'My commitment to USC is as strong as ever'
Darla Moore had hundreds of students, almost a dozen television cameras and USC’s top officials packed inside a captive Russell House ballroom, ready to hear her thoughts on being removed from USC’s board of trustees.
Moore didn’t give them.
In a powerfully captivating speech that left a few students in tears, she instead chose to give $5 million more to the university for an aerospace research center that will be the “wave of the future” in a knowledge-based economy.
She asked the center be named after Ronald McNair, a South Carolina hero who died in the Challenger blast. It brings her pledged gift total to USC to $75 million. And she challenged the state to match the $5 million gift and urged legislators and the governor to properly fund higher education.
Haley spokesman Rob Godfrey praised the gift from Moore but called the match in funding request premature.
“While the governor and Commerce Secretary Bobby Hitt both support and continue to work hard to bring aerospace companies and jobs to our state, they both believe the budget request for this project was premature in a budget year where we have millions of dollars in budget shortfalls and we are focused on returning to the basic core functions of government,” Godfrey said.
Read more in tomorrow's edition of The Daily Gamecock.