CLEMSON, S.C. -- When Gov. Mark Sanford suggested two weeks ago that state schools should be allowed to privatize if they desire, Clemson University faculty wondered if their school would consider such a move.
"What about the retirement system? What are we going to do about health insurance? You realize that Clemson University employees are part of the state retirement system, and they are part of the state health insurance," Faculty Senate President Dale Linvill told WYFF News 4's Erin Harness.
President Jim Barker addressed the Faculty Senate Wednesday, talking about those concerns and others.
"Clemson is a public university in terms of our character, personality and values, not just in terms of our funding," Barker said.
Barker pointed out that Clemson gets nearly $86 million a year in state funding, almost 25 percent of its budget.
"It's a significant sum. It's funding we could not do without," he said.
Barker said that because Clemson is a public college, it carries a certain responsibility of service that would be more difficult to uphold as a private school.
"Private universities don't have that charge. Private universities are serving a very limited role in terms of engagement and outreach and service to the public," Barker said.
"The vision statement is for Clemson to be a top 20 public university, so clearly, for 115 years we've been defining our charter and personality and the work that we do around the task of serving the public and we believe that Clemson is doing that," he said.
Barker said projects like the International Center for Automotive Research simply wouldn't have been possible if Clemson was a private school.
"Certainly, it is not an action that should be taken simply to balance the state budget," Barker said.
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