P & C Ignores Important Facts About "University of Charleston"

We have either wilfully ignorant or totally biased reporters at the P & C. That much can be gleaned from a College of Charleston professor's op-ed in Wednesday's paper. During all the hoopla did you ever hear that CofC would lose important grants if it became an R1 institution? 

Read the following and be enlightened.

McConnell right not to push expanded University of Charleston
Jul 9 2014 12:01 am
On June 21 The Post and Courier's Diane Knich reported that a Commission on Higher Education official informed incoming College of Charleston President Glenn McConnell that the College need not seek legislative authorization to initiate Ph.D. programs as a Research I University, because the CHE has the authority to grant that status itself.
Mr. McConnell's public response was understandably cautious, and he expressed interest in submitting another bill to the General Assembly.
Columnist Brian Hicks, in the June 27 Post and Courier, was much less cautious, and less prudent, effectively declaring that, since the General Assembly was behaving so parochially in this matter, Mr. McConnell and House Speaker Bobby Harrell should bypass the General Assembly and seek CHE approval.
In his opinion piece, Mr. Hicks also cast Jim Merrill and Leon Stavrinakis as local heroes in the cause of promoting a University of Charleston bill. But they proposed a forced marriage between MUSC and the college, two institutions with very different missions, faculties and staffs.
They acted without consulting with constituencies at either institution or the CHE.
It was a ham-handed, ill-considered political stunt, and set a very bad tone with the Legislature for subsequent debate on the issue.
Mr. Hicks might be right that parochial forces are at work in the General Assembly on this issue, but they are not all in the Upstate.
Further, the C of C faculty has not been consulted as to which graduate programs might be worthwhile endeavors for a University of Charleston.
What discussion has transpired on such matters has taken place entirely at the level of local politicians and general business interests. It does not seem to have occurred to Mr. Hicks or to The Post and Courier editorial staff that those might not be the only useful or informed perspectives.
There are, for example, significant student/faculty research grant opportunities associated with undergraduate status for which the college would no longer be eligible, were it to be assigned Research I designation.
And while R1 does open new avenues for grants, the college would be unable to compete effectively in that pool without major investments in graduate program infrastructure.
One of the biggest concerns for C of C faculty (and administration) has been the issue of funding the college's current operations. Then-outgoing C of C President George Benson summarized the problem neatly in his June 19 letter to the editor: "Of all 121 public universities in the country that are roughly the College's size, we receive the lowest state appropriation per student."
Given that longer legislative track record, and the more recent history of failed attempts to push University of Charleston legislation through, how likely is it that legislators would adequately fund expensive new programs at the College of Charleston?
Not very, if President McConnell and Speaker Harrell were to attempt an end run around the General Assembly.
The General Assembly doesn't adequately fund the College now. Incoming President McConnell is quite right to proceed cautiously in this matter.
RICHARD NUNAN
Department of Philosophy
College of Charleston
George Street
Charleston

CCSD Social Studies Loses All Credibility

"Must S.C. students debate Darwinism?" screams the above-the-fold headline. From the reporter's point of view, the idea smacks of idiocy. From College of Charleston professor Rob Dillon, a measure just passed in the SC Education Oversight Ccommittee "is part of an effort to sneak creationism into public schools." Dillon probably checks under his bed each night to see if Bob Jones is hiding there.

Haven't they heard all the fuss about teaching "critical thinking"? What are educrats such as Dillon afraid of?

Maybe ignorance. One of the four votes against teaching "the controversy" was cast by Barbara Hairfield, "a Social Studies Curriculum Learning Specialist" (whatever that amounts to) in the Charleston County School District. Hairfield worries that "academic standards could possibly be interpreted as promoting a religion."

Hairfield is quoted as saying, "What does that say to our students who are Hindu or Jewish or Buddhist?" Some of us are hoping she was misquoted.

Yes, Hindus and Buddhists do not accept creationism because in their world views, the world is and always has been. But Jews?

