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Article published: Jan 22, 2005
Schools speak out on Sanford plan
USC Sumter, Central Carolina heads say consolidation proposal misguided

Administrators at the University of South Carolina Sumter and Central Carolina Technical College said they oppose the governor’s plan to have the two schools collaborate in certain areas.

The proposal, outlined in Gov. Mark Sanford’s budget released Jan. 5, states “each school offers over 12 common academic courses, and has its own bookstore, library and information technology systems. Our institutions of higher education must do a better job of working together, and we believe that these schools can realize the savings from the small budget reduction through better coordination with each other.”

According to the document, the changes would save USC Sumter $110,622.

USC Sumter Dean Dr. Leslie Carpenter said the governor’s proposal is essentially the same one he proposed last year.
“We think it is ill-informed and misguided,” Carpenter said. “He’s alleging things about the two institutions that are not correct.”

Carpenter said he is confident the General Assembly will once again decide not to approve the governor’s suggestion.

The bookstore, by state law, is called an auxiliary enterprise and required to operate as a small for-profit business.

Carpenter and CCTC President Dr. Kay Raffield say the institutions have different missions and those missions dictate what books they receive for their bookstores and libraries.
“We belong to a consortium with other technical schools,” Raffield said about the bookstore. “It’s very economical to maintain.”

Raffield said the technical college’s library predominately houses books about technical programs.

Raffield said CCTC is on a different system as far as the information technology systems are concerned.

USC Sumter and Central Carolina often collaborate, Carpenter said. He said the driving factor in these collaborations is to help serve the students better and to provide a service more economically.

One of the collaborations was the nursing programs at the two institutions. They were moved to CCTC after its course offerings increased.

Raffield said one of the reasons it was shifted to one institution was because it was difficult for students to be enrolled at two universities.

“We are always looking for ways that we can better serve our students,” Carpenter said. “We are public servants too. That is part of what we are supposed to be doing: being good stewards of what the public is doing.”

Collaboration between institutions is happening more around the state, said Russ McKinney Jr., spokesman for the University of South Carolina.

“I think if you look you will see that every day at every Carolina campus you are seeing more and more collaboration,” he said. “We are doing all types of collaboration with research.”

“They cooperate a great deal, and we get a lot of efficiencies and effectiveness out of those cooperations,” said state Sen. Phil Leventis, D-Sumter.

Leventis said he, like Raffield and Carpenter, does not expect the issue to pass the General Assembly.

“It’s just all theory and no practice,” he said. “That is what happened with the notion that we are going to be able to save tremendous amounts of money at USC Sumter.”

Contact Staff Writer Bethany Fuller at bethanyf@theitem.com or 803-774-1222.