Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

?amecockT Monday, April 25,1977 University of South Carolina, Columbia, S.C. Vol. LXYIII, No. 47 By JOHNNY LOTT Gamecock Staff Writer USC student fees will increase next year if the state legislature doesn't pass the House of Representatives' version of an embattled appropriations bill, USC President William H. Patterson said Saturday. THE SOUTH Carolina Senate and House are considering different versions of an appropriations bill that includes t lOPU O lJ A 1 ? A. ftftA Jfrt * UOV, S UUU^Cl. 1IIC OCIIMIC VUI S1UI1 WIIU1U lilKL' ^I,ZV?,4DU OUl of operating costs and put the money into faculty salary increases. If this version passes, student fees would have to be increased again to make up the difference in operating costs. This would be in addition to the increase Patterson proposed on March 1, 1977. That increase was $70 per year for in-state students and $208 for out-of-state students. It would be applicable to tuition and student fees. That proposed increase will require action by the fall Board of Trustees when it meets in June. Patterson said George Curry, secretary of the USC Board of Trustees, went before the House Ways and Means committee last week to request more money for USC's budget next year. He said Curry did this in an effort to gain "We will have to increase student fees more if the Senate version prevails than if the House version prevails." -William Patterson _ '.C^.fcT'' >f?* lS ^ _ _ "':t ; ' >-i , ' ! . . . . ' , , .. :.. ' y v. , -v. y:; ' /' ' V'-: V ' % ' . Illustration by Mark , the committee's support for USC. The request, Patterson said, corresponds to the original budget request that the university made before the committee in Nov. 1976. IN DEVELOPING next year's state budget, the house authorized a 4 per cent across-the-board pay raise for state employes. However, the Senate revised the bill so that it now contains an additional 2 per cent pay increase. In restructuring the bill, the Senate diverted $1,299,456 from USC's operating costs to increases for faculty salaries.This comprises 3 per cent of USC's budget. "The Senate version iimcs o in,-r cum iroiTi us ana gives us duck z per cent, Patterson said. lie emphasized that the 2 per cent is not state money, but funds from the USCoperating budget. With the passage of the appropriations bill to the satisfaction of both legislative houses, Patterson said the USC Board of Trustees will decide how to distribute the increases. After the house rejected the senate's revisions, the bill wtiii iu tt luiiiciciitc uuiiimiiiet; so mai ine umerences in the two versions could be resolved. For now, it remains there. "We will have to increase student fees more if the senate version prevails than if the house version prevails," Patterson said. The senate, he added, probably doesn't com pletely understand the university's financial needs. Miuuiiii iiik university not get all the money it requires, he said a faculty-staff advisory committee will be created to find ways of conserving money, in addition to increasing student fees. Included in the budget request is $150,000 for the USC l^w School. Of this $100,000 will take the form of pay raises while the remaining $50,000 will be used to buy books for the For USC JK|P|| students, $13 *11 million A t-- , . .... . ,<? . v.; i's hangs : in the J3slance > . ? ; * .*#S .? Alexander- THE GAMECOCK 1:1 tciuci a uuiuiy. Concerning the recent resignations at the school, Patterson said the professors who are leaving probably knew about the proposed pay increase but they didn't know how much it would be. "They knew there was a raise in the offing," he said. Also included in the budget request is $150,000 for the USC School of Public Health for hiring five more faculty members. This, Patterson said, would aid the school in gaining accreditation The budget request also contains a provision for increased funds for the Bureau of Govern mental Research and Service. Curry said the legislators wanted to he assured these funds would be used for t hostspecific purposes. Curry wouldn't comment in detail about the ap propriations. "We've already made an appeal to the legislature and I don't think badgering them will help any." he said. Bernard A. Daetwyler, USC vice president for finance, saiu me outcome on me issue will be determined by the mediating conference committee. The committee, Daetwyler said, will seek a compromise on the bill from both the house and the senate. The tacking-on of the senate's 2 per cent, he said, is the principle area of conflict "At this point, 1 have no way of forecasting the committee's decision," he said. However, the senate's action, he believes, further diminished a lean budget. "It ate into an already very austere budget for 1977-78," he said Curry said the house form of the budget was an "absolute essential" to the university and contained no fat. Rep. Tom Mangum, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, and Sen. Rembert C. Dennis, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, could not be reached for comment.