Apparently Hairfield has never heard of the Torah. Where does she think the creation story comes from? This is CCSD's expert on social studies.

CCSD's Planning for Parking Fees a Joke

Evidently the reporter can't remember that part of the Memminger School property was sold off to the College of Charleston on a no-bid basis in April of 2012. Geeze, that's less than a year ago. What short memories we have.

Just think, that piece of property could have been used for parking. Instead, together with those from Buist, the Charleston County School District will spend almost $100,000 per year in parking fees for employees.

Speaking of Buist, district administrators, including Superintendent McGinley, wax poetic over the need for a gym and other spaces, expansion of the old footprint to bring the school amenities provided to other schools. That's the excuse for paying parking fees for Buist employees.

The reporter has also neglected to mention that parents in District 20 (downtown schools) proposed combining Buist and Charleston Progressive, another school being rebuilt at the old Courtenay campus only two blocks away. Several lower grades could have been assigned to the CPA campus and upper grades to the Buist campus, with the existing gym shared by both levels.

Oh, duh. That was just too logical, not to speak of putting a higher percentage of black students into the merged schools.

Here's one of those mathematical word problems:

The proceeds from the sale of the Memminger property went into the operating budget. The fees for parking come out of the operating budget. How many years will pass before the money gained from the sale will be exhausted by parking fees?

And another capital asset will have disappeared.

In CCSD, Broad Graduates Take Care of Their Own Audrey Lane

It couldn't wait. 

It was so important to reward Audrey Lane for her attendance at the Broad Institute, where she learned all about the components of BRIDGE, that fellow Broad-graduate Nancy McGinley insured an almost 19 percent raise for her prior to the district's own salary study report. And the raise is retroactive for 10 months.

Well, what can we expect in a district where at least 30 employees rack up more than $100,000 each and when the superintendent says "Jump" the Board of Trustees say "How high"? Needless to say, none of the most highly paid are teachers, who everyone agrees are the most important component in educating any child.

BROAD "a non-profit" = edublob at work 

Francis Marion University--Mt. Pleasant: Unpaid Student Loans in Job Seekers' Futures

Time will tell. Mt. Pleasant parents lulled into magical thinking by outgoing Mayor Billy Swails's desire for another four-year public campus in the Lowcountry will be taken for a ride, or we should say the ride will be taken by their children, who are too proud to attend Trident Tech and too academically unskilled to enroll in the College of Charleston. Apparently, they are also adverse to the Citadel option (or not accepted) and the thought of attending CSU in North Charleston (so far away and so declasse!) is an anathema.

FMU's plans for awarding a four-year nursing degree are hardly the stuff of academic dreams, except for nurses hoping for higher salaries. These nurses with two-year degrees apparently can't get into the rest of our local programs. What other gaps in four-year programs will this unnecessary campus fulfill? Is it going to turn out bachelor's degrees in Psychology? That should be helpful.

A public university can spend OPM. No wonder its Board of Trustees was unanimous in its support. If it was spending its own money, the Board might have wondered if the move was financially justified.

Soon this uppity part of Charleston County won't need to step outside of Mt. Pleasant's boundaries for anything. And in years to come, those unemployed who complete four-year degrees by taking out student loans will be wondering how they were suckered.

Swails Fails to Understand College Financial Realities

If a student graduates from Wando High School with what Mt. Pleasant Mayor Billy Swails calls "decent" grades, that student should be able to enroll in a local four-year college or university that is public funded.

Why? He reports pressure from parents who want cheaper or less religious alternatives than Charleston Southern, which has open admissions, so their children can stay in Mt. Pleasant without starting their studies at Trident Tech.

In his well-meaning way Mayor Swails has fallen into the snare perpetrated by President Obama and others that every high school graduate should get a four-year degree. How many even now leave four-year institutions with no degree, no employable skills, and thousands of dollars of debt? What percentage of these debt-ridden college dropouts should never have attended a four-year school in the first place?

