‘Talk is cheap’: Is SC on right track to overcome $500M under-funding of historically Black SC State?

South Carolina State University was a new beginning for Elexus Miller. She said it gave her a second chance.

The Sumter native began attending Winthrop University in 2018. But the Rock Hill college got too expensive, so she soon turned to S.C. State University, South Carolina’s only public, four-year historically Black university. She is now on her way to becoming the first of her mother’s seven children to graduate college.

S.C. State was more affordable, Miller said, the environment was welcoming. But it was apparent that the school was desperate for money. Parking tickets lined the streets of campus, and Miller said she was often stonewalled by the financial aid department when looking for help.

Following years of financial turmoil at S.C. State and repeated pleas to state leaders for more funding, the federal government says the historically Black school has been severely under-funded by nearly $500 million over the past three decades. But some state lawmakers said the federal government’s claim is “suspicious” and lacks considerable context.

Now, advocates for historically Black colleges and South Carolina lawmakers say that while funding disparities have, indeed, contributed to financial and development struggles experienced by S.C. State, in recent years, the General Assembly has awarded S.C. State more money per student than other public universities, including its land-grant counterpart, Clemson. But some worry that “antipathy” toward the Biden administration in this state — and suspicion about the timing of this notice in the midst of presidential campaign season — could keep state leaders from taking significant remedial action to right what could be counted as generations of inequality.

In a September letter to Gov. Henry McMaster, the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Education called on South Carolina and 15 other — mostly Southern — states to reassess how those states fund their public HBCUs compared to their predominately white land-grant counterparts, such as Clemson University. Using data from the National Center for Education Statistics, the federal government determined that 16 of the nation’s 19 historically Black 1890 land-grant universities, including S.C. State, have been underfunded by their states by a total of $13 billion.

“Unequitable funding of the 1890 institution in your state has caused a severe financial gap,” the letter to McMaster read. “In the last 30 years alone, an additional $469,956,832 would have been available for (S.C. State). These funds could have supported infrastructure and student services and would have better positioned the university to compete for research grants.”

Unequal history and ‘cheap’ talk

Clemson was established as the state’s first land-grant college under the First Morrill Act of 1862. Land-grant schools were gifted federal land and created to teach agriculture, military tactics and mechanic arts, according to the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities.

During the Reconstruction era, the Second Morrill Act of 1890 was passed and was aimed at Southern and formerly Confederate states, trying to fix discrimination, according to the National Archives. If a state wished for its land-grant schools to remain segregated, the law required it to open another land-grant institution to serve Black students.

States electing to open a second land-grant university were required to provide an equitable distribution of state funds between their 1862 and 1890 land-grant institutions.

That didn’t happen.

For decades, South Carolina spent less money than any other Southern state on post-secondary education, and so, too, on its Black land-grant college.

For 70 years, the school that would become South Carolina State was the only institution in South Carolina that was open to Black students, and for most of that time, it functioned primarily as a secondary school with vocational training.

Until the late 1960s, South Carolina State University consistently received less money per student than other public institutions, according to a 2022 historical funding report by the S.C. Commission on Higher Education.

Historian William C. Hine, a former S.C. State professor and author of “South Carolina State University: A Black Land-Grant College in Jim Crow America,” wrote of the “miserly funding” of the university. In 1896, the General Assembly allocated less than $1 per student to S.C. State. In 1945, it increased to $77 per student — but it still fell short of the $134 spent per Clemson student.

And when higher education began to boom following the introduction of the G.I. Bill in 1944, S.C. State did not see the same enrollment increase that other state colleges did. It was because it did not have the classrooms or the dormitories to accommodate any growth, Hine wrote.

But by the early 1970s, S.C. State did start to expand. It increased its degree offerings and received some $14 million from the state to hire new faculty and pay existing faculty more.

In 1987, South Carolina was spending $4,848.51 per S.C. State student, still lagging Clemson’s $4,944.92 per student.

