The seemingly imminent collapse of South Carolina’s signature government-funded “economic development” project – and the leveling of federal bank fraud charges against a former University board member – have President Harris Pastides hanging on by the thinnest of threads at the University of South Carolina.
In fact, Pastides’ world could very well be turning upside down as he enters his second year at the helm of the state’s “flagship” institution.
Specifically, the disposition of two critical seats on the University’s board – one held by liberal Lake City financier Darla Moore and the other by disgraced “golden parachute” recipient Mack Whittle – will determine whether or not Pastides’ vision of government-led economic development holds sway at USC, or whether the school reverts to its academic focus.
It’s no secret that BB&T executive Samuel Foster – who resigned from the board on July 1 after federal authorities in North Carolina charged him with bank fraud – would lend his backing to virtually anything Pastides proposed. It’s also no secret that BB&T’s business with the University (of which there was plenty) is now receiving a heightened level of scrutiny given the charges leveled against the man many assumed was next in line to become USC’s board chairman.
USC, incidentally, made no official mention of Foster’s resignation, they just wiped his biographical information off of the website – like he no longer existed.
But he did. And Foster’s fall from grace now means that Pastides is on increasingly shaky ground with a board that is now almost evenly divided between big government backers and supporters of the University’s core educational mission.
In fact, depending on what happen’s to Moore and Whittle’s seats – USC’s board could undergo what some are calling a “quantum shift” in its ideological direction over the next few months.
By way of background, Moore and Whittle are widely credited with securing the presidency for Pastides last year so that he could finish the Innovista project, a research campus that is based almost exclusively on hydrogen fuel cell research that now seems to be evaporating. Tens of millions of tax dollars have been poured into Innovista, but that investment has produced a mere fraction of the “thousands of high-paying jobs” that state leaders promised.
Innovista has turned into a huge public relations embarrassment for Pastides as well as S.C. House Speaker Bobby Harrell and Columbia (S.C.) Mayor Bob Coble, but that hasn’t stopped all three of them from pouring additional tax dollars into the project. In fact, University officials keep doing their best to cobble together funding for the boondoggle from a variety of different sources at a time when state revenues are plummeting and college tuition costs are soaring.
Now, it appears Pastides enemies are waiting for the right moment to launch a full-scale offensive against him – which is said to include a damaging line of attack based on his former advocacy for chemical companies in his former capacity as a professor of “public health.”
“By the time it’s over he’ll be known as President Pesticides,” one USC insider told FITS. “And (MUSC President Ray) Greenburg, too. He’s got to be exposed as well.”
Stay tuned …
By The Truth July 27, 2009 at 9:30 pm
Time to move on to Greenberg. He has run MUSC into the ground. We now have our damn cafeteria for the hospital in a tent in the courtyard. How embarassing!
By rd July 27, 2009 at 9:39 pm
Give it a rest, Will. Harris Pastides has done more to stimulate economic development than you and loverboy Sanford ever have.
By myles keogh July 27, 2009 at 10:44 pm
President Pesticides should never have been hired to begin with! Both he, Sorensen and the geriatric members of the Board of Trustess some whom have still yet to be held accountable for allowing Holderman to get away with his fraud and personal perversions should all be tarred and feathered!
By stimulus July 28, 2009 at 9:25 am
for the record most schools are struggling… including Haaaarvad
http://www.ethiopianreview.com/articles/18577
By Beeza July 28, 2009 at 9:38 am
Please help me understand how Dr. Pastides could possibly have anything to do with an alleged bank/personal transaction a Trustee entered into almost three years ago in Rock Hill? Whether Foster’s actions are inappropriate or not, there is no way to hold it against or tie it to the University. That’s a real stretch.
Now help me understand why you would oppose the University’s efforts to better itself and the city of Columbia through its efforts at Innovista. Has ANYONE proposed anything any better? Funded anything any better? Done anything any better? Columbia (or the State of SC for that matter) offers little opportunity for our brightest graduates – those who have the ability to perform in and understand the higher sciences – I guess we should hang on to the status quo and mediocrity with our last gasp of strength as our economy, educational system, state government….. (you add your own name to the list) makes it’s last circle around the bottom of the toilet bowl. Are you saying that as long as your mediocre kids get accepted, pledge KA and DeltaDeltaDelta, and we recruit well and make it to a bowl game, that’s all you want from the flagship University of this State??????
By Craig July 28, 2009 at 11:18 am
Beeza look out the window and see that you are wrong. Innovista would have been good if it actually did all the stuff you said. However in meeting any of those goals you set forth, it has been a complete failure by almost all measures. Pesticides was the guy in charge of running it ofr Sorensen. Once it became clear that Sorensen couldn’t get this thing going, they looked for someone else. Pesticides, a nice guy by all measures, somehow convinced our brain dead BOT to give him the job because he could get the RC going. In fact, he got the job pledging that Kale Roscoe, the new developer he picked would get the next phase going within 90 days. Well we are appoaching the one year anniversary of that promise and all that has happened is that Roscoe moved some dirt around to make the brilliant bulbs on our BOT think something was happening so they wouldn’t be tempted to give the job to a graduate of the university who is an excellent manager with superb connections, Andy Card.
Pesticides also promised a comprehensive plan to raise a half a billion dollars for Carolina and move the university forward for the next 20 years within six months. That hasn’t happened either.
What has happened is we have gotten Lindsey Graham to bail out the horrid fundraising for the Business school by getting the feds to pay for it. He also made some budget cuts, but not the kind that really help the university move forward. Also we have nice little farmers market at the Russell House that Ms. Pesticides oversees. Other than that, nada.
By Hooha July 28, 2009 at 7:18 pm
WTF? How can anyone criticize the Medical University under Greenberg? Giving has increased, even under these tough economic times under Dr. Greenberg’s reign. Despite the national trend of decreased giving (down 5.5% to education), MUSC’s donations have increased by 5.2%. The Hollings Cancer Center is, and will continue to be, a huge success. Not to mention the numerous other contributions Ray brings to MUSC and Charleston.
For criticizing Pastides… give the guy a little more time.
Speaking of getting someone removed from office… let’s keep our eye on the ball and get your former boss out of the West Wing of the Statehouse. How are we supposed to recruit industry when that dumbass occupies the seat of our Chief Executive?
By Yon July 28, 2009 at 11:12 pm
Sorenson left a campus of expensive empty buildings in ALA when he left, and he did the same thing in Cola.
Thanks man.
By The Truth July 29, 2009 at 2:08 pm
Last I checked, Greenberg was recruiting industry from Israel on a fact-finding mission during his nephew’s bar mitz fa! Where is the Israili industry? Did I miss them? Why did we have such furloughs if things are going so well? We are still building despite our economic situation. That seems like great leadership! Hooha should check his/her facts!
By D ISSACS August 3, 2009 at 11:17 pm
These guys alone are trouble, these guys on the same project spells disaster! Check out Kale Roscoe. If you google his name it brings up trouble. He has made a mess out of our project here in Kentucky at Coldstream. Last week at a catered event for the tenants on the top floor during our lunch the electric was shut off due to unpaid utility bills! A great embarassment for his son Derek that was at the event. According to the GC, this is not the first time it has happened. Kale owes a lot of money in this town and has tried to cheat every sub that has tried to work for him including the GC and the architech. DI