USC business school sets a new record

University raises $42.4M for venture

By Jeff Wilkinson - The (Columbia) State

COLUMBIA -- USC leaders want to use its business school as an economic development tool to attract high-tech business and large numbers of jobs to transform the Palmetto State.

That requires millions to construct a new school building in Innovista, the university's struggling research campus, where entrepreneurs could tap not only the university's researchers, but the expertise of the business school faculty alike.

Now USC has the money to make that happen.

USC president Harris Pastides announced Friday the university raised $42.4 million to go on top of $70 million Lake City financier Darla Moore has given the business school that bears her name.

Moore, who attended the announcement with some of the state's most powerful business and political leaders, said the business school “has been woefully underutilized,” and could be instrumental in retooling the state from a manufacturing-based economy to a high-tech “knowledge-based” economy.

The $42.4 million in cash, pledges and in-kind donations raised by the university eclipsed the $30 million in private funds Moore required in her gift.

“Today, a new record has been set for philanthropy and for private investment in a South Carolina public university,” Pastides said. Moore's “confidence has been rewarded, and her investment has paid off.”

Work on a new $90 million business school building could start as early as 2011, Pastides said. It would be located on Greene Street near the Colonial Life Arena and across the street from Innovista's Discovery I research building.

When the Moore School moves into Innovista, Pastides envisions that faculty members will work as consultants with companies that relocate or incubate there for some sort of compensation. Students could provide research and data collection assistance.

Innovista would have meeting places for business faculty, students, entrepreneurs and researchers to mix and mingle, exchanging ideas and assistance, Pastides said.

“This is a service the university should have already been providing,” Moore said during the event, which was attended by dignitaries such as former Gov. Jim Hodges and Augusta National chairman emeritus Hootie Johnson.

Pastides said he did not know of another such model at another university's research campus.

The project could be hastened by an agreement announced with the U.S. Department of Justice last week to expand its training operations at the nearby National Advocacy Center and transfer over the next few years an estimated 250 Justice Department employees to Columbia.

The university said it expected to receive $106 million over 20 years by leasing the Close-Hipp building on Pendleton Street that currently houses the Moore School to the department.

The plan helps USC accomplish its goal to start construction of the new business school building, while providing a $25 million upgrade to the Close-Hipp building for the Justice Department.

Moore's donations to the business school $45 million in 2004 and $25 million in 1998 were the largest ever made to USC. Together the two donations constituted the largest private gift by a single donor to a U.S. business school, university officials said in 2004.

The USC international master's business program has been ranked first or second for 20 consecutive years by U.S. News & World Report.

The 2004 donation required USC to match the money with $15 million in public funds and $30 million in private funds within five years.

The university received more than 7,515 donations during the five-year match period, which ends Monday, a university release stated.

Among the largest gifts were $3 million from Hartsville-based Sonoco and a $3.3 million bequest from an anonymous donor. The gifts included:

Cash $9.7 million

Pledges $14.7 million

In-kind $10 million

Deferred $8 million.

Donors ranged from small contributions from alumni to large corporate checks. Fundraising methods ran the gamut from traditional to online social networking sites and YouTube, university officials said.

“When times are tough, innovation is called for,” said Moore, a member of the USC Board of Trustees. “And that's exactly what happened here.”