However, after statewide higher education funding fell following the 2008 recession, S.C. State rebounded the fastest. Since approximately 2014, the state has allocated the HBCU the most money per student out of any public college in South Carolina. In 2020, it was receiving $6,809.49 per student.

But this is money set aside for educational activities as opposed to construction to improve campus facilities, according to the Commission on Higher Education.

While it’s unclear how much funding has been set aside for the HBCU’s capital projects over the past 30 years, S.C. State President Alexander Conyers said he is encouraged by the progress lawmakers have made in meeting the needs of its students and employees.

“It’s no secret that public historically Black colleges and universities have been underfunded over decades when compared to support for other state institutions,” said Conyers, who became S.C. State’s thirteenth leader last year. “At South Carolina State University, we are more concerned about the present and the future than the past.”

He pointed out that the university has received record capital funding from the Legislature in recent years and more than $100 million in since 2020.

Most of that money, however, has gone toward refurbishing old facilities, such as the student center and the largest residence hall, rather than building new ones. And many say S.C. State’s aging campus still hasn’t kept up with its current needs. This past fall, the school welcomed its largest freshman class in 18 years, and it struggled to house them all.

Miller, who’s majoring in political science, said housing is so bad, she now commutes. She has to drive an hour from Sumter to the Orangeburg campus to attend class in-person.

“I see a lot of people that want to go to HBCUs now,” Miller said. “There’s no where for them to really go.”

“S.C. State must remain competitive in the modern world of higher learning, and that will require additional investment,” Conyers said. “We have made lawmakers aware of the many urgent needs we have at S.C. State, and we will continue to work with the General Assembly toward realizing the necessary funding.”

When creating the most recent state budget, the General Assembly had $2 billion to spend. Still, lawmakers refused to cut a check for one of S.C. State’s most dire needs: infrastructure.

State Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg, said it’s one of the reasons she voted against the state spending plan — the HBCU needs a new library, classrooms, housing. Without them, S.C. State can’t continue to grow, she said.

“There is indeed inequity in funding,” Cobb-Hunter said. “I certainly hope South Carolina decides to take action. ... Unfortunately, we are living in days where it matters who the messenger is. Since there is antipathy towards the Biden administration in this state ... I’m not sensing a lot of groundswell for support.”

And while the Legislature failed to meet S.C. State’s full needs, Cobb-Hunter pointed out, Clemson got $103 million to fund its new veterinarian school, a program that hasn’t even begun.

“Talk is cheap. Action speaks louder than words,” Cobb-Hunter said. “And while you tell me you support the university, and you think they deserve to be funded, your actions send a different message.”

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has struck down affirmative action in college admissions, Cobb-Hunter said she believes that HBCUs will likely see even more growth. S.C. State must be prepared, she said.

“Students of color are revisiting the idea of attending an HBCU,” Cobb-Hunter said.

A graduate of S.C. State, U.S. Rep. James Clyburn echoed the Biden administration’s call to increase funding for his alma mater.

“As a proud graduate of South Carolina State University, I know that HBCUs are some of the most important institutions in our country,” Clyburn said. “I hope South Carolina, and the 15 other recipients of these letters, heed the call to work with the Biden administration to address the historic underfunding that has plagued our HBCUs for decades.”

A Biden campaign stunt?

The federal government’s claim that for at least 30 years South Carolina has failed to match federal funds given in support of S.C. State at the same rate it has matched federal money given to Clemson is revealing in light of the numerous financial and leadership upheavals S.C. State has endured in recent years.

Notably, in March 2015, following the ousting of then-S.C. State President Thomas Elzey due to ongoing financial hardship and leadership controversies, then-acting President Franklin Evans asked lawmakers for $23.5 million to clear the school’s debt — “We are pleading, begging and asking for assistance,” he told a Senate panel in March 2015.

The state didn’t budge, because of S.C. State’s apparent inability to effectively manage its money.

