Cuts begin to affect students

South Carolina college students returning to classes today will begin to feel the pinch from numerous rounds of state budget cuts.

The state has slashed the budgets of its colleges and universities twice, for a total of 9 percent, since the new fiscal year began on July 1. And those cuts followed a steady decline in state support from the previous year.

University leaders said last year that they made cuts in areas that didn't affect students in the classroom. But some now say that the cumulative effect of the cuts is rippling campus-wide.

Students at the state's largest schools might encounter larger classes and fewer course offerings, which make it more difficult for them to enroll in the classes they want, school leaders said.

Cathy Sams, chief public affairs officer at Clemson University, said the school has lost more than $52 million in state funding since July 2008, and more than $11 million of that was cut during the past six months.

Clemson intends to "honor its commitments to students and protect the academic core of the university," Sams said. But the school has eliminated more than 450 faculty and staff positions, she said, and "that is undoubtedly going to have an impact on support services, class size, maintenance and other important areas."

Ironically, she said, "these budget cuts also are counter-productive to the state's economic recovery. The one reliable place to invest if you want to increase personal wealth and create jobs is higher education, especially research universities."

Students at The Citadel also will experience slightly larger class sizes, said Jeff Perez, vice president for external affairs. The college had to cut positions for adjunct faculty members, he said. The faculty-to-student ratio was 1 to 15, he said, but now it's 1 to 16. The military college also had to reduce the number of courses available to students.

Patrick Wamsley, chief financial officer at the Medical University of South Carolina, said the cumulative effect of the budget cuts has led to tuition increases for students. But tuition alone can't compensate for the loss of state money at the medical university because the school has a fairly small student body of about 3,000 students, he said.

MUSC President Ray Greenberg said tuition, and the number and size of classes, will not change for the rest of the school year. But more cuts could lead to an increase in tuition next year, he said.

Steve Osborne, the College of Charleston's vice president for business affairs, said the college had to eliminate all vacant faculty positions to compensate for the cumulative effect of the cuts. "Class size goes up some when that occurs," he said.

The cuts also mean reduced administrative support available for faculty members, he said, which in turn could affect their classrooms.

Ted Moore, the University of South Carolina's vice president for finance and planning, said that because the university planned for additional budget cuts this fiscal year, students should not notice significant changes between the fall and spring semesters.

However, as a result of ongoing cuts, the university finds itself with 250 fewer faculty and staff than last academic year, he said.

The university also has delayed replacing equipment, deferred maintenance on facilities, and postponed important software and data management upgrades. "Naturally changes such as these affect our students, as well as faculty and staff," he said.

The university also has continued to increase enrollment, even with fewer resources, because offering a quality education to more South Carolinians is something the state needs, he said.

Greenberg said he understands that most states in the country are cutting their budgets. But, he said, "the magnitude of the cumulative budget cut in South Carolina has been larger than in other states, so it puts us at a competitive disadvantage. We also want to avoid large tuition increases for next year, but if we lose more state funding, inevitably more financial burden will be felt by the students and their families."

By the numbers

2009-2010 state higher education cuts

Name of institution — Appropriation on July 1 — 2009-2010 budget cuts — % of budget from state
Clemson —$124.3 million — $11 million — 15.3 percent
Citadel — $12.2 million — $1.1 million — 13 percent
C of C — $26.1 million — $2.3 million — 11.6 percent
MUSC — $74.2 million — $6.5 million — 12 percent
USC — $122.7 million — $10.8 million — 14 percent

Reach Diane Knich at 937-5491 or dknich@postandcourier.com.

Editor's note: Earlier published versions of this story incorrectly stated the amount of cuts to the College of Charleston's budget since July 1. The Post and Courier regrets the error.