The money will go towards providing five to seven new degrees to Palmetto College students as well as advisers for the students and a technology staff. With these advisers, students will be able to seek help when needed, making the college a more personal experience for students, despite the fact that classes are online.
Of course, for any program in which education is concerned, quality is just as important as quantity. While we need a greater number of accessible educational institutions, even if it means they're in the form of online schools, the quality of such institutions is of the utmost importance. We thank the state for recognizing this, especially in a place like South Carolina where education, in general, severely lags behind the rest of the country.
We do still have our reservations — we're still nervous that the university giving out easy online degrees has the potential to dilute the quality of our USC diplomas. But we tentatively trust Amiridis will take care to ensure Palmetto College is a more legitimate and challenging institution than other, more run-of-the-mill programs. One way or the other, we look forward to monitoring the initiative's progress.
For now, we're just grateful USC and the state are collaborating to develop something that has real potential to benefit education in South Carolina in the long run.