SCHOOL TRIES TO CLAIM BONUS TELEVISION CONTRACT TO GET MATCHING FUNDS FOR RESEARCH PROGRAM

The University of South Carolina’s attempt to use an $800,000 television contract with ESPN to count toward matching lottery funds from the state has been rejected.

The Centers of Economic Excellence Review Board, which oversees the money, denied USC President Harris Pastides’ request that the ESPN contract be considered out-of-state money that would allow them to collect an equal amount of state lottery funds for a solid oxide fuel cell research program.

The board gave Pastides six months to document that the money isn’t just being shifted from another location within the university.

“The board just felt we need to keep this perfectly clean and that we don’t want to bring down excess scrutiny or any kind of bad favor on the university when they brought it to us and said, ‘Is it something we can do?’ ” [Chairwoman Paula Harper Bethea] said.

The $800,000 is a signing bonus from ESPN, the all-sports cable channel, given in exchange for the rights to broadcast athletic events at USC. It came to the university through the Southeastern Conference, the athletic conference that USC is a member of, as part of a payment to strengthen academics as well as athletics, Pastides said.

USC has already hired researcher Kenneth Reifsnider for the solid oxide fuel cell program. He in turn recently drew a $12.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, which Pastides said is one of the largest grants in USC history.

The Centers of Economic Excellence program — known popularly as the “endowed chairs” program — funds professorships and university research in hopes of creating high-tech, high-paying jobs. Clemson University has tapped the program to develop its International Center for Automotive Research in Greenville and its Advanced Materials Center in Anderson County.

To be eligible for the lottery money, South Carolina’s three research universities must find matching amounts of non-state funds. [Greenville News]

I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that Pastides probably won’t win this one.

I could be wrong, given that I know absolutely nothing about how this system works, but I’m pretty sure an ESPN signing bonus doesn’t really count as

Of course, maybe if Pastides charms the board with his sweet wayfarers, he might have a shot. Kill ‘em with kindness and wayfarers, that’s what I say.