Schools such as the College of Charleston consider factors other than "decent" grades because they search for those who will successfully complete degrees. Swails posits that this means students who are the first in their family to attend college can't get in. He's wrong. That detail, coupled with good grades and SATs, virtually guarantees admission!

At Francis Marion University students with below-average SAT scores may successfully achieve degrees, but about 60 percent of FMU freshmen fail to graduate. If the average SAT at FMU is 952, it's not too difficult to surmise that that low score predicts the failure of the majority to graduate! Then they are left  with their debts.

Trident Tech even now operates as an unofficial "bridge" program for the College of Charleston and every other four-year school in the state. TTC even has a satellite campus in Mt. Pleasant. Students who are motivated can cross the bridge to a four-year college. Not many do so because the majority do not have the motivation and academic skills to succeed, even if they did graduate from Wando.

Charter Schools Get Some Respect

Don't you wonder why the new law assisting the formation of more public charter schools has a provision that "prohibits reprisals against district employees who are involved in an application to establish a public charter school"? Our state legislators must have met Superintendent Nancy McGinley!


Charter schools now may be single sex. Institutions of higher learning (such as the College of Charleston and the Citadel) may decide to organize their own charter schools. Charter school students who wish to play a sport not offered at their charter school can participate at the school in their residential district. Virtually everything needed has been added, except additional funding.

All of these schools take away power from local elected school boards and the edublob and give it to independent charter boards and parents. Given the bootlicking behavior of CCSD's board majority, is it any wonder that charter schools are so popular?

Between those and on-line education, expect to see multi-million-dollar white elephant school buildings in CCSD in about two decades.

CEN's Big and Little Shots: Who's Playing in CCSD

Not too surprisingly, the Board of Directors of the Charleston Education Network (CEN) is comprised of big shots, money bags, and even the occasional educator.


Jon Butzon, its executive director, reports to a chairman, co-chairman, and 24 directors. Since the tax reports of 501(c) organizations (such as CEN) must be available to the public, through a helpful reader I am able to provide the names of these mysterious eminences, at least as of two years ago. Perhaps you can add some pertinent information to my groping attempts to identify all of them.

1. Neil C. Robinson, Jr., a lawyer with Nexsen Pruett, a director who states he is a founder and past chairman of CEN on the firm's website;


2. John Barter of Kiawah Island, listed as past co-chair, on the Board of Directors of Spoleto Festival USA and Board of Investors of the Noisette Company;


3. James Etheredge, vice-chairman for operations, has an MUSC email address;


4. Wilbur Johnson, lawyer with Young Rivers Clement;


5. Sybil Fix, former education reporter for the P & C;


6. Katherine Duffy, of Katherine Duffy and Associates, a marketing research firm, former director of the Palmetto-Lowcountry Health Systems Agency;


7. Lee Gaillard, former principal of Burke High School and present interim principal at Murray Hill Academy;


8. Edwin Halkyard, former president of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra;


9. Thomas Hood, president of First Financial (better known in Charleston as "First Federal");


10. Robert Lurie, retired founder of Bright Horizons Corporate Day Care, who lives on Kiawah;


11. Cathy Marino, also of Kiawah, active in Gibbes, Etc., and WINGS;


12. Elizabeth Marshall--no clear information available;


13. Sara Davis Powell, professor in C of C's School of Education;


14. Allan Rashford, M.D., downtown practitioner whose patients include former police chief Reuben Greenberg;


15. Retired Bishop (and former chairman) S.K. Rembert of the Reformed Episcopal Church;


16. Joseph P. Riley, Jr., who needs no introduction;


17. John Thompson, whose name is so common that no reliable identification can be made here;


18. Ruth Baker, another activist in community affairs from Kiawah;


19. Nella Barkley, director of Crystal-Barkley and first general manager of Spoleto Festival USA;


20. Johanna Carrington-Martin, co-chairman previously identified here;


21. The Rev. Willis T. Goodwin, chairman of the Charleston Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance;


22. Alicia Gregory, identified as Secretary, also on the board of directors of the Children's Museum along with Robert Lurie, its president;


