Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Tuition CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Missouri and the University of Florida charge tuition entirely by credit hours. While 85 percent of students take 16 hours or less each se mester, students double major ing or majoring in art, chemi cal engineering, music and phys ical education cannot graduate in four years without taking 18 hours for at least one semester. Elective courses not necessary for a degree might be out of reach for some. “College is about having the freedom to explore different in terests, and being limited to ‘what is required’ for fear of costing your parents too much money is counterintuitive to the college experience,” said Julie Cook, an Honors College student who is double majoring in art history and political sci ence. The University of Alabama, where Sorensen served as presi dent for six years, charges the same tuition for all full-time stu dents. One USC professor pointed out that as unfair as this might seem, it could have come down to raising tuition by 20 percent or charging only those who take extra. “In tight budget times, this is to be expected,” he said. “They can’t afford to give stuff away right now,” he said. It is unknown whether this is a temporary or permanent solu tion. Sorensen and the board op posed a cap on tuition increases earlier this year. The cap was set in the general assembly at about 4 percent but didn’t pass. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockudesk@hotmail.com Liberal Arts College to get new dean BY COREY GARRIOTT THE GAMECOCK John Skvoretz has been named interim dean of the Liberal Arts College to replace Joan Stewart, who is leaving to become presi dent of Hamilton College. “Things really broke out quite late in the game,” Skvoretz said. After the president asked around and talked to Stewart, he said, “I was in the right place at the right time.” Skvoretz, twice the sociology department chair and currently the associate dean of the Liberal Arts College, said he likes admin istrative work. A dean adminis ters and manages his college, over seeing academics, recruitment and public relations. “One of the reasons I am here is because I enjoyed administra tion,” he said, “the challenges of making things work, helping peo ple achieve what they want.” While dean of the College of Liberal Arts is already a busy job, Skvoretz will preside over the first year of the university’s new val ue-centered management pro gram. VCM makes individual col leges responsible for paying the bills for internal services. “The idea, in theory, is that col leges will find ways to make things more efficient,” he said. “Until now, the college had no idea how much it spent on maintenance.” The dean will also have to deal with budget cuts, apportioning the funds as efficiently as possible. “We’ve had to try very hard to meet our basic teaching obliga tions,” Stewart said, especially with the growing freshman and sophomore classes. Skvoretz said the dean must de cide where to relay resources by fhp rplativp viQihilitv nf thp lihpral arts departments and the student demand for classes. Stewart was hired four years ago from NC State, where she was a French professor. She has been dean of the liberal arts college for - four years. She said that the uni versity had impressed her. While she appreciated the ad ministrative climate and the fac ulty, Stewart said she was “very impressed with the ambition to become a world-class university,” a goal articulated by former USC President John Palms. She said that the university is on its way. “Our department of history is absolutely first rate, especially with its programs of Southern his tory and African-American histo ry.” She said that the departments of English, geography and psy chology are all nationally regard ed departments. Stewart looks forward to work ing with Hamilton, a small liber al arts college, because she be lieves deeply in a liberal arts edu cation. “What you’re learning in a lib eral education,” she said, “is how to find information, how to evalu ate it, how to assimilate it and how to use it. What we need, she said, is less a specific body of knowledge and more an ability to adapt. “All of the research nowadays suggests that people will change jobs very often during their lifetimes,” she said. “In any job you take you’re going to need to read, to write, to think analytically,” she said. She said the administration was supportive of her vision dur ing her tenure, naming Provost Jerry Odom and Sorensen. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockudesk@hotmail.com Senate CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 bill. According to Sen. Robert Ford (R-Charleston), Kuhn gave a filibuster in order to keep the bill from passing in its current form. “It’s very important to know that I did not block the bill,” said Kuhn. “The House and Senate leadership had opportunities to compromise all day.” Kuhn said that the state’s most prominent research universities Clemson. MUSC and USC should n’t receive a disproportionate amount of the $250 million. He ad vocated an amendment to the bill that would have resulted in the three schools receiving $120 mil lion. Ford said that there were sev eral distribution formulas in ne gotiation that he liked better. According to Kuhn, another reason to oppose the bill involved the shape of K-12 schools. He said that $250 million is the equivalent of 600 new teacher salaries in K-12. Kuhn’s district includes College of Charleston, Trident Technical College, the Citadel and MUSC, which stood to gain $72 million from Bill 3899. “I would have been bringing more money home than those three trucks in the Iraq crisis,” said Ford. But he said that he blames the colleges for their fail ure to compromise. Sorensen said that Ford’s accu sation is not an accurate portrayal of the situation. Sorensen repre sents three four-year colleges and four two-year colleges in addition to USC. “So I have eight colleges and universities that I’m responsible for,” he said. He added that attractive aspects of Bill 3899 included a stipulation that would have required USC to match every state-funded dollar with a privately funded dollar. According to Sorensen, investing in research infrastructure under the bill’s provisions would have brought private companies into USC’s immediate future. If the Senate passes the bill when it reconvenes next January, Sorensen can then seek private funds for the research park he plans to create. The Commission tt:c—_: i UUUVUUUil 1U1 LflUO [11 1 vate companies to fund construc tion on university property. Sorensen said that he plans to move ahead despite the setback. He said that he will speak with at torneys, and that he has already spoken individually with some state legislators about seeking waivers for the procurement code that prohibits private funding for the research park. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockudesk@hotmail.com Interested in writing for the Gamecock this summer? 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