The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, November 15, 2000, Page 4, Image 4
Excerpts from The Gamecock’s interview with John Palms
The Gamecock: You were president of
Georgia State before you came here, and
you decided to come when the universi
ty was going through the Holderman or
deal. What motivated you to come to this
university in the face of all that?
John Palms: Wfell, let me say, I didn’t know
as much about the previous president’s
undertakings. I knew there had been con
troversy about what he paid a visiting dig
nitary to come and teach— $300-and
something thousand dollars to Mrs. Sadat.
[Jifran Sadat, the widow of Egyptian Pres
ident Anwar Sadat.] I had no idea about
all; the other things that... were revealed
to Jne after I arrived. I came for one rea
son: that is, that the University of South
Carolina is a flagship institution. Geor
gia State is a great institution, but it's not
a flagship institution.... I was not seekmg
a job at that time. I got called about this
job and turned it, said ‘I’m not interest
ed at all.’ Got called again and said I wasn’t
interested and they said, ’Well, come talk
to us about, you know, what we should
be looking for for a president. ’ And when
I came, one thing led to another. So kind
oPa, a rapid process.... When I came here,
we had a major crisis with the credibility
of;the institution: trust. Bad press, leg
islative suspicions about the integrity and
the character of the institution, which is
the most valuable thing one has as an in
stitution. So the first thing was to reestab
lish that credibility. There are a couple of
things I did immediately. One was those
scholarships going to people the president
had picked. I immediately revealed who
the recipients of those scholarships were.
I eliminated a lot of money in adminis
trative expenses. One whole area dealing
with some vice president of administra
tion, about a million and a half, and I just
eliminated the whole thing, because, in
my opinion, it just wasn’t functioning
well....I worked across a pretty broad front
of issues dealing with that administration,
and, at the same time, trying to assess
where this university was academically,
what it had achieved and what the facul
ty .thought its potential was, realistically.
So I wasn’t out here saying ‘Charge,’ and
I looked behind me and there’s nobody
there to follow me.... We decided that we
were much better than the reputation that
we had...that we had the capacity to re
cruit better students than what we were
recruiting....We needed both new build
ings and renovated buildings. So we need
ed a master plan for the campus—a long
term master plan....[The university] raised
the admissions standards three times, got
the SATs up. People worried that we
wouldn’t make a class and we did that and
we did it anyway. We raised the standards
for teaching and research for faculty and
what it would take to get tenure.Es
sentially we said, we want to be worthy
eventually of being invited into the most
elite group of major research universities,
the AAU, the Association of American
Universities....You know, in ail the sur
rounding states, the stales have picked one
or two institutions and raised them above
everybody else’s: Chapel Hill, Universi
ty of Virginia, University of Georgia, Uni
versity of Florida... And we still have to
make that decision m this state— that this
comprehensive flagship institution needs
to be raised above everybody else’s....
We’ve had 500 now faculty, and the ma
jority of them come from AAU institu
tions where you have this culture that
we're trying to create, so whai you’re do
ing here is changing the culture....Our ath
letic success is helping some here, in the
last couple of years, and will continue to
do so, especially with the quality of the
coaches that we have. Their personal char
acter quality is very important. And that
win-loss record doesn’t hurt, either, for a
change.
Gamecock: One of the things that you
mentioned as a goal has been to gain us
entrance into the AaU, which, as far as
I know, is completely dependent upon
graduate and doctoral research. One of
the things I know we write about a good
deal, about that quest, is how getting in
to the AAU will benefit the education
of an undergraduate student.
Palms: Well, let me tell you, there are a
few qualities that all these AAU institu
tions have in common. First of all, it’s just
taken for granted, you have the best un
dergraduate students m the country. They
come there because [of] the best faculty.
The faculty come because they’re teach
ing the best students as well as doing the
research.... So if everything’s going right,
teaching should immensely improve here
by the fact that we’re moving up in over
all quality.
Gamecock: You mentioned that when you
first came here, you had some, you want
ed to obtain some realistic goals when
you got here, improving the reputation
of the school. Do you feel, from the
time you’ve come here, that that’s al
ready been accomplished?
Palms: There are a couple of things that
have happened here.... lhe AAU mem
bership is voted on by the presidents of
the AAU members. I send out a brag
sheet a couple times a year of our ma
jor accomplishments. So when I tell
them that the faculty six years ago
was bringing in $60 million of resear ch
and last year $121 million, that’s a
major thing that affects the reputation.
