Prior to the media coverage concerning Gov. Mark Sanford’s scandal in late June there was little buzz surrounding USC’s planes. As a matter of fact, it seems as though a limited percent of the student population was even aware of the access that University officials, faculty and the athletic department had to private aircraft.
“I had absolutely no idea that our school had access to planes, I’m surprised, and where is the funding coming from,” said fourth year exercise science student, Sangeeta Vijayagopalan.
In early September, Sanford’s staff asked the state’s three major research universities to provide copies of flight records showing the usage of the planes: The Medical University of South Carolina, Clemson University and the USC. While USC President Pastides Harris Pastides and staff had no indication that such request would be made, the University has always and will continue to be prepared to comply with request for information. In concession to articles written in newspapers there has been little inquiry about the usage of the plane to which USC has access.
“Other than being asked to provide plane records, we have not. We have always considered the plane a way to serve our eight universities around the state with high efficiency. Of course, we have no problem with appropriate scrutiny,” said University President Harris Pastides.
USC does not own any aircraft, but has access to two planes, one for general University use and the other primarily designated to athletic use. The USC Development Foundation owns the plane that is designated for University use and leases it by the air hour to the University. Essentially, access is only granted to University administrators and faculty that are conducting University business or research. Flight admittance is limited because pay can’t be accepted from anyone other than the University because the school is not licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration as a charter service.
As a result in the downfall of the economy, usage of the plane has decreased immensely. The drop saves the University money but causes the USC Development Foundation to spend more of its own money to cover fixed costs such as repairs, maintenance, insurance and hanger rents. USC has cut costs on air travel because the University does not directly own the plane, MUSC and Clemson own their planes and are obligated to fulfill the maintenance requirements.
“For example, the FAA and others regulate the maintenance done on the plane and require the maintenance to only be done by certified aviation mechanics. We recently had to have the engines taken apart and serviced,” said Russ Meekins, Director of the USC Educational Foundation and Chief Financial Officer of the USC Foundations. “To do this, the engines were removed in Greenville and shipped to Dallas. The cost of the maintenance was about $80,000.”
None of these costs had to be paid by taxpayer funds or tuition money from the University’s coffers because the USC DF takes that risk because of its ownership.
Many concerns have been posed regarding the usage of air travel for destinations that are in state but USC remains aware and diligent about only using the plane when it is absolutely necessary.
“It is not always imperative to use the plane, and in many instances I do travel by car. As the leader of eight universities, I attend events on different campuses, and sometimes driving means spending the better part of the day on the road,” Pastides said. “If I can be more efficient by reducing travel time through flying, getting work done on a flight and then getting back in a timely way to fulfill other obligations, I may use the plane, particularly if other University colleagues are traveling with me. Bottom line, we always balance time and costs.”
The airplane allows university officials to “buy time” when operating with such a compressed schedule.
“Since Sept. 11, 2001, this has become even more apparent because of security delays in commercial air travel. Sometimes cost efficiency is realized,” Meekins said. When we fly four or five researchers to Washington, D.C. to seek grants from federal agencies, we get them up there and back in one day. Since we charge by the hour and not the passenger, the University saves money.”
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