23. Paul Hines, Co-chair of the Blue Ribbon Education Committee that opposed the A-team in the last school board election;


24. Rita O'Neill, General Manager of Channel 5;


25. Theron Snype, Minority Business Enterprise Manager for the City of Charleston and CCSD school board candidate in 2004;


26. Elisabeth Oplinger, former principal at Memminger Elementary.

In 2005 CEN listed its address as Capers Hall, Room 330. In that year it received almost $93,000 in "public support," $65,ooo of which went for Butzon's salary as the only employee.

Considerable overlap exists between this group and the members of the Charleston Planning Project for Pubic Education (C3PE) that produced a year-long study of public education in Charleston County in 1998. That organization's work was described by the Charleston Business Journal as

"the Equity and Excellence Study funded by private donations generated through a volunteer committee, the Charleston Planning Project for Public Education. C3PE is an education planning group consisting of business leaders and educators who are dedicated to the overall improvement of Charleston County schools."

Is that study the blueprint for the Charleston Education Network?

Who calls the shots in this unwieldy committee of 26?

Who decides what policies to push?

Where does more than $92,000 in "public support" come from?

What are Butzon's qualifications for sitting in on CCSD meetings?

Why does CCSD list CEN under "parent" organizations?

Any and all answers will be appreciated!

"Only Connect": E.M. Forster Was Right!

Note: For those who have not read the Dendy story,
try "Forward to Pickens" below.

C of C fires Herrion: Buyout of basketball coache's contract could cost $1 million, screams the banner headline of the Post and Courier, June 15, 2006.

On the same day in the Sports section, Ken Burger's column explains, "Fatal flaw: Herrion just didn't get it."

Burger's Friday follow-up column, "It's academic: What the College needs to learn,"
provides interesting advice to the College and insight to the careful reader.

Well, it's not about LaRon Dendy or Clemson this time, you say? "Only connect"!

Each of these articles (and others speculating on Herrion's replacement) points out that the firing "[constitutes] a messy divorce with strange timing," "timing . . . [suggesting] an unfixable problem," since "the College is left with a basketball program in shambles and a big buyout bill to pay." Okay, Herrion was hired in April 2002; a successful season allowed him to renegotiate his contract in 2003; "his win-loss record slipped a bit each of the [following] three years"; attendance at games dropped off; some players were "showing up on the police blotter" and their academics slipped. None of the foregoing explains the TIMING.

According to Burger's Friday column, grades "broke the camel's back." GRADES??? Of course, not Herrion's grades, but those of his players, spring-semester grades characterized as "pathetic." So outgoing C of C "president Lee Higdon finally" agreed to the firing.

No one would care about the grades except for NCAA rules, those that "require athletes to be on course to graduation at all times." The resulting punishment is a "cost of valuable scholarships" (i.e., the number that can be offered by the C of C), using the definition of scholarship loosely here!

Who is to blame? Herrion is fired, with the added difficulty of finding another job for 2006-07. While he is being raked over the coals, however, the incident requires another look.

In his Friday column, Burger gives some remarkable advice to the C of C. For example, he points out that entering Division I sports "in the early 1990s" meant no more "schoolboy sports," that "a different kind of player" was needed, and "that kind of player is not college material."

Let's be clear on that--"not college material" presumably means not prepared to pass college courses without intervention, that is, being accepted to colleges and universities without meeting the usual entrance requirements. Coaches do not run the admissions department, so such acceptance requires the collusion of admissions (and probably administration).

Well, at a Division II school, this loosening of requirements may help an average student gain entrance to a highly-competitive college; however, because of potential big bucks down the road in professional sports, in Division I, a student may have not met the NCAA requirements for SATs and, in fact, may be reading on the fourth- or fifth-grade level. Far-fetched, you say? Read on.

