USC announced Aug. 6 that private giving in 2003–04 exceeded the University’s goal and research funding set a record in the same year.

The figures include $149.3 million for University research, outreach, and training programs and $64.7 million in private giving. The private-giving figure is a 20-percent jump over last year’s $53.7 million and surpasses the University’s goal of $54 million. The amount also is the highest for any year apart from a capital campaign. Research funding for 2002–03 was $130.9 million.

USC President Andrew A. Sorensen said the increases are particularly meaningful and signify that USC is excelling in research, teaching, and outreach.

"Our research figures prove that USC faculty are establishing world-class research programs, enhancing the economic development of our state, and providing the foundation to meet the research goals of the university and of our research campus," Sorensen said. "Equally gratifying is our private giving, which enables us to provide scholarships and enrichment programs that make the difference between a good educational experience and a first-class one."

Support for academic program enhancements totaled $29.4 million. Gifts for faculty development, including chairs and professorships, reached $5.5 million; support for scholarships was $8.9 million; and contributions to the Gamecock Club totaled $14.6 million.

Sorensen said the private giving figure doesn’t include the largest gift in USC’s history—$45 million to the Moore School of Business from alumna Darla Moore—or monies from the S.C. Health Sciences Collaborative involving USC, the Medical University of South Carolina, Palmetto Health, and the Greenville Hospital System. That agreement has the potential to funnel millions to USC. Both were announced in April and will be reported in the 2004–05 totals.

The gifts include $1 million from BB&T Corp. to the Moore School of Business to establish a chair for the study of capitalism; a $2 million anonymous gift for high-tech tourism research; nearly $1.8 million from business executive and alumnus Peter McCausland of Philadelphia for USC’s Center for Brain-imaging Research; and more than $800,000 for USC Beaufort’s New River campus. Research awards include:

• $1.3 million from the National Science Foundation to USC’s College of Liberal Arts to study the societal and ethical implications of nanoscience
• $3.5 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to USC’s Arnold School of Public Health to develop after-school physical activity programs for middle school students in South Carolina and $2.1 million from NIH for a cardiovascular-health program for African-American women
• $2.4 million from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to researchers in USC’s departments of biological sciences, geological sciences, and geography to use remote-sensing data to study global climate change in marine environments throughout the United States
• $1.8 million from the U.S. Office of Naval Research to USC’s College of Engineering and Information Technology to develop electrical systems for naval ships;
• $400,000 from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to the College of Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management for a Center for Tourism Research.

Areas that attained significant research funding include USC’s health sciences, $54 million (the colleges of nursing, pharmacy, and social work, the School of Medicine, and the Arnold School of Public Health); the College of Science and Mathematics, $30.1 million; the College of Engineering and Information Technology, $20.2 million; the College of Liberal Arts, $13.9 million; and Regional and Four-Year Campuses, $6.9 million.

USC also received funds for its growing NanoCenter from the legislature through the S.C. Research Centers of Economic Excellence Act. Passed in 2002, the act authorizes the use of lottery funds for the state’s three public research institutions to strengthen research and create endowed professorships in areas that will enhance the state’s economy. The universities, in turn, must match the contributions.

The funding enabled USC to hire nanoscience researcher Richard Webb, who is internationally recognized for fabricating some of the world’s smallest electronic circuits. Webb, a member of the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, led IBM’s T.J. Watson Lab before joining the faculty at the University of Maryland. His research also has implications for the U.S. military in the fields of surveillance and security.

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