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South Carolina Universities Creative in Matching Funds

Posted on: Friday, 16 September 2005, 18:00 CDT

Sep. 16--South Carolina's attorney general has been asked whether two research universities might exceed the limits of state law when they devise creative ways of matching state grants to build new research buildings.

Clemson University and the Medical University of South Carolina, seeking to meet legislative deadlines to qualify for their shares of $220 million in bricks-and-mortar money, have resorted to nontraditional -- and noncash -- methods to meet the dollar-for-dollar match requirement.

The universities have several requests totaling tens of millions of dollars before the review board of the South Carolina Research Centers of Economic Excellence. That board is scheduled to meet today, and board chairman Benjamin Rook has asked Attorney General Henry McMaster for an opinion on the financing proposals.

Two of Clemson's matching proposals have been questioned.

One involves access to private companies' equipment used in partnerships with Clemson. The university would count the value of that access toward its match for the state funds.

The second proposal would count the value of land, buildings and facilities owned by the Greenwood Genetics Center in partnership with a Clemson genetics research program toward the university's match for state funds. Clemson has set a value of $2.85 million for its access to the Greenwood Genetics Center facilities.

The Charleston medical school is proposing to buy an unspecified $10 million building for $5 million, and count the $5 million discount on the purchase price as a gift qualifying as matching funds.

Chris Prizrembel, vice president of research at Clemson, said the state legislation could not be written to anticipate every possible scenario, and therefore it was logical that someone such as the attorney general would be called upon to interpret the law.

Friday's agenda for the state review panel includes a revised proposal for Clemson's genetics research program in Greenwood.

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Source: The State (Columbia, S.C.)

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