He goes on to berate the C of C for not acting as the "big" schools did when NCAA eligibility rules were tightened: "build[ing] these expensive academic support systems that basically hand-carry" weak players through college.

Question: Who pays for that? Most, if not all, of the so-called "big" schools are state-funded.

To support his claims, Burger cites the complaint of Steve Spurrier in May about "lack of academic support for football players" at USC and Burger's own knowledge of "huge athletic buildings for academic support" at Clemson and Georgia, "staffed by tutors [who] get athletes to class and make sure they do the work," even push[ing] them through summer school" to become "graduate students in their senior season."

Okay, so how did Clemson get the money for that? And, whose pockets does it come from?

"Way behind the curve" is the way Burger describes C of C. He also wonders if a special program at C of C (SNAP--for "students with learning disabilities") is being abused by coaches (i.e., Herrion) "looking for an edge."

As opposed to not being abused elsewhere? Why would C of C be different, unless players have routinely been routed through SNAP as a substitute for the academic support they would have received at Clemson?

Why the problem now? The College of Charleston entered Division I sports in "the early 1990s," a decade before Herrion was hired. Therefore, if a new kind of athlete were needed, these must have been recruited by John Kresse, who retired in 2002.

Why was Herrion's contract renegotiated in 2003 on the basis of the performance of students recruited by Kresse? Maybe it was the "fog" of victory?

How could C of C players who were "not college material" stay on track to graduate for a decade--from the early 1990s when the college entered Division I (and won a championship in four years!) until 2002 when Kresse retired? Is this why Burger complains about Herrion's not getting along with faculty and administration? As if he didn't smooze enough to get instructors to pass his players? May we ask what Kresse's secret was, if not that?

If the basketball roster is almost exclusively made up of players who spent at least one year at a private prep school prior to entering the C of C, why aren't they better prepared as students? Isn't that what prep schools do? We have now come full circle to LaRon Dendy, who is on track to join recruits at Clemson who have done the same. IS academic preparation what "prep" schools do? For basketball players at Division I schools, apparently not!

Why did the majority of C of C players attend prep schools then? Aha! That takes us back to NCAA rules. If a player's SAT scores are below the minimum, his grade-point average must meet a minimum or the player is red-shirted and must sit out freshman year while he brings up his grades.

[NOTE: A student who could not meet a minimum grade-point doing high-school-level work will now excel doing college-level work.]

Here's where the prep schools perform. Students who do not meet SAT minimums or grade-point minimums are encouraged by Division I schools not to graduate but to enter prep schools instead, where miraculously in a short time they raise their grade-points so that they do not need to red-shirt! As a coach quoted in a New York Times article said earlier this year, "We can't do anything about the SATs." What are coaches talking about? See quote below from a website on NCAA rules:

The "sliding scale" has also been extended. It will now allow a higher core GPA to reduce the SAT component. A 2.5 core GPA will still require a 820 SAT score, a higher core GPA of 2.75 GPA would need a 720 SAT score, a 3.0 core GPA would only require a 620 SAT score and a 3.55 core GPA would require just a 400 SAT score.

So, Tavon Nelson, who left C of C after drug charges against him were dropped, came from South Kent Prep in Connecticut, having started out at a Baltimore public high school; Josh Jackson, from Notre Dame Prep in Massachusetts (a school of 38 students, half of whom are seniors); Dontaye Draper, from Trinity-Pauling of New York; Jermaine Johnson, from Winchendon Prep in Massachusetts (tuition $34,000 per year); Junior Hairston, from Fork Union Military Academy; Marcus Hammond, from Brewster Academy; Drew Hall, from Montrose Christian Academy in Maryland via two years at Georgetown after being turned down as a sophomore transfer to Gonzaga for not meeting academic standards.

The team's record's slipping for each of the last three years suggests recruiting problems, does it not? Kresse's recruits graduate and Herrion's take their places? What changed? Obvious answer is, the coach, but perhaps strengthened athletic academic programs at "big" schools also played a role. And another mystery arises.

Who pays the prep school tuition?