In his state of the university address, President Pastides made about the most overwhelming argument for more state funding he could.
He highlighted every program USC has put together to provide as many South Carolinians with college degrees as possible. He pushed the idea of a more flexible education, both through online classes and a third summer semester. He talked about how increases in USC’s tuition — the most expensive of any public university in the SEC — have drastically slowed.
He illustrated the university’s efforts to maintain its educational offerings with more and better-paid faculty.
The university has done more or less everything asked of it by the government. While these are all good initiatives, they’ve come at a cost.
We have bigger class sizes; campus is exploding at its seams. We’re nervous that having 30,000 of us here at a time, and even more taking online classes, could cheapen each of our degrees.
While there are great people here, it’s clear that South Carolina is no University of Virginia, as much as the administration would like it to be.
Despite the subsequent drop in the US News and World Report college rankings, USC has stayed the course. Satisfying the legislature and educating the state is what’s keeping us from a higher rank among the nation’s universities.
But USC has made that sacrifice for the state whose name it carries. The least the state could do in return is give the university its due.