When 1 tell them that last year we had
a Rhodes Scholar, that says sometning
about our undergraduate program.
1 here are only a cuupie ot Rhodes bchoi
ars in the whole South. It came out of
our undergraduate program, from a girl
from Lancaster, South Carolina. This
was not a New Jersey import. This was
a Southern girl.... When you hire a man
like Dan Car ter in history, who wrote
the biography of [AiaoamaJ Governor
[George] Wallace, and wrote the book
on the Scottsboro kids in Alabama that
got falsely accused of raping a girl and
got a Pulitzer Prize ... and he leaves L
Emory University and comes here —
every history department in this country
knows this happened.
Gamecock: So would you say that the
credibility has been fully restored and that
the good public standing of the universi
ty has been fully restored?
Palms: Based upon legislative sampling,
the alumni coming back and the giving
recor d to the campaign, inis would never
have been possible without their feeling
that tire credibility is back.... The money
coming in certainly is an indicator. Peo
ple are writing checks again for the uni
versity. ... The fact that you got a $20 mrl
lion gift from one and a $25 million gift
from another and 60 $ 1 million gifts from.
others when there was only one milliou
dollar gift to the university before we start
ed the campaign. I was writing thank-you
notes when somebody gave me a thou
sand dollars. ‘Thank you so much for this
thousand dollars.’ [laughs]. It’s precari
ous, I mean, that character thing is always
delicate.... And you just have to watch
it all the time.
Gamecock: Are there any programs you
think of that might be AAU quality
right now?
Palms: Chemistry. Biology. Information
systems. Certainly, our MIBS program is.
Our marine science is. I think psycholo- .
gy is.... I think we’re there in public health. 1
. .You know., me top AAUs are great right I
across the board There’s another level of
AAU that, they ve got these cathedrals
of excellence. The other programs are
good also, but not as good as those world
class [programs]. Everybody can’t be world-1
class.... We’ve said we’re not going to do
it across every, every department. We’re
going to try to build these cathedrals,
the ones that are closest to being at the
top. We’ll bring everybody up, too, but it
would take a lot of resources to do it all
across the board with everybody.
[
Palms
from page 1
ing the research,” Palms said. “So if
everything’s going right, teaching should
immensely improve here by the fact
that we’re moving up in overall qual
ity.”
Palms said, while some AAl) in
siiiuiiuus are “great right across the
board,’ USC would have to focus on
some "cathedrals of excellence” —
such as science and math, the college
ot liberal arts, engineering and business
instead of trying to bring all of the
university’s programs to AAU levels.
"Everybody can’t be world-class.
We ’ ve said we’re not going to do it
auoss eveiy department,” Paims said.
"Wfe'ie going to try to build these cathe
Oials, ihe ones that are closest to being
at the top. We’ll bring everybody up,
too, but it would take a lot of resources
to do it all across the board with every
body.” |
---I
r
Neighborhood
from page 1
Possibly the most frustrating con
cern for association members, though,
is parking problems caused by students.
According to Stiver, a USC philosophy
professor and associate dean of the hon
ors college, students using neighbor
hood parking spaces can sometimes dis
regard resident concerns for a convenient
parking spot close to class.
“Students have a tendency to take
advantage of the parking system, which
is not to give residents certain parking
privileges they feel they’ve earned
through their high taxes,” Stiver said.
Parking problems aren’t just about
inconvenience for residents, Stiver added,
saying some real safety concerns are
at issue. For example, when all of the
parking spaces are occupied, especial
ly at intersections such as Greene and
Barnwell, a driver’s line of sight is of
ten compromised.
“You have to puli out so far to see,
you run the risk of getting (into an ac
cident),” Stiver said.
Among its recommendations to curb
parking woes, the association is asking
City Council to partially close Gibbes
Court at the intersection with Barnwell
“in order to reduce the volume of USC
traffic looking for parking on Gibbes
Court,” according to the group’s sum
mary of recommendations. It’s also
requesting some parking spaces on
Greene Street be removed completely
“in order to increase visibility and safe
ty for both motorists and pedestrians.”
While the recommendations have
yet to be presented to City Council, and
no clear date has been set to do so as
of Wednesday night, Stiver is confident
the association’s recommendations 'will
not be made in vain.
“I’m not so sure the city won’t give
us a lot of these things,” Stiver said. “I
think it should go for all of it.”
The city/state desk can be reached at
gamecockcitydesk@hotman.com.
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