The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, July 18, 1990, Page 3, Image 3
Look no more
Smith may be best choice
for new USC president
Being the president of a major state university is no easy tasl
and is no doubt even harder on short notice.
/ Even so, Dr. Arthur Smith has assumed his role as USC's ir
terim president with enthusiasm and optimism, and the sense c
vision and continued growth that has preceeded him. He has so f;
proved himself in the role of president. Although two weeks is
short time to decide, Dr. Smith demonstrates potential that woul
deem him worthy of perhaps the permanent presidency.
First, for those who would prefer a South Carolina native, thei
is Dr. Smith's history with the state. For the past two years, D
Smith has had a vested interested in the affairs of the Universit
of South Carolina as its provost and chief academic officer. An
his interest in the state as a whole has not. been limited to th
university. As a property owner in South Carolina previous to h:
working for USC, Smith has been familiar with the state for
while.
Dr. Smith also brings to his new office a wealth of education;
and administrative experience. For 18 years before coming t
USC, Dr. Smith held various teaching and high level administn
tive positions at the University of New York at Binghamton. Eve
in his administrative positions, it seems Dr. Smith's emphasis hg
still been on either graduate or undergraduate education. Add t
this experience teaching in a foreign country, and his two yeai
here as chief academic officer, and there emerges a well roundec
balanced candidate for the president of USC.
Dr. Smith's policies as interim president have also been a pos:
tive sign, and one that could very well net him his new offic
permanently. His emphasis on undergraduate education paire
with continued advancement in the graduate programs will aii
USC down its path toward advancement.
And perhaps foremost in the minds of students, his policie
toward university funding and tuition are sensible and we
thought out. His vision is not of more funding alone, but of a ne1
set of priorities to be set for the funding of all state institutions.
If Dr. Smith chose to stay on as president of USC, he would b
welcome.
"FIRST OFf, YOU HAVE TO STOP REiSUlATlUf"
The Gamecock
Scott Pruden Robyn Thompson
Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor, Copy Desk Chief
Ron Baker Dennis Shealy
News Editor Carolina Life Editor
Fred Gonzalez Nick Leoncavallo
Sports Editor Photo Editor
kristin tkai^ia erik collins
Graduate Assistant Faculty Adviser
Ed Bonza Laura S. Day
Director of Student Media Production Manager
Ray Burgos Renee Gibson
Assistant Production Manager Advertising Manager
Kyle Berry Carolyn Griffin
Assistant Advertising Manager Business Manager
Letters Policy: The Gamecock will try to print all letters received. Letters should
be. at maximum, 250 to 300 words long. The writer must include full name, professional
title if a USC employee or South Carolina resident, or year and major if
e student. An address and phone number are required with all letters sent. The
Gamecock reserves the right to edit letters for style, possible libel or in case of
space limitations. The newspaper will not withhold names under any
circumstance.
: 1 ?y|
! *4 |!
| ^ ^ ^ |
n
! Interim nresir
Editor's note:Dr. Arthur Smith was named
as USC's interim president upon the resignation
as president of Dr. James Holderman. Dr.
Smith officially took office on July 1 and will
remain there until a permanent president is
chosen.
By definition, it can be argued, "Interim
President" is a contradiction in terms.
"President" commonly denotes leadership,
vision and achievement. "Interim," however,
has the connotation of temporary, almost fleeting
? a sense of interruption, of diminished activity.
Well before becoming interim president
of the University of South Carolina on July 1,1
had many, many questions centering on how
one can best fulfill this most challenging post.
, What is \W role of an interim president, and
what does he or she do? Should the tenure of
the interim president be marked by cautious stability
or daring change? How does our legion of
supporters, the University of South Carolina's
extended family, view the present and predict
the future? Do they believe that USC will continue
to race ahead, or do they fear we are
headed down a slippery slope to mediocrity?
, 1 From my \ .mtage point, perhaps the best answer
to man: of these questions is to explain
what I believe an interim president is not. Succinctly
put, I do not view it as a caretaker's job,
and that is a promise I am making to students,
faculty, staff and alumni.
The last 13 years under university President
James B. Holderman marked a period of dramatic
advancement, an era perhaps unprecedented
in USC's history. It was a time when the uniVprcitv
? ???; Uiivuouivu iLS UliVC lUWOlU tACCllCIlCC,
becoming internationally renowned in some
areas and nationally recognized in many more.
Those dramatic gains, I believe, are the cornerstone
for the '90s and beyond for the ninecampus
system of USC. Now it is my challenge
as interim president to accelerate ? not just
nerstone for the '90s and beyond for the ninecampus
system of USC. Now it is my challenge
as interim president to accelerate ? not just
maintain ? our momentum.
As this momentum increases in the months
ahead, I intend to emphasize certain priorities:
USC is a teaching and research university,
and the order in which I place the two missions
is deliberate. The welfare of our students is paramount.
Our undergraduate programs are and
must remain the rock solid foundation of everything
we do. USC-Columbia's ambitious new
core curriculum surely evinces our faculty's
strong commitment to excellence in the teaching
of undergraduate students.
We must never lose sight of our faculty's
, j mental man
Recycling not i am P0
** 0 mental pol
only answer clinsis ne
* manage 01
cling is not
To the editor: benefit tha
In response to. Kelly Thomas' pasing cur
incoherent expression of knee-jerk earth's prol
liberal outrage overmost people's cycling req
lack of fervor concerning recy- producing
cling: don't quit your day job. materials.
