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Web posted Friday, October
29, 2004
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Gov. Mark
Sanford speaks to an audience of USCB supporters
Thursday during the South Campus dedication
ceremony.
Thomas J. Turney/Carolina
Morning News
| An
'oasis' for learning
NEW RIVER: Politicians,
supporters gather for campus dedication.
By Jennifer Moore
Carolina Morning News
There
was a lot of talk about dreams Thursday at the new
campus of the University of South Carolina
Beaufort.
It was a dream to create the
campus and make the school a four-year university,
said USC President Andrew Sorensen.
Now
that that goal has been realized, Chancellor Jane
Upshaw said the students, staff, faculty and
community can dream even bigger
dreams.
Thursday, supporters from around
the state gathered at the New River campus to
celebrate its opening.
The event marks a
change in the area, said Jasper County Council
Chairman George Hood.
Now, he said, working
people will be able to improve their lives and the
lives of their families by earning four-year
degrees close to home.
Hood said his Jasper
County neighbors who have "spent their lives
waking before dawn to commute to hotels and
conference centers on Hilton Head Island for
minimum-wage jobs," can soon see their children
earning baccalaureate degrees in hospitality
management.
"They will visit their children
in the executive suites of those same hotels and
conference centers," he said.
Gov. Mark
Sanford called the school "an oasis of learning"
in the Lowcountry.
The school will impact
the entire area's quality of life, he said,
because people look for more than just "beaches,
breezes and golf courses" when choosing a place to
live.
Now, Sanford said, they have an
educational venue as well.
The university
also will impact the economy of the Lowcountry and
the state, he said, because valuable jobs are no
longer in production, but rather in the creative
process that leads to production.
"This is
an intellectual incubator," he said.
U.S.
Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., said the new campus'
opening is "recognition of the Lowcountry coming
of age."
The university's location, next to
Sun City, creates the "ultimate symbiotic
relationship," he said.
After the
dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony, guests
were invited to take tours of the
57,000-square-foot Hargray
Building.
Inside, they could view models of
student housing, the first phase of which is
expected to be finished by August 2005.
The
first phase will consist of four buildings in a
square with an internal grassy quad. The buildings
will have apartment-style housing, with four
single rooms, two full bathrooms and a full
kitchen in each unit.
The first phase will
accommodate about 275 students, though future
phases will allow about 1,000 students total. A
student center with dining facilities is slated
for a 2006 opening.
Reporter Jennifer Moore
can be reached at 837-5255, ext. 122, or
Jennifer.e.moore@lowcountrynow.com
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