Friday, December 01, 2006
Hugine says he’ll work to hold line on tuition
By LEE HENDREN, T&D Staff WriterFriday, November 24, 2006
After several consecutive years of tuition hikes and spending increases, South Carolina State University President, Dr. Andrew Hugine says he wants to hold the line this year.In an interview Wednesday, Hugine said each department head will have to appear before a panel to “present and defend their budget.”Hugine said he has asked department heads “to keep costs exactly where they are at the current year,” although he understands it will be “a challenge,” given the rising costs over which the university has no control, such as for energy and travel.Next, the administration will look at potential revenues, a process that involves “making some educated guesses” about the level of state funding, Hugine said.“Then, after we put all those pieces together, we will go to the Board of Trustees,” Hugine said. “At that point, a decision is made as to what tuition and fees will be.”That probably will be in April, the president said.During a trustee board committee meeting last week, Hugine said he anticipated tuition going up again next year, but not as large an increase as in some recent years.Hugine said Wednesday he did not want anyone who heard or read his remark to believe that decisions had been made before the budget-writing work began.“At this point, it’s too early in the process to say there will be or will not be” a tuition increase, Hugine said Wednesday.
Tuition fills gapsin state fundingA major factor is state funding. The Legislature gives S.C. State about $25 million a year for operations, Hugine said.Yet the North Carolina Legislature gives Winston-Salem State University, which is of comparable size, about $52 million a year for operations, he said.“We have to do the same identical things, so where do you get the difference from? Tuition and fees,” Hugine said.The Legislature is responsible for paying for maintenance of the academic buildings on public university campuses, but historically has under-funded S.C. State, Hugine said.Because the facilities often have an early and major influence on prospective students and their parents, their maintenance is critical for growing enrollment, Hugine said.If the state doesn’t provide the money, the university has to resort to other means. Hence, last year’s 5 percent tuition increase could have been cut in half if the state had provided adequate funding for facilities maintenance, Hugine said.S.C. State seeks to provide a quality education in appropriate facilities during these technology-driven times, while remaining affordable, Hugine said.
Fourth in grantmoney, for nowS.C. State doesn’t just hold its hand out at the Statehouse; it works hard to generate its own money as well, Hugine said.The university ranks fourth in the state in dollars obtained through competitive grants, and “we can do better,” he said.Hugine said grants, and alliances with entities such as the South Carolina Research Authority, help in so many ways:- Adding to the general body of knowledge about a subject.- Furthering faculty professional development.- Giving students opportunities for hands-on learning.- Building the university’s infrastructure, such as additional labs and specialized equipment.- Building up the institution’s name recognition and prestige.- And, yes, helping boost “the bottom line” too.“We try to leverage and manage the resources we have at the university,” Hugine said.For example, the current issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education “features quite extensively” how S.C. State leveraged a $218,000 grant and developed a “fully functional” undergraduate program in nuclear engineering, Hugine said.It’s the only program of its kind in South Carolina, and the first to be launched in a quarter-century, says Hugine, who foresees a “renaissance of nuclear energy” on the horizon, across the nation and in South Carolina, where both SCE&G and Duke Power have plans drawn up for new facilities.With most nuclear engineers at or nearing retirement age, S.C. State is “well positioned” to provide the industry with a new generation of nuclear engineers, Hugine said.Also in great demand are nurses, and after several troubled years, S.C. State’s nursing program has “turned the corner,” Hugine said.
Audit finds no’ghost employees’Concerns about S.C. State’s stewardship of its money are outdated, Hugine said.During his presidency, the university has “done a yeoman’s job in dealing with our accounting and auditing” problems both decisively and speedily, Hugine said.Not only has the university dealt with the findings of external auditors, but it has established an internal auditor’s office – “not one person, but an office” – to find and resolve problems ahead of external audits.“It wasn’t mandated. It’s something we did ourselves,” Hugine said. “We are asking the hard questions ourselves. It is indicative of what we do and how we do it.”Christine Glover, internal audits director, gave an update at the Nov. 16 meeting of the trustee board’s Budget, Audit, Facilities and Grounds committee.She said audits of the athletics department, the cashiers office and information technology have been completed.An audit of the transportation office was conducted instead of the original plan of conducting an audit of the 1890 program.Audits of the financial aid office and the grants office will be completed by the end of June, she said.Glover said a payroll audit was not scheduled for 2006-07 but “after we got that anonymous tip,” it was quickly added to the list.The payroll audit has now been completed, she added, and although a few discrepancies came to light, “we did not find any ghost employees.”Glover proposed a list of eight audits for 2006-07. The committee approved the list and it will go before the full trustee board on Dec. 7.At this rate, Glover said it will take eight years to get around to auditing each area of the university. She added that most areas of the university have never been audited.Glover said the university has a written disaster recovery plan, “but it hasn’t been tested.” She said thinking about how to get back on track after an emergency “became really big after 9/11,” referring to the terrorist attacks of five years ago.She also recommended switching from manual systems of time cards – which are inconsistent from department to department – to a computerized system.
Academic audit, tooIt’s not just the dollars that are coming under scrutiny. The university is conducting an academic audit to determine if its courses of study are preparing today’s students for the jobs of the future, Hugine said.As the historically black university grows and refocuses, Hugine said a greater emphasis is being placed on diversity.The faculty already is the most diverse among South Carolina’s public institutions of higher education, Hugine said, and the university always has attracted a certain number of graduate students of other races.Hugine said one of his goals is to increase diversity among undergraduates as well. “I want to say that publicly: everyone is welcome,” Hugine said. “I don’t want people to look at this as a black institution.”
