University officials make good plans
Provost Michael Amiridis laid out a comprehensive plan to improve the university’s academic prestige during Tuesday’s board of trustees meeting, promising a boost in research dollars, faculty members and SAT scores.
We wholeheartedly applaud the provost and his staff for announcing such goals and promising to strive toward them. These are lofty yet achievable goals.
The university currently has a faculty-staff ratio of 19 to 1. This is too high, and the university has pledged to fix it. Bigger classes mean less individual attention and less classroom discussion, which fosters deeper understanding. Hiring more faculty, if done without raising tuition or fees, isvital to the university’s success.
USC knows it must raise its average SAT score to be considered among the best public universities. It wants that statistic to increase to 1,220; it currently sits at 1,198. To accomplish this goal, USC hopes to attract extremely bright students without impacting in-state acceptance rates. This is crucial, as the university will face a political firestorm if it admits fewer South Carolina students who don’t have top-notch credentials.
Most importantly, the “academic dashboard” — what the provost calls this long-term plan — admits USC can’t continue to increase the number of students accepted annually. The university already finds itself over capacity and faces classroom availability issues. The provost promised to find a solution to this problem, as well.
We often use this column to highlight issues at Carolina. It is wonderful to know that Amiridis and his staff have conceived a plan to better this university and position the flagship university — of and for the state of South Carolina (yes, we stole your phrase, USC) — as a stronger institution for its students and faculty.
The university has to follow through, and from what we know about Amiridis, he will.