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
|
1 1 7
The 2000s
F L Y I N G H I G H
for years and years and through absolutely no fault of their own
lost jobs.”
The cuts were hard on everyone. The anxiety. Not knowing.
Hurtful too was seeing services so badly needed across the sys-
tem and state damaged.
“Looking back, we probably got through it about as well as
we could,” said Russell. “We took a methodical process trying to
protect those services most essential, and I think we did a pretty
good job.”
Board chair Nick Odom has served on the board since 1996.
He recalls those nerve-racking times. “We were facing some very
hard times. The state office sacrificed to get through that. Dr.
Russell provided great leadership. We found ways to figure things
out. We got into cost control. We questioned things we hadn’t
questioned before at the system level as well as at the school level,
even to the program level.”
Odom gives credit to elected officials during these onerous
times. “They know you have something here that is important
to South Carolina and important to our future and even during
those tough times, they worked hard to help us, so they get a ton
of credit at the General Assembly level. They worked very, very
hard to support us even with scarce dollars, with great competi-
tion for dollars.”
Keeping tuition affordable was vital. “If you don’t have acces-
sibility and affordability you will never attract people and further
their skill sets,” said Odom. He sees the technical college system
as the “gateway of opportunity with an affordability doorknob
and an accessibility doorknob.” He refers too to a third doorknob,
remediation. “Educators today don’t always hit the mark for all
students. Our door is open. And we say, ‘Yes, you can come in.’ If
we get them, how are we going to help them become better?’ Re-
mediation is very important, and it’s something a lot of us worry
about because a citizen who isn’t enlightened isn’t an effective
citizen.”
Dr. Darrel Staat, system president from 2010 to 2013, said he’s
“seen things no one thought would ever happen, a tremendous
cut in state support. We’ve had cuts in budgets and yet none of
our sixteen have fallen flat on their face. Not one has even stum-
bled. They have all figured out how to make it work. The mission
has not been dropped. It is moving ahead extremely well. They
(the colleges) are pretty much doing it on their own.”
Translation? An unabated supply of enlightened, effective cit-
izens in the late 2000s, cutbacks notwithstanding.
LIVING OFF CRUMBS
Montez Martin served as chair of the state board during the
crunch. Kelly Steinhilper, director of communications for the
state board, remembers those days. “I covered a joint board
meeting where we wanted to do a press release as a result of the
downturn. We were trying to figure out how to deal with these
budget cuts, and as an aside, Montez said ‘He was tired of living
off the crumbs.’ I thought, ‘That’s going to be a great quote.’ So we
put it in the press release.”
Out went the release and in comes a call from Senator John
Courson. Courson wants to see the fellow living off crumbs.
2007
2007:
The System began its participation in the
Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count
initiative. Apprenticeship
Carolina
™
was established to promote registered apprenticeships as a workforce development tool. The System and the University of
South Carolina announced a statewide Bridge Program, easing the transfer process for technical college students. The System launched
readySC
™
as the new brand for the nationally-renowned recruiting and training program previously known as Special Schools.
