COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) – The chairman of the House budget-writing committee said Wednesday that the state will address South Carolina State University’s $13 million cash flow problem.
How – and how much – are still in question.
Ways and Means Chairman Brian White said the state has an obligation to the university’s roughly 3,400 students. SC State is South Carolina’s only public historically black university.
“We owe it to them,” White, R-Anderson, said on the House floor. “It’s really important that we give some hope and security to those kids at SC State right now, so they know they’re taken care of.”
White’s comments came after he and other budget officials received the university’s eight-page deficit recovery plan.
A $4 million deficit is expected at the end of this school year, down from an initial projection last summer of $15 million, according to the report. The school’s plans to address the remaining deficit next school year involve enrolling more students, increasing fundraising, and eliminating programs that either have very few students or don’t graduate students.
But the school is requesting help covering what it calls an immediate cash deficiency of $13 million needed to pay bills and loan payments through the end of June.
There is no timetable for a decision from the five-member Budget and Control Board, which includes White.
State and university officials were meeting Wednesday on the Orangeburg campus to discuss the next steps.
A university spokeswoman did not immediately return a message from The Associated Press.
