Race is factor in South Carolina State ‘mess’

Phil Noble
Businessman
Co-founder, Envision South Carolina

By Phil Noble

CHARLESTON, South Carolina --Let’s begin with the obvious: South Carolina State University is a mess. No, it’s way beyond a mess; it is on life support and its very existence is in grave danger.

But it can be fixed and, in fact, the solution is fairly straightforward. It’s not rocket science; if GM can go from the brink of extinction to making a profit in less than 24 months, then S.C. State’s problems can be solved.

The barriers to these solutions are politics, race, intransigence, corruption and political dysfunction — sort of a microcosm of the problems that are afflicting our state today and have been for generations.

This is not the place to recount all the problems of S.C. State; that would take a book. Suffice it to say, the finances have been incompetently — if not criminally — mismanaged for years. Corrupt politicians have tried to use S.C. State as their own profit center, triggering some, though not nearly enough, jail terms for a number of school officials. It is hemorrhaging students, with a 40 percent drop in enrollment since 2007.

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Phil Noble is a businessman in Charleston and serves as president of the SC New Democrats, an independent reform group founded by former Gov. Richard Riley. He is co-founder of Envision South Carolina and author of "A New Golden Age for South Carolina."