Clemson fears cuts could bleed program

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Facing a budget deficit, Sanford must boil things down to core missions, which is agriculture for Clemson's public service arm, said Will Folks, the governor's spokesman.

The proposal to the state Legislature would cut 3.5 percent from Clemson's educational programs and 40.6 percent — or $15.6 million — from Public Service Activities, new details of the proposed budget show.

John Kelly, Clemson's vice president for public service, predicted that it would cause a $46 million net loss because Clemson would lose $30 million in outside research dollars associated with projects that would be cut.

Columbia veterinarian Eddie Robinson, president of Clemson's Alumni Association, fears the budget cuts may have unintended consequences and affect many students by diminishing the quality of faculty if some members leave.

Professors "might look for opportunities elsewhere" because cuts could threaten their research funding, Robinson said.

He said he "respects the governor's vision" for increased collaboration and elimination of duplication in higher education, but he said Clemson's public service activities "have always been a part of Clemson since its founding."

As budget talks begin in Columbia, Clemson must make its case to lawmakers.

State House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville, said Clemson has a lot of support in the House Ways and Means Committee.

"There's a lot of disagreement with the governor's severe reductions in the Clemson PSA budget," Wilkins said. "There seems to be a lot of support for additional funding above what the governor budgeted."

State Rep. Harry Stille, R-Due West, supports Sanford's intent to rid government waste and said the scrutiny given to Clemson's public service activities should be applied to all higher education institutions and every other state agency.

Targeted cuts

Sanford's proposal contains $8.1 million in targeted cuts in four of Clemson's five public service "goal" areas: economic and community development, youth, environmental conservation and food safety and nutrition.

The proposal also contains an additional $7.5 million untargeted cut in public service activities. Sanford suggests Clemson replace it with money from sale of land at Clemson's Sandhills Research and Education Center in Columbia.

That money is earmarked for a new facility at the Sandhills center focused on economic and community development. The project has been approved by Clemson trustees and the State Budget and Control Board.

Clemson's fifth "goal" area, agricultural productivity and profitability, isn't cut because agriculture is Clemson's core public service mission, Folks said.

Folks said the proposed cuts shave away areas unrelated to agriculture, but Kelly disagreed.

"They're interwoven," Kelly said. "Agriculture is more than farms and plows."

For example, environmental issues such as water quality, animal waste management and reduced use of pesticides are agricultural issues, Kelly said.

Clemson's five "goal" areas are the same as those set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, with input from the states on 21st-century agricultural needs, Kelly said.

Despite the governor's contention, the untargeted $7.5 million cut would "be absorbed by the very programs Gov. Sanford claims to protect — agriculture and regulatory services," said university spokeswoman Cathy Sams.

That is because the targeted cuts would eliminate much or all state funding in the other areas, and Clemson trustees "will not approve spending one-time money (from the land sale) on continuing costs," Sams said. "It's not good business. It's not fiscally responsible."

Folks said Sanford "would prefer not to use one-time funds for annual operating costs," but "feels strongly" that the facility Clemson plans at the Sandhills center "does not need to be built."

Sanford doesn't think another Clemson public service facility and another state-owned facility in Columbia is the "best use of these funds," Folks said.

The planned Sandhills facility would host conferences on growth, change and economic development issues and would bring in people from around the nation, Kelly said. It would showcase South Carolina's best examples and bring in world leaders to share their views.

An architect has been selected, and the contract is in negotiations, Kelly said.

Sanford believes agriculture is Clemson's core public service mission and gives Clemson twice the money per farm as in fiscal 1980-81, when the total Clemson public service budget was $34 million and the state had about 34,000 farms — about $1,000 per farm, Folks said.

The current proposal would give Clemson a total public service budget of about $50 million, with about 24,000 farms in the state, "essentially twice that much, roughly $2,000 per farm," Folks said.

The governor's proposal would give Clemson's public service arm $22.8 million in state funding. The $50 million figure includes the $7.5 million from the Sandhills sale and $19.7 million in "budgeted federal and other funds," Folks said.

Kelly questioned the numbers, saying the $19.7 million is mainly from outside research grants from federal agencies and private foundations and private gifts awarded to Clemson for specific work that Sanford's proposal would eliminate.

Effect on students

Clemson University President James Barker said the cuts would impact the university's teaching program as well as Public Service Activities.

The effect on students is "going to be direct, and that's why we're so concerned about it," Barker said.

The proposal "essentially says the state isn't interested in being part of the land-grant system of schools and would sever our ties with the other land-grant schools in the country. It will have an impact on the quality of all our programs."

Almost all of the 2,500 undergraduate and graduate students in Clemson's College of Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences are taught by faculty with joint appointments in education and public service, said Calvin Schoulties, dean of the college.

Half of Schoulties' budget for faculty and staff salaries is from the public service budget, and he fears the proposed cuts would result in layoffs, something Clemson has avoided over several years of state budget cuts.

However, Schoulties said academic programs would be preserved and the university "will move heaven and earth to make sure programs are there for undergraduates and graduates."

Fletcher Anderson, Clemson's student body president, said students who would be affected the most are in the College of Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences, but all students are concerned with how cuts could affect tuition, which has risen steadily in recent years as the state has cut higher education budgets.

"If they thought they were going to lose their professors, it would really hit home with them," Anderson said.

Lawmakers must decide

Lawmakers will weigh the issues during the budget process, which takes about five months.

State Sen. Ralph Anderson, D-Greenville, disagrees with the proposed cuts and said without investments in Clemson agriculture and research, the current hard times will get worse.

"This is not the right time to cut," Anderson said. "We need the research at Clemson. These are hard times, but these are investments we are making, and to get out of hard times we have to invest in these things."

State Sen. Larry Martin, R-Pickens, said he is "very concerned" about the proposed cuts and believes outreach programs remain relevant today.

But he said Sanford is right to "question whether some of those programs need to continue in the manner in which they are done" and the ball is in Clemson's court to justify them.

State Sen. Thomas Alexander, R-Walhalla, said he "will be working every way I can to help to restore some of those funds."

He added, "I think we will see tremendous support from the citizens of South Carolina because of the hands-on personal benefits they've seen from these programs."