USC President Harris Pastides sent a letter to students concerning the university's response to state-wide flooding Monday evening. The following is that letter in its entirety:
October 5, 2015
Carolina Family:
The last 72 hours have been trying ones for our state, including our
university. As we have in the past-indeed in very recent memory-we have
demonstrated our resilience and compassion. South Carolinians and our
USC community among them have rallied to support one another, provide
aid and comfort and give of ourselves to those less fortunate. In fact,
many of our students, faculty and staff have demonstrated that since
Saturday. Students have volunteered at local relief efforts and our own
staff have worked tirelessly to make campus as safe as possible for our
on-campus residents.
The reality is we've also had members of our Carolina family and the
surrounding community severely impacted. Several lives have been lost.
Many have lost homes, cars and belongings. Our thoughts and prayers are
with those families tonight as we count our own blessings. Our campus
escaped serious damage and despite a night without water, we've remained
safe.
Sunday and early today USC was in response mode. Our students, faculty
and staff helped our community by staying off the roads and sheltering
others when they could. People remained calm and assembled the supplies
they needed for a temporary situation. We have accessed approximately
100,000 bottles of water that have been, and will continue to be,
distributed to students. About 170 portable restrooms have been deployed
around campus. Water pressure has been restored to most of the campus
but we remain under a boil advisory. Unfortunately, at this moment we
cannot be sure that there will be no further interruptions.
As you know, we've encouraged our students to remain on campus and
cancelled classes today and tomorrow. We believe this was in the best
interest of their safety given the hazardous road conditions that have
made travel dangerous. State and local law enforcement have also
encouraged people to stay off the roads.
Our senior leadership is in constant communication with state and local
officials and tomorrow will be a day for additional important decisions.
We must determine if we are able to resume classes on Wednesday or if
it's in the community's best interest to cancel classes for the week.
There is a lot that goes into this decision and it will not be made
lightly. We must reasonably have answers to these questions: will there
be reliable and consistent water service; can we safely and securely
house on-campus students; can we provide safe and sufficient food
service; can we bring all students to campus for class safely given road
conditions; will the city and campus infrastructure support our 34,000
students and 6,000 faculty and staff; and, what disruption to the
academic and learning environment will our decision make?
Finally, it's important to recognize there is also a difference between
holding classes and opening campus for faculty and staff. As a state
agency, the university follows the delay and closing determinations of
Richland County Government.
Through the evening and early morning hours we will continue to be in
touch with state and local officials and other experts. It is our
intention to notify the campus tomorrow morning of our decision for the
remainder of the week.
Tonight, please keep those who have lost so much in your thoughts and
prayers. For those students on campus, take advantage of our dining
services and water distribution available until 7 p.m. Then, for those
that can, let's head indoors, stay safe and stay warm.
Thank you,
Harris Pastides
President, University of South Carolina