T&D Staff Writer Lee Hendren can be reached by e-mail at lhendren@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5552. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.
After several consecutive years of tuition hikes and spending increases, South Carolina State University President, Dr. Andrew Hugine says he wants to hold the line this year.In an interview Wednesday, Hugine said each department head will have to appear before a panel to “present and defend their budget.”Hugine said he has asked department heads “to keep costs exactly where they are at the current year,” although he understands it will be “a challenge,” given the rising costs over which the university has no control, such as for energy and travel.Next, the administration will look at potential revenues, a process that involves “making some educated guesses” about the level of state funding, Hugine said.“Then, after we put all those pieces together, we will go to the Board of Trustees,” Hugine said. “At that point, a decision is made as to what tuition and fees will be.”That probably will be in April, the president said.During a trustee board committee meeting last week, Hugine said he anticipated tuition going up again next year, but not as large an increase as in some recent years.Hugine said Wednesday he did not want anyone who heard or read his remark to believe that decisions had been made before the budget-writing work began.“At this point, it’s too early in the process to say there will be or will not be” a tuition increase, Hugine said Wednesday.
Tuition fills gapsin state fundingA major factor is state funding. The Legislature gives S.C. State about $25 million a year for operations, Hugine said.Yet the North Carolina Legislature gives Winston-Salem State University, which is of comparable size, about $52 million a year for operations, he said.“We have to do the same identical things, so where do you get the difference from? Tuition and fees,” Hugine said.The Legislature is responsible for paying for maintenance of the academic buildings on public university campuses, but historically has under-funded S.C. State, Hugine said.Because the facilities often have an early and major influence on prospective students and their parents, their maintenance is critical for growing enrollment, Hugine said.If the state doesn’t provide the money, the university has to resort to other means. Hence, last year’s 5 percent tuition increase could have been cut in half if the state had provided adequate funding for facilities maintenance, Hugine said.S.C. State seeks to provide a quality education in appropriate facilities during these technology-driven times, while remaining affordable, Hugine said.
Fourth in grantmoney, for nowS.C. State doesn’t just hold its hand out at the Statehouse; it works hard to generate its own money as well, Hugine said.The university ranks fourth in the state in dollars obtained through competitive grants, and “we can do better,” he said.Hugine said grants, and alliances with entities such as the South Carolina Research Authority, help in so many ways:- Adding to the general body of knowledge about a subject.- Furthering faculty professional development.- Giving students opportunities for hands-on learning.- Building the university’s infrastructure, such as additional labs and specialized equipment.- Building up the institution’s name recognition and prestige.- And, yes, helping boost “the bottom line” too.“We try to leverage and manage the resources we have at the university,” Hugine said.For example, the current issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education “features quite extensively” how S.C. State leveraged a $218,000 grant and developed a “fully functional” undergraduate program in nuclear engineering, Hugine said.It’s the only program of its kind in South Carolina, and the first to be launched in a quarter-century, says Hugine, who foresees a “renaissance of nuclear energy” on the horizon, across the nation and in South Carolina, where both SCE&G and Duke Power have plans drawn up for new facilities.With most nuclear engineers at or nearing retirement age, S.C. State is “well positioned” to provide the industry with a new generation of nuclear engineers, Hugine said.Also in great demand are nurses, and after several troubled years, S.C. State’s nursing program has “turned the corner,” Hugine said.
Audit finds no’ghost employees’Concerns about S.C. State’s stewardship of its money are outdated, Hugine said.During his presidency, the university has “done a yeoman’s job in dealing with our accounting and auditing” problems both decisively and speedily, Hugine said.Not only has the university dealt with the findings of external auditors, but it has established an internal auditor’s office – “not one person, but an office” – to find and resolve problems ahead of external audits.“It wasn’t mandated. It’s something we did ourselves,” Hugine said. “We are asking the hard questions ourselves. It is indicative of what we do and how we do it.”Christine Glover, internal audits director, gave an update at the Nov. 16 meeting of the trustee board’s Budget, Audit, Facilities and Grounds committee.She said audits of the athletics department, the cashiers office and information technology have been completed.An audit of the transportation office was conducted instead of the original plan of conducting an audit of the 1890 program.Audits of the financial aid office and the grants office will be completed by the end of June, she said.Glover said a payroll audit was not scheduled for 2006-07 but “after we got that anonymous tip,” it was quickly added to the list.The payroll audit has now been completed, she added, and although a few discrepancies came to light, “we did not find any ghost employees.”Glover proposed a list of eight audits for 2006-07. The committee approved the list and it will go before the full trustee board on Dec. 7.At this rate, Glover said it will take eight years to get around to auditing each area of the university. She added that most areas of the university have never been audited.Glover said the university has a written disaster recovery plan, “but it hasn’t been tested.” She said thinking about how to get back on track after an emergency “became really big after 9/11,” referring to the terrorist attacks of five years ago.She also recommended switching from manual systems of time cards – which are inconsistent from department to department – to a computerized system.
Academic audit, tooIt’s not just the dollars that are coming under scrutiny. The university is conducting an academic audit to determine if its courses of study are preparing today’s students for the jobs of the future, Hugine said.As the historically black university grows and refocuses, Hugine said a greater emphasis is being placed on diversity.The faculty already is the most diverse among South Carolina’s public institutions of higher education, Hugine said, and the university always has attracted a certain number of graduate students of other races.Hugine said one of his goals is to increase diversity among undergraduates as well. “I want to say that publicly: everyone is welcome,” Hugine said. “I don’t want people to look at this as a black institution.”
T&D Staff Writer Lee Hendren can be reached by e-mail at lhendren@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5552. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.
