SC State officials ask Senate subcommittee for recurring expansion funds, $20M for animal research center

South Carolina State University President Alex Conyers told the Senate Finance Committee Natural Resources Subcommittee that the university seeks $2.3 million in recurring state funds to expand its statewide extension presence, $1.5 million in recurring funds for agricultural innovation research and $20 million in nonrecurring capital to build an animal research and education center.

The request came March (date not specified) during a presentation by Conyers and Dr. (Doctor) Whiteside, who said SC State’s extension and research programs reached more than 100,000 South Carolinians last year and provide research, extension and business support across the state’s counties. Conyers said university enrollment has risen about 35 percent over five years and that the university’s research activity contributed to its recent designation as an R2 research institution.

Dr. Whiteside described program priorities for the requested recurring funds: expanding the university’s physical extension presence to all 46 counties, an agriculture-innovation research program that includes a center for artificial intelligence and a concept to use autonomous drones to detect animal disease from the air, business-development services for small and beginning farmers, future-farm planning, and a health initiative focused on chronic diseases. Whiteside said the drone concept is in the research/concept phase and that funding would push it toward demonstration.

On capital needs, Whiteside said the university requests $20 million for an animal research and education center that would serve as both a research facility and a clinical/teaching site tied to a new animal and veterinary sciences major. He described the program as intended to act as a feeder into the state’s existing veterinary program at Clemson and said the major is “working its way through the system” with hoped startup by the fall or December of the year discussed (dates not specified).

Committee members asked about coordination with the State Department of Agriculture and Clemson University to avoid duplication. Whiteside and President Conyers said SC State holds recurring coordination meetings, participates in a joint extension advisory council with Clemson, and conducts joint research projects; Whiteside named internal staff and Clemson experiment station leaders as active collaborators. Conyers and Whiteside said SC State focuses much of its extension work on small farmers and on county-based programming.

No formal action or vote was recorded during the presentation.

The presentation included several program metrics supplied by presenters (e.g., reported enrollment increase of roughly 35 percent over five years; presenters reported the extension programs reached “topped more than 100,000” participants and distributed program information to over 1,300,000 people last year). The committee did not request immediate changes to the requests but asked follow-up questions about timelines and coordination.

If funded, the requests would expand SC State’s extension footprint and advance research projects the presenters said could be used to identify agricultural disease remotely and to provide clinical training for an animal sciences program.