Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Engineering CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2 expected in the business.” Irmo has been developing the partnership for a few years, but formalized the agreement with USC this spring after gauging stu dent interest, he said. “I think the kids are real pleased that they have this oppor tunity because they really look at it,” Jeffries said. The courses can even be cashed in for credit hours at the USC College of Engineering, encour aging students to apply to the uni versity. “It’s a hell of a recruiting tool!” Young said. “We have found that people say, ‘I didn’t know that Carolina had an engineering pro gram.’” Young said engineering enroll ments have been slack even while the demand has remained. USC’s engineering program has been concerned with its visibility to ap plicants in the past, and the pro gram is the latest in a series de signed to promote the college, he said. USC’s Project Lead the Way be gan last Friday with the demon stration of an elaborate Rube Goldberg apparatus in the base ment of the mechanical engineer ing building. Rube Goldberg ap paratuses use flashy engineering tools to dramatically accomplish a simple purpose, like turning on a light switch or pouring a pail of water. But after the fun, the middle and high school teachers have been in class until 5:00 p.m. daily. Notably, Project Lead the Way only chooses one university affil iate per state. USC beat Clemson to the punch because of the inter est of engineering dean Ralph White. “Clemson was kind of thinking about doing it, but they never seemed to react,” said McNeill. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockudesk@hotmail.com USC tries out new budget system BY BRIAN RAY THE GAMECOCK USC will implement the trial version of a new program next week that grants its individual colleges greater fiscal autonomy. Beginning July 1, value-centered management will require USC colleges to manage their own money. For the next fiscal year, USC will run under the normal budg et system but will keep records of costs and revenue as if it were using VCM. Chief Financial Officer Rick Kelly said he is enthusiastic about the possibilities inherent in VCM. VCM allows schools such as the Liberal Arts College direct access to the income generated from their individual enroll ment. Previously, Kelly said, rev enue from colleges contributed to a general fund. “We found out about it from Indiana University,” said Kelly. Kelly said VCM will also have an impact on non-academic units at the university. Services such as telephones and maintanence will now have to become more efficient because the university will not be fund ing them. “The university will be pay ing for them as customers,” said Kelly. USC President Andrew Sorensen will be looking at the possibility of outside contrac tors. But even if the internal units are more expensive than private services, Kelly said, the university will try to make them more efficient before going off ramnnc Kelly said there are few or no critics of the movement. Anyone who is unsure of the new pro gram is only worried about de tails, he said. But there are critics. They say value-centered management — also known as responsibility centered management — can lead to problems for universities. A study by Leroy W. Dubeck published in the National Educational Association’s jour nal “Thought and Action” said that deans at each college would need control over their expens es in addition to control over their revenue for the program to be successful. RCM does not al low them this power. “Implementation is kind of tricky,” Liberal Arts College dean John Skvoretz said. Skvoretz said there are a few horror stories regarding VCM. He mentioned that the engineer ing school at one VCM school be gan to offer its own English 101 courses. Dubeck s paper also warns universities that their colleges might start competing for rev enue dollars. “There would be strong in centives to stop students in one college from sampling course of ferings in another college,” Dubeck writes. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockudesk@hotjnail.com Take Kaplan. Score higher. Reserve^yow 1 CH =* < »7-S » Classes are starting soon! 1717 Gervais Street 1 -800-K AP-TEST kaptest.com World Leader In Test Prop -sm name* m ni^Mm) esaemare*. or him reneecm* owner*. Future Teachers Needed! WANT TO TEACH FUN. INQUIRY- BASED PROGRAMS TO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CHILDREN? Mad Science is the world's leading provider of spectacular hands-on science programs for children. 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