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Endowed chairs program closer to reauthorization
By Dan McCue
Staff Writer
Lawmakers in Columbia are a step closer to reauthorizing the use of S.C. Education Lottery funds to strengthen research and create endowed professorships, intended to enhance the state’s economy, at South Carolina’s major research universities.
The House Ways and Means Committee voted Feb. 7 to send the Research Centers of Economic Excellence Act — which is scheduled to expire in 2010 — on to the full House for consideration. The Research Centers of Economic Excellence is receiving $180 million in lottery fund appropriations through fiscal year 2007-08.
“I believe (the original act) was the most important piece of legislation related to higher education that’s been passed during my tenure,” said Dr. Ray Greenberg, who has been president of the Medical University of South Carolina since January 2000. “And in my view, we’ve gotten off to a great start.
“The question is whether lawmakers will take the kind of long view that’s essential to a program like this,” he said. “While the original act has been in effect for six years, it’s only been in the last two years that we’ve started filling endowed chair positions. Many of those we’ve hired are only now developing their programs.”
Established by the General Assembly in 2002, the S.C. Research Centers of Economic Excellence was intended to capitalize on the spirit of collaboration that had been forged by the state’s three public research institutions: MUSC, the University of South Carolina and Clemson University.
The act gives the universities access to the Education Lottery Funds that then must be matched dollar for dollar with private funds before an endowed professorship can be filled.
A nine-member panel evaluates proposals from prospective endowed chairs with greater credit given to those that would involve collaboration between research universities.
The program allows each university to claim an area of expertise for the endowed chair to work within. For instance, because Clemson is the only one of the three with a School of Architecture, it will be the lead institution when a professor is hired for an endowed chair for historic preservation. Likewise, USC and MUSC have taken the lead on the endowed chairs related to medicine and pharmacology.
Greenberg said the value of the program is twofold. First, it allows the universities to recruit research professors who might not otherwise consider coming to South Carolina. Second, research that comes out of the universities is expected to inspire the creation of spin-off businesses that will then provide jobs within the state for their graduates.
“I really don’t think it’s possible to oversell the importance of this act,” Greenberg said.
As an example, Greenberg pointed to MUSC’s recent success in recruiting one of the nation’s leading stroke experts,Dr. Marc Chimowitz, head of the Department of Neurology at Emory University. “Marc Chimowitz has just received a $28 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to begin a national trial of a stroke treatment he’s developed, and his grant will be the largest ever that will enter the state of South Carolina,” Greenberg said. “That immediately catapults us into a leading position in the treatment of strokes, and it’s only one example of what’s happened since the program went into effect.
“Overall, NIH funding for research at MUSC grew 11% last year, at a time when NIH funding nationally has been declining. And more than half that growth is directly attributable to the people we’ve hired through the endowed chair program,” he said.
To date the three universities have filled 15 endowed chair positions. Greenberg said the universities have been actively recruiting to fill 10 others.
The question to be considered by the General Assembly is whether the endowed chair program is the best use of the Education Lottery Funds or whether it would be wiser to invest the money in more scholarships for students.
“There’s no question that having more scholarship money available is good for students and good for their families,” Greenberg said.
However, he added, “It’s one thing to send our sons and daughters to college. But we need to continue to provide at least some funding for the program to ensure they have high-paying jobs when they graduate.”
Dr. John Raymond, provost and vice president for academic affairs at MUSC, testified recently before the House Ways and Means Committee. According to Raymond, the legislators inquired primarily about the return on the state’s investment and program accountability.
“I think the program really sells itself,” Raymond said. “To date, we’ve brought in several outstanding individuals whose expertise is being used to benefit rural communities that don’t have access to the health care options available in more developed parts of the state.
“I truly believe that research that these endowed chairs are doing is already improving the health and well-being of South Carolinians and, because people are healthier, they’re more productive, and that, in and of itself, is another significant benefit to the state,” he said.
Dan McCue is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dmccue@scbiznews.com.
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