Dear Chairman Anderson:
I am writing to you as a member of the State Legislature but more particularly in your capacity as Chairman of the South Carolina Black Legislative Caucus. I hope that things are going well with you and with the Caucus.
I am writing to the Caucus as a retired educator, and as a former Board Chairman and recently “fired” Trustee at South Carolina State University (SCSU). I am also the parent of a multiple degree holder from SCSU. I am writing in major part because of the many lingering and unresolved issues pertaining to the health and future existence of SCSU. These issues in my opinion require a serious and candid conversation between the public and our elected representatives who are exerting such direct influence and control over the University. The conversation is warranted on behalf of those who are currently in attendance at the University, as well as all of the citizens of this state who could benefit from attending South Carolina State now and in the future.
This conversation is long overdue and, if honestly conducted, it should result in some rationale understanding and the development of a plan for this state to address many of the critical challenges faced by its entire system of public education. The issues here are larger than a “university.” The issues here embrace grave matters of social and economic justice, remedies for past inequities, and the very central question of the role to be played by Black leadership in the continuing efforts to reconstruct South Carolina and build a stronger America. This is a challenge that can only be responsibly addressed in a serious and comprehensive context.
Now, while the University of South Carolina is proudly announcing studies which show how successfully it is engaging issues of Black education and Black student accommodation and Black students at the University of South Carolina are demonstrating and organizing to address the lingering and innovative factors insuring the continuation of racial discrimination and modern day marginalization, now is the time for that conversation. When the conversation in the Legislature is, in part, about appropriating “big bucks” to create special museum space for the recently furled confederate flag and other confederate memorabilia; and when the conversation on the ground at South Carolina State virtually closes State’s Standback Museum and leaves a Planetarium closed in this era of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, now is the time for that conversation.
Now that the Legislature has implemented a system of University Trustee representation, for South Carolina State University, which removes electoral district accountability, the Legislative Black Caucus seems to have a heightened degree of oversight responsibility for the welfare, maintenance and strengthening of the State’s only publicly supported four year HBCU. This I feel is particularly true in that all but several members of the Caucus voted for the removal of the regularly elected Board and the establishment of the Board that is currently serving the Legislature at South Carolina State University. It would logically follow that the comparative “score cards” of the Board of Trustees at South Carolina State which was duly elected and then removed and that of the current sitting Board would be of particular interest to the Black Legislative Caucus and to the public as well.
In that our removal occurred without any conversation with the Board and the Legislature, and without any presentation of “charges” or specifically recited allegations of deficiency, or an opportunity to discuss misperceptions or plan for a responsible transition in Board leadership; I want to provide the Caucus with some information which might be helpful as it makes future assessments regarding Board performance and responsibility at South Carolina State University. Permit me to share some of the accomplishments and plans which the duly elected Board, that the Legislature voted to dismiss, was pursuing while working under what were often very hostile and politically and intrusive conditions.
