a cut, you could get into funny money games. But yes, the bottom line is that higher ed is going to take some reductions.”

For its part, USC is considering a “multi-lever approach” that includes budget cuts throughout the university system as well as increases in admissions and tuition. According to Moore, however, the increase in admissions will be limited, as the university must in turn provide services for any additional students. Any increase in tuition will also be relatively small.

“Will there be an increase in tuition? Yes,” Moore says. “Will it be significantly high? No, absolutely not. It will be small, but it will help. I don’t know a number now. I couldn’t even begin to tell you that because the Board of Trustees has to approve that.”

Moore adds that USC could shift its use of federal stimulus money in an effort to protect its overall operation in the short-term.

“When you get a littler closer to [the budget situation] you see that there are things that we would have used stimulus money for. For example, fire safety issues, deferred maintenance, which is massive, fixing classrooms and so on … Now, instead, we’ll be using that as bridging money to get us through the next year at a more responsible rate, rather than saying [to the various departments], ‘Just whack some money out of your budget, and good luck.’”

As for the possibility of layoffs, Moore says it is too early to say, but if last year is an indication, more staff and faculty jobs could be eliminated. Fifty-five employees were laid off last year, Moore says.

“Those are real people, not just slots,” he says. “And that doesn’t count the number of positions that went unfilled. It doesn’t count the number of temporary adjunct faculty who would have been hired but were not.”

“None of this has been easy,” Moore adds. “None of it’s going to be easy, and it’s not over yet.”   

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