Meeting Minutes 9/14/2023
Aiken County Commission for Higher Education
September 14, 2023
Penland Administration Building, Room 110
ACCHE Members Present: Tim Simmons, Clarence Jackson, Teresa Haas, Chip Marvin, King Laurence, Joe Lewis, Debra Gantt, Sallye Rich, Thayer McGahee, and Dan Heimmermann
USCA Staff Present: Brian Enter, Mary Driscoll, Todd Wilkinson, Ahmed Samaha, Cam Reagin, Christen Engel, Ernest Pringle, and Carmen Williams.
ACCHE Members Not Present: Sharon Marra, LaWana McKenzie, and Jackie Busbee
Chair Haas called the meeting to order at 5:01 p.m. She stated that notice of the meeting had been published in accordance with the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act.
Motion from Mr. Tim Simmons to approve minutes from the last meeting with the amendment. Mr. Clarence Jackson seconded the motion. The motion was approved.
Chair’s Report: At the last meeting Mr. Brian Enter shared information about the water for softball and soccer fields once they were moved. We discussed annexing the property for the City and using their water or tapping into the Midland Valley Public Service Authority. We made the decision to move forward with the Midland Valley Public Service Authority at no additional cost. We made an addition to the minutes to include that information.
At the last meeting, Deborah Harmon shared some information regarding the archiving of ACCHE records. She provided Carmen with an update that stated that IT has installed the system for the archives to digitize the documents and they have a student named Luke that will start on the project soon. We hope to have the project completed by the end of the calendar year.
Chair Haas recognized that the Eventing team won a National Championship. We are very proud of them.
Chair Haas congratulated Carmen on her new position. She also thanked Dr. Thayer McGahee for stepping up to the provost role.
She shared that the USC Aiken golf team head coach, Mike Carlisle’s wife passed away. The funeral service will be on Sunday, Sept. 17, at 2:00 p.m.
Finance Committee Report – Mr. Chip Marvin shared that our investment account is back up to $3.1 million. Last year we spent approximately $62,000. This included funding for the Economic Impact Study, Portrait and Framing for Chancellor Jordan and funds toward the endowment for Ms. Sherri Jenik’s scholarship. We use the 40-quarter rolling average to determine what we can spend each year. It takes into account some of the fluctuations. Mr. Marvin reminded everyone that the Commission committed $50,000 for the new engineering machine shop building last year and will give $50,000 for this fiscal year as well.
Vote of approval - Mr. Marvin made a motion to transfer $100,000 from millage over to the Operating Budget. Vote approved.
Buildings and Grounds: Mr. Brian Enter shared that the AMC site is progressing nicely. The AMC is on schedule and will be completed by January 2025.
He shared a summary sheet of what projects have taken place so far. The document shows all renovations and where they are currently along with notes on each project.
Chancellor’s Report: Chancellor Heimmermann thanked the Cabinet for providing their reports for the commissioners.
He shared that the university has developed a new mission and vision statement during the strategic planning process. The mission statement must encompass all the university does. There are 80 standards that we must address for the mission statement for accreditation with SACSCOC. Please look at the statement and send in any comments. It has been approved by faculty and staff. The Alumni and Aiken Partnership Boards have received it as well.
Chancellor Heimmermann shared an update on the university’s fall enrollment. We have the largest freshman class in a while. The Fall B semester will start in the middle of October and will increase our total enrollment just a bit as well.
He added that retaining students is one of our primary elements of focus. The university has a plan to retain more students. We want students to be successful and we’ve found that two main reasons why students don’t progress are due to academic underperformance and they are not coming in well-prepared. We are organized better than ever to deal with the elements that effect our students.
He shared the importance of the university’s growth. We brag that we haven’t raised tuition in 5 years, but prices have increased a lot in the last 5 years. Our tuition is high compared to Georgia and North Carolina. The enrollment trend for the past 2 years has gone up a little bit. If we take away the three new programs in the last five years, we lose about 800 students. Those programs are MBA online, cyber and mechanical engineering programs. He added that he gives former Chancellor Sandra Jordan credit for the foresight in creating those programs. We have 7 new programs up for approval. Our enrollment shows 60% of our new students are stem majors and 80 of the new freshmen are mechanical engineering majors.
Chancellor Heimmermann shared that the marketing and communication office is working on a new webpage that will launch in the spring. Will embark this year of rebranding the university.
As for the legislative report, he shared that we received more money from the State this year in quite some time. We have recurring money for engineering, cyber, and the media lab. Some of this money can be used for hiring high quality faculty, which will be important.
The university budget is being updated for FY25 budget. We have $42 million in capital requests for a health science building and more.
We have space needs on our campus.
We recently made some new hires. We have two new deans on board. We also have a new Athletic Director, Chief of Staff/VCMC, Interim Provost, and Director of Library.
Mr. Brian Enter mentioned that we have 30 projects going on right now. The AMC is on schedule and we will begin to see progress soon. The SCNG project is going on now. The plans are in progress. The new name for the building is the Cyber Integration Center. This will be located where the softball field is currently.
Our Newberry Street location will be renovated. We plan to begin having events at the new space soon. The vision is to make USC Aiken more visible.
Our student athletes will be at AMP the Alley tomorrow from 6-9 p.m. They will be passing out schedules and signing autographs.
We are still in the strategic planning process. We have a list of 5 priorities. There are 6 working groups for each. The groups are working on actions and performance metrics. We hope that the plan will be completed by the end of December.
Chancellor Heimmermann shared that USC Aiken will be hosting the System Leadership Council meeting here on campus on September 25th. The President of the System and all Chancellors will be in attendance. He also added that there is a Board of Trustees meeting on Friday, and he will provide an update on USC Aiken.
Mr. Chip Marvin asked about campus housing increasing 12% this year. Mr Ahmed Samaha shared that the occupancy rate is at 747 residents, and we have 941 total beds. He added that we don’t lock in the occupancy rate until the end of the month. The challenge as we change our student body demographics, is that more students are staying close to home with covid. This summer USCA Housing hosted interns for the Savannah River Site. There were over 125 individuals in the dorms. Some came from as far away as California.
Chair Haas shared that she read about the Pacer Life Program in the newspaper. She would love for the Commission to get an update on these students. Dr. Thayer McGahee shared that these students are on campus and thriving. The 16 of them have a special area of housing and they have a specific resident mentor that helps assist them. They are all taking Pacer 101 and receiving credit for that course. They are split between all sections, with two in each section.
Chancellor Heimmermann shared that he sent a letter to Gary Bunker and the County Council regarding the millage rate. We used to get up to $1 million a year, but that stopped once we received a loan to build the Convocation Center. We have since paid off this loan but are still receiving only $100,000 a year. He has met with Mr. Bunker a few times over the past two years. We need to continue to do our part and talk about the impact of USC Aiken on workforce development. The Economic Impact Study will help everyone better understand what value the university brings to the county.
Mr. Tim Simmons shared that we should host some type of pep rally downtown to get people involved. Mr. Todd Wilkinson shared that it may come together in time for Oktoberfest.
Mr. Simmons also shared that he was impressed with the Equestrian Team’s performance and suggested contacting someone at the Horse Park Foundation to bring in Olympic level riders to provide programs and trainings for the students. He added that Ms. Tara Bostwick made a presentation at Rotary.
Motion to adjourn meeting by Mr. Chip Marvin. Seconded by Mr. Tim Simmons. Meeting adjourned at 5:58 p.m.