“I don’t think one more dollar should go to S.C. State until they move toward that process” of hiring an outside financial consultant, then-Gov. Nikki Haley said in August 2014. “To continue to give them money is buying time. To get financial consultants in there is teaching them how to clean up the mess that’s there.”

In 2015, the General Assembly appropriated a total of $21.7 million in funding for S.C. State, compared to $116.1 million for Clemson, according to data provided by the U.S. Department of Education. But with an enrollment of 3,054 students at S.C. State in 2015, compared to 22,698 at Clemson, the state spent nearly $900 more per student at S.C. State than at Clemson — a difference of $8,771 compared to $7,875, respectively.

For years, advocates have tried to call attention to the historic and systematic underfunding of historically Black land-grant colleges and universities, such as S.C. State. As such, some South Carolina lawmakers are questioning the Biden administration’s decision to now raise the issue.

“I view the letter from the Biden administration as nothing more than a political campaign stunt in his bid for reelection,” said state Rep. Bill Taylor, R-Aiken. “It’s suspicious that similar letters were suddenly sent to 16 states, nearly all in the South.”

In response to a question from The State regarding the administration’s timing in sending notices to states about the funding disparity, a U.S. Department of Education spokesperson said, “Historically Black Colleges and Universities play an integral part in our country, and we took this step now to address the ongoing disparity in funding between some land-grant HBCUs and their non-HBCU land-grant peers.”

Still, the question, “Why now?” remains largely unanswered.

SC makes strides to close funding gap

South Carolina, more than any other Southern state among the recipients of the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Education letter, has made significant strides in helping to addressing S.C. State’s funding inequities, according to advocates and lawmakers.

In 2020, the most recent data available from the U.S. Department of Education, South Carolina gave $27.1 million to S.C. State compared to $144.2 million for Clemson. Enrollment that year was 2,339 at S.C. State and 26,406 at Clemson. S.C. State received $13,768 per student, and Clemson got $8,691.

Taylor, who serves on the House Ways and Means budget-writing committee and on the subcommittee for higher education, acknowledged that while under-funding historically may have been an issue at S.C. State, that’s not the problem today.

“Under-funding is not currently the issue,” Taylor said. “S.C. State is hustling to spend nearly $88 million in new construction money the General Assembly has appropriated in the past two years. This year, a record amount, almost $55 million, was approved to replace Truth Hall,” a campus dormitory.

Taylor and other state officials maintain that the Legislature has amped up efforts toward ensuring that S.C. State remains a viable and competitive option for higher education in the Palmetto State and that while budgetary amounts may look inequitable on the surface, there’s much more at play when considering the educational and athletic offerings at Clemson compared to S.C. State.

Still, Taylor’s perspective lacks consideration for the remedial efforts the federal government is urging the state to take in helping to close the decades-long funding gap.

Alton Thompson, who serves as the executive director for the 1890 Association of Research Directors and on the board of directors for the 1890 Universities Foundation, said South Carolina, more than any other Southern state, has begun to make strides toward rectifying funding inequities between S.C. State and Clemson. But even in light of those efforts, he said he hopes legislators will continue to increase support for S.C. State in consideration of funding inequities for decades.

“South Carolina is one of the few states that have really made a commitment to making up the funding difference,” between S.C. State and Clemson, Thompson said. “But in terms of a long-term systemic impact, it’s really going to take a long time to reconcile those funding disparities.”

While some lawmakers, such as Taylor, appear to be committed to raising S.C. State’s funding to a more equitable level compared to Clemson, it’s unclear whether the General Assembly will extend that commitment to address the years-long funding disparity. Still, Taylor is optimistic.

”Under President Conyers’ leadership and a highly focused Board of Trustees, S.C. State has its financial books in a solid position to operate,” Taylor said. “That brings the confidence to allocate more funds to upgrade and modernize S.C. State’s campus facilities.”