S C T E CHN I CA L CO L L E G E S Y S T EM ’ S
F I R S T 5 0 Y EAR S
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Russell, new to the presidency, wasn’t quite sure what he was
committing to, but thought a feasibility study could answer some
difficult questions.
“So we put together a task force. We brought folks from oth-
er states in to talk about apprenticeship programs. We brought
some consultants down who had worked with the US Depart-
ment of Labor and the conclusion was, absolutely; this makes
sense for the state. And it made sense for the technical colleges to
lead and drive it.”
The state board endorsed an apprenticeship program, and
the state Chamber of Commerce and other groups supported it.
“At that time,” said Russell, “there was a little apprenticeship ac-
tivity in the state, but not much. If you compared what we were
doing to even our neighboring states, North Carolina, Geor-
gia, Florida, it was rather pitiful. North Carolina with twice the
population had six times more apprentices than South Caroli-
na. So we knew there was potential. And it turns out; we were
right.”
“We brought in a good team to head the program and took
the story to the business leaders in the state and also just a lot of
shoe leather going from business to business explaining what this
could do. We got the colleges involved showing how they could
provide classroom instruction while apprentices worked in local
businesses. It took off like a rocket.”
The first year or two the number of apprentices in the state in-
creased drastically. Ironically, the Department of Labor in Wash-
ington had not been optimistic about what South Carolina might
do with apprenticeships.
“As I was retiring from the system office, they were touting
our system as one of the real models for the country,” said Russell.
Montez Martin said the program “went gangbusters. Who
wouldn’t want that? It’s almost like the moon shot.”
Slowly old barriers were falling. The impossible became possi-
ble and at times the changes proved astounding.
A PRESIDENT COMES CALLING
Prior to taking the helm at the system office, Dr. Barry Russell
was president at Midlands Technical College. During that time,
a change in leadership took place at the University of South Car-
olina. Dr. Andrew A. Sorensen succeeded Dr. John M. Palms as
the university’s 27th president. Sorensen began his education at
Joliet, the country’s first public community college for students
planning to transfer to a four-year university. The times and the
man intersected.
Russell met Dr. Sorenson at his reception. They clicked from
the beginning.
“I want to get together,” said Sorensen.
“Well, great, I’ll call your assistant and get on your calendar,”
replied Russell.
“No, no, no, I want to meet with you in your office.”
“I was blown away,” said Russell. “That was not the relation-
ship between the technical colleges and the university up until
that point.”
On Sorensen’s way to meet Russell, a funny thing happened.
“Lo and behold,” said Russell, “we had a reserved parking
place held out front, but somebody parked in it, and he ended up
parking in the back forty of the campus. He walked all around
the Beltline campus to find my office. He was really good about
it.”
Sorensen entered Russell’s office.
“Dr. Sorenson, I think this is probably a first for one of our
major university presidents to be sitting in the office of a techni-
cal college president,” said Russell.
The men hit it off, formed a friendship, and started doing
things. “I was real interested in entrepreneurship, and we were
kicking around the possibility of some kind of business incuba-
tor that would be part of the college that students could use. So-
The 2000s
F L Y I N G H I G H
