$6-Million Loan Will Help S.C. State U. Avoid ‘Disaster,’ but Deficit Still Looms

South Carolina State University, said last week to be a month away from “financial disaster,” won a state board’s approval on Wednesday to borrow $6-million to help meet its payroll and pay other bills, according to reports by two South Carolina newspapers, The State and The Times and Democrat.

The State Budget and Control Board approved a resolution authorizing the $6-million loan by a 3-to-1 vote on Wednesday, with one board member abstaining. Gov. Nikki Haley, a Republican who is the budget board’s leader, voted to approve the resolution and said she hoped the legislature would come up with the rest of the $13.6-million the university needs to cover its deficit. But a legislative leader who also sits on the board and opposed the loan said the odds of that happening this year were “slim and none.”

The board set some conditions on the loan, including requiring the university and its foundations to provide three years of audited financial statements. The university will also have to hire a consultant to help it “assess and improve its financial management,” and its trustees will have to adopt an anti-nepotism policy and sign a conflict-of-interest statement. And the loan will have to be repaid by the end of the state’s 2015 fiscal year, which is a little over a year away.

Thomas J. Elzey, the university’s president, said the $6-million would help the institution “tread water” but added, “We want to get to shore ... and get out of the water.”