Your (hopefully) brief career as power plan
environmental expert and defender hopefully n
of the planet only outlines the ef- Also cor
fectiveness of propaganda. Sadly, cesses, jus
her column is only a drop in the duction pi
ocean of misinformation written chemicals
a daily about the issue of environ- disposed.
iis
ivi yi^ >3
lency not a car
*?pa pr. arthur smith
m Guest columnist
commitment to scholarship and the importance
of reasearch and artistic expression. I reject
most emphatically the occasional assertion that
a faculty devoted to scholarly research is one
that neglects teaching. It is well known throughout
higher education that undergraduate students
fortunate enough to attend teaching and
k search universities like USC have opportunities
that are unavailable at four-year colleges or
technical/community colleges.
When faculty members are engaged in research
or artisitic performance, they become
better informed teachers. When faculty members
create knowledge through research, they
become the world's best at teaching that knowledge.
That is why our graduate students are often
recognized as exemplary teachers. Much of
their time is spent discovering knowledge, and
they bring this excitement to the classroom
when they share discoveries with their students.
In fact, the advanced doctoral students who
teach at USC are on leave from, or about to be
employed in, full-time faculty positions at other
universities and colleges in South Carolina.
We must reaffirm that our vision for 2001
lives on. We will accomplish our long-range goals
of being one of the top 10 public university
systems in the nation by 2001, our 200th an
niversary. Partisan pessimists may argue that
we have set our sights too high. But throughout
my tenure at the university, I will insist that we
all dream because our dreams challenge us to
aspire to and attain greatness. Universities that
lower their sights will find themselves chasing
their dreams, not achieving them.
Perhaps our greatest asset is that USC is a
system, not a single campus. It is imperative to
USC and to the people of our entire state that
we preserve and strengthen our nine-campus
university system. Diversity encourages knowledge,
and diversity permeates USC's system ?
from Beaufort to Spartanburg and from Salkehatchie
to Coastal Carolina.
The system concept also expands, often exponentially,
the access South Carolinians have
to higher education. Our regional campuses
have brought educational opportunities to communities
throughout South Carolina, from the
associate degree 10 the doctorate. The university
ETTERS TO THE iblTt
lagement. words, recycling may I
sitive that an environ- in some cases, but is by
icy that includes recy- "free." What Ms. The
eded in order to better realize is that everything
ir resources, but recy- fects the environment in
t a panacea (for Kelly's and that there is no
t means an all encom- solution,
e or solution) for the Now, let's look at th<
blems. In most cases re- "devastation" that Ms. T
[uires more energy than agines will destroy the c
the product from raw Many self-proclaimed
This means that more mentalists" don't seem
ts will have to be built, that trees are a renewabl
luclear plants! and that timber compani<
isider the recycling pro- trees for every one thi
t like the original pro- terms our condescending
"ocesses use polluting might understand: tree
which then have to be plus 10 new trees equ
of properly. In other (i.e. many trees). Th
|EP6 YOU GO, G?MTL?MEN,
JO VJORTH OF
,p<0\WTH HORMONE....
NtfOY <ffcWR -GTAf <N t-'
JEW HAMPSHIRE... J
IfH^
lecnnicai or, ironically, private colleges.
The solution is straightforward: We must develop
a need-based tuition grant program for
South Carolina students that permits them the
freedom to choose either a public or private college
within the state. This concept, now practiced
in virtually every other state, maximizes
access to educational* opportunities and preserves
for students the right of choice.
During my years as executive vice president
for academic affairs and provost, I have learned
firsthand what USC has accomplished and what
it can become in the future.
I, like many others, was attracted here by the
exciting dynamism of a university on the move
toward distinction and by a vision of excellence
for USC that clearly was widely shared by faculty,
students, administrators and state leaders.
I understand, appreciate and share those dreams
and aspirations, and I welcome the challenge.
Stagnation and mediocrity are unacceptable
for the University of South Carolina, just.as a
caretaker's role has no attraction for me as its
interim president
be prudent planter of trees in this country is
' no means not Greenpeace or the Sierra Club,
>mas must it is Georgia Pacific, a timber
; we do af- company,
some way
overnight Ms. Thomas and her ilk would
have you believe that the Doomsi
supposed day Clock is ticking and that the
homas im- only way to stop it is through radijarth
itself, cal changes in our society. She of"environ
fers no statistics (she didn't even
to realize make any up) and no facts, yet has
e resource, the audacity to be angry with us.
ss plant 10 Please try to dicern the facts from
ey cut. In the rhetoric.
; columnist
plus axe Edward Moore
lals forest Graduate student
le largest Electrical engineering
etaker's job
system offers admission to minority, rural, educationally
and economically disadvantaged, and
older students whose opportunities might otherwise
be limited. The very nature of the USC
system encourages students and the university
to take risks, to challenge individuals to become
the best they can be.
# We must work to improve the current
method of state funding for public higher education.
The financial allocation method employed
by the state is recognized widely as
flawed. For the new fiscal year, USC's state allocation
is only 86.4 percent of the average
amount for comparable universities and colleges
in the southeastern United States. Average
funding over the past decade has been only 90
percent of the prescribed amount.
This chronic under-funding, combined with
the determination to rise above mediocrity, has,
unfortunately, driven student tuition to levels
higher than we desire. Public higher education
is in the midst of a budget crisis, one that in
part can be attributed to the current method of
formula funding. I am convinced that if university
and college leaders work together with the
Governor, the General Assembly, the state's
business community and the Commission on
Higher Education, we can solve the crises that
threatens higher education.
High tuition means that access to public*
higher education in South Carolina is at risk.
Cost considerations are forcing students from
low and middle-income families into the state's