A new budget proposal being discussed in the state Senate may spell the end of high-end research at USC.
If a Senate panel gets its way, $20 million will be taken from the $30 million in lottery money currently funding the much-touted endowed chairs program. These funds - which are reserved for USC, Clemson and MUSC - go toward attracting world-renowned research professors and toward major research projects such as the Innovista, but Senate is considering reallocating these funds to create new scholarships.
Complain all you want about tuition, but the prices of admission at South Carolina's three major research universities are real bargains by national standards. And between the LIFE Scholarship and a bevy of others already in place, anyone willing to put forth the effort can pay his or her way through college in South Carolina.
When USC alumni lobbied at the State House last week, a major issue on their agenda was preserving the endowed chairs. The endowment could propel USC to the vanguard of alternative fuel and nanotech research.
The benefits of the endowed chairs far outweigh any shortsighted gains associated with new scholarships. With the increase in high-end research comes an improved reputation for USC, which means the attraction of more investors and businesses, which could mean actually mean more scholarships in the long run.
USC is beginning to make headlines and turn heads with high-ranked programs. At this juncture, few decisions could make less sense than the decision to slash our endowment by two-thirds.
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