The office of Gov. Mark Sanford reached out to USC's Student Government in hopes of finding support for Sanford's proposed tuition cap, but student leaders don't approve.
Meghan Hughes, vice-chair of the South Carolina State Students Association, said that the organization has taken a stance against the cap, as it is currently written.
"We basically think there are other options to explore beyond doing a tuition cap," said Hughes, a third-year public relations and political science student.
The cap, proposed by the governor and discussed in his State of the State address, would be placed at $250 above the Higher Education Price Index, which last year was 3.5 percent.
Representatives from the governor's office contacted the USC Student Senate in hopes of finding students who support the cap. Student Body Treasurer Tommy Preston said that the governor "recognizes (that) the only way (the bill) will pass is with student endorsement."
Major student groups have been contacted to try to gain support, Preston said. That support would come in the form of speaking at various meetings and events to show that students think the bill is a good idea.
But Hughes and Preston say that the bill is "an easy way out" for the governor to reduce the cost of higher education. They both said that the state is trying to avoid giving money from its budget to higher education institutions.
Hughes called the bill a "quick fix for a problem that needs a long-term solution."
University officials are not sure yet what their position is on the issue, said USC spokesman Russ McKinney.
"At this point, university officials have been meeting and talking with different members of the General Assembly to gauge what the thinking is on that matter. Once we go through that, we'll go toward a firm decision," he said.
McKinney said that if the General Assembly did pass a tuition cap, the university would try to ensure that the cap was not "punitive" to USC or the other state colleges.
While at first the cap seems like a logical solution, the repercussions would be far-reaching, and students would likely still pay more for their education, SG Vice President Ryan Holt said.
According to Holt, a tuition cap would force the university to raise student fees to make up for lost funding. He said that instead of capping tuition, the state should fund its public universities.
Gov. Sanford said that South Carolina has the highest in-state tuition rates in the Southeast and is rated among the top five in the entire nation. He named North Carolina and Georgia as two states who have lower in-state tuitions, but Preston said those state's schools can afford to have low tuition costs because they are well-funded by the state.
Hughes said that less than 30 percent of USC's budget comes from the state. In his State of the State speech, Sanford said that public universities should begin branching out and seeking more private funding.
McKinney said that the cap is something the university "will be following closely" in its progress through the legislative system.
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