Members of the South Carolina Senate have passed a measure that would fire the entire South Carolina State University Board of Trustees.
The bill passed both chambers of the state legislature, but it must be ratified before it goes to Governor Nikki Haley. The Senate passed a third reading of the bill Tuesday with no objections.
The bill will now head back to the House where representatives can choose to accept the amended bill or send it back to the Senate.
State legislators have been working on a bill regarding the beleaguered university for several months. At one point, a subcommittee recommended shutting down the school for one fiscal year while SC State got its finances in order.
Under provisions of the bill, the Board of Trustees would be sacked and an interim CEO would be appointed who would answer to the Budget and Control Board. Also, a new board would have to be selected within a week. The Senate Pro Tem, the Speaker of the House, the head of the Senate Education Committee, the head of the House Education and Public Works Committee, and Gov. Haley would each select one person to serve on the new board.
The board wouldbe responsible for creating policies to keep SC State functioning within its budget, but they would not have any spending power.
If these changes are approved by the House, it will head to a conference committee to iron out any wrinkles that may be left. After that, both chambers would ratify the bill and send it to Gov. Haley’s desk.
If the changes are not approved, a line within the State budget would still remove the board putting it under control of the Budget and Control Board. However, the Senate still has to approve the budget next week.
Legislators began investigating SC State’s finances after university asked the state for millions of dollars to deal with a fiscal crisis.
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