Funding for health sciences and technology fields were among the high-dollar items on South Carolina colleges’ budget wish list for the coming year.
In all, public colleges are seeking $1.4 billion in additional state aid for the fiscal year starting in July, according to a review of budget requests posted online late last week. (That does not include technical schools’ requests.)
Their total would gobble up almost 90% of all additional revenue legislators have available to spend, according to projections updated last week by the state Board of Economic Advisors.
Colleges won’t get their full requests, but the posted plans are a preview of budget debates that kick off when the Legislature returns in January. And in South Carolina, colleges’ on-field rivalries can extend to the Statehouse, as legislators’ alma maters factor into budget negotiations.
The state’s flagship university accounts for almost half of the total newly requested.
System-wide, the University of South Carolina is seeking $672 million additional. Of that, $437 million is for the main campus in Columbia. Meanwhile, the Medical University of South Carolina wants $237 million more, and Clemson University is asking for $103 million additional. Clemson is seeking less this year after getting its vet school, which will be a first for South Carolina, fully funded over the last two years.
The largest request for a single project in 2025-26 also comes from USC, which earlier this year announced it would seek $150 million for a new specialized hospital for treating patients impacted by strokes, dementia and other diseases affecting the brain and nervous system. On top of covering about half the construction costs, the school wants $30 million annually to run the facility.
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USC also is seeking $90 million for a new science and technology building. The school has already spent more than $50 million to renovate its existing space. Now it wishes to build out on an adjacent parking lot, adding more classrooms and labs.
A request for $85 million from the Medical University of South Carolina for a new academic building rounds out the top three largest requests.
“Currently, the College of Medicine does not have a dedicated building to educate future physicians. Our medical students utilize facilities across our campus, sharing classrooms and study spaces with students from MUSC’s five other colleges,” the school previously wrote on its website announcing the $175 million, seven-story project.
Legislators already set aside $22 million for it in this fiscal year’s budget.
MUSC plans to break ground on the facility next month, with completion anticipated in 2027.
Tuition still top of mind
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South Carolina colleges also continue to ask for money to keep tuition steady for in-state students.
It would be the seventh consecutive year that public colleges agree not to raise in-state tuition in exchange for more state aid. However, they have continued to charge more for certain fees and housing.
Colleges statewide, including USC’s two-year and four-year campuses outside Columbia, are asking for a total of $125 million specifically to offset tuition hikes. About $30 million of that would be for graduate students in the state’s public medical, dental and law schools.
In the budget for this school year, legislators provided about $97 million for the promise of no tuition hikes for South Carolina’s high school graduates.
Energy efforts
Earlier this year, several South Carolina colleges, along with a federal nuclear research laboratory and the state’s economic development agency, won a $45 million federal grant to establish a technology hub, known as SC Nexus, focused on developing new energy technologies.
Legislators already approved $15 million in one-time funding and $5 million in recurring dollars this year for the hub.
Now, two of those colleges — USC and Clemson University — want more state dollars to further support those efforts, which have been a priority for Gov. Henry McMaster and legislators.
The federal grant is covering the cost of a simulator for testing the nation’s ability to protect its electric grid from hackers and cyber attacks, operated by the Savannah River National Laboratory near Aiken. It’s also paying for upgrades to an electric grid simulator operated by Clemson at the former U.S. Naval Base in North Charleston, a mini-manufacturing line for batteries at USC, and job training at the state’s technical schools.
USC is seeking $20 million in the state budget to renovate a failed biomass power plant, which has stood idle since 2011, turning it into a battery research center that would house the manufacturing line.
“South Carolina needs to develop intellectual infrastructure, requiring more graduates in science and engineering and offering training and retraining programs for manufacturing jobs,” the school wrote in its request.
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School officials say the center will make South Carolina “a leader in the battery revolution, providing high-tech, high-paying jobs, and improving the socioeconomic status of its citizens.”
For its part, Clemson is asking for $4 million to hire new professors, software engineers, research staff and scientists for SC Nexus.
Other projects
Other large ticket items colleges are seeking include the expansion of Clemson’s genetics center, which it opened in cooperation with Greenwood Genetic Center in 2018 to study rare genetic diseases and birth defects.
The center is currently operating at capacity, with nearly 50 people working in the facility. The Upstate university wants to add a second building to hold more equipment, 15 new faculty and their teams. The total cost of the expansion is $71 million. The school is asking legislators for $20 million of that.
The Citadel is seeking a combined $48 million to renovate a pair of buildings on campus — its aging engineering school and retrofitting an existing building to house its growing cyber and computer science school. Enrollment in the cyber program has seen a six-fold increase since 2020.
MUSC wants $50 million to build a 30-patient residential treatment facility for alcohol and drug abuse. Patients currently have to travel out of state to get help at a live-in center, the school’s request reads.
“Creating a first instate facility of this kind will enable South Carolinians to seek help close to home, changing their lives and livelihoods for the better,” according to the request.
The medical school also has a smaller request — $5.8 million — for recent graduates to do their residency at Lancaster Medical Center, a community hospital it purchased in late 2018.
USC wants a combined $110 million for engineering and nursing facilities on its Aiken and Upstate campuses.
And five college campuses around the state are seeking a combined $117.5 million for community event and athletic centers.
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