Questions raised about Clemson's land grant mission if it went private

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"We were founded for two reasons: to provide opportunities for our young people and to build South Carolina's economy," Clemson President James Barker, who was out of town Tuesday, said in a prepared statement. "Our land-grant responsibilities keep us in close touch with the state's key industries and with citizens in every county."

Over more than a century since Clemson was founded, its land grant mission has evolved to produce a network of extension offices in every county of the state and five research and education centers spread about the state, such as the Sandhill center in Columbia that deals with economic and community development and the Edisto center in Blackville that deals with field crop and livestock research.

Clemson also provides state regulatory services from meat inspection to newly implemented anti-terrorism controls over the purchase of fertilizers that could be used as explosives.

"You have a major state mission, which is part of the land grant concept," said Tom Keinath, dean of Clemson's College of Engineering and Science.

Sanford's proposal has many people on the Clemson campus wondering how Clemson's public service mission would play out and be funded if Clemson went private.

Most land grant universities are public schools, however Cornell University, a private school, has been a land grant university since it was founded in 1865.

Cornell's land grant mission is state supported and embedded in the otherwise private institution, said Francille Firebaugh, vice provost for land grant affairs at Cornell.

Over the years, the relationship has been administered in different ways, Firebaugh said.

Currently the land grant part of the school is made up of four colleges — agriculture, veterinary, human ecology and industrial and labor relations — that get state funding through the State University of New York.

Because of the state assistance, tuition for students in these four colleges is less than students pay on the endowed side of the university, Firebaugh said.

In-state tuition is $13,274 a year for in-state students in these four colleges compared with $27,394 for students, regardless of what state they are from, on the private side of the institution. Non-residents in the four colleges pay $23,624 a year, Firebaugh said.

Clemson tuition is $6,958 a year for in-state students and $14,556 out of state.

Cornell's agricultural experiment station and cooperative extension service are funded through the state of New York as a special mission allocation, Firebaugh said. In addition, the counties heavily fund extension offices, and there is some federal funding.

The regulatory functions Cornell provides, which are similar to those Clemson provides in South Carolina, are supported by state funds through the state Department of Agriculture and Markets, as well as fees and money from wagering at state horse racing tracks.

South Carolina funds Clemson's public service arm separately from the university's education and operations budget, treating them as two separate agencies, said Neil Ogg, director of Clemson's regulatory public service programs, which includes fertilizer and seed certification and plant industry and pesticide regulation.

Clemson's public service arm has taken the brunt of recent state budget cuts at the university. Public service lost more than $15 million between 2001-2003, according to university figures.

In that same two-year period, early retirement incentives offered in order to avoid layoffs cut 191 jobs from the public service side in Clemson offices across the state, leaving some counties sharing extension agents and robbing others of some services.

Now those who are left wonder what's ahead.

"We're all waiting to sift through the research and the data and get more of an idea of what Sanford has in mind," Ogg said.

Clemson's public service arm includes eight institutes that are funded mainly through grants and gifts rather than state money, and Jorge Calzadilla, director of Clemson's Youth Learning Institute, said it's hard to tell how they could be impacted if Clemson went private.

State budget cuts dealt to all state agencies in recent years have led to greater collaboration and sharing of resources, Calzadilla said.

"We are talking about what we can do to help each other," said Calzadilla, who has teamed his institute with agencies including the state departments of Social Services and Juvenile Justice. "We as a land grant institution take that research foundation to help the public out."

The Clemson name and being part of a land grant institution helps put the Youth Learning Institute in a position to collaborate with entities across the state and focus on the mission of public service, Calzadilla said.

However, there is a difference between a land grant university focused on a mission to serve the public and a private institution that can choose to serve the public, Calzadilla said.

On the other hand, he said, "It's exciting for us to be pushed into new dimensions of thinking. Questions like the governor is asking should be asked."