"This is the largest construction undertaking by the university in its history and a catalyst for more to come," Dr. Andrew Hugine Jr., president of South Carolina State University, said Thursday.

Even as the Orangeburg university moves ahead in its quest for financing a $36 million, 784-bed student housing complex, it is seeking legislative approval to borrow another $55 million to address long-standing deferred maintenance, health and safety issues.

"We are very excited about where we are," Hugine told the Board of Trustees' Executive Committee. "The hurdles we've had to overcome were tremendous."

He said Senate Bill 483, also known as the SCSU Academic and Administrative Facilities Bond Act, passed unanimously in the State Senate.

Now it's in the House. A subcommittee of the Ways and Means Committee gave it a hearing Wednesday, and Hugine spoke in support of the bill, which is now only three readings and the governor's signature away from becoming law.

The bill would let the university use excess funds from revenue-producing facilities to support academic and other non-revenue producing facilities. Currently, a university can use only tuition revenue and general obligation bonds for non-revenue producing facilities.

Nearly half of the $55 million total is needed for the Engineering & Computer Science Building, according to a handout given to trustee board members Thursday.

Other listed needs:

n $9 million for various deferred maintenance projects.

n $8 million to expand the Science Building.

n $7.75 million to expand and renovate Whittaker Library.

n $4.75 million to repair and upgrade Turner Hall.

n $1.75 million to renovate Felton Laboratory School.

The university will borrow the money through a U.S. Department of Education program for historically black colleges and universities.

University, federal and state officials "all sat around the table and discussed how we could make it work. That is a significant accomplishment," Hugine said. The deal they worked out "is a novel approach" that will "become a national model."

SCSU intends to repay the money over 30 years at a steady $3.5 million a year generated by "already implemented annual cost-saving initiatives" as follows:

n $1.2 million from its academic restructuring.

n $1.25 million from outsourcing food services.

n $200,000 a year from outsourcing the book store.

n $200,000 from outsourcing facilities and grounds maintenance.

n $650,000 from unspecified "other auxiliary services."

The university is making its third attempt to outsource, or contract with a private vendor to operate, the book store. In two previous rounds of bidding, state procurement officials rejected all bids as non-responsive, Hugine said.

Trustee John Corbitt asked Hugine if he was still certain outsourcing the book store was the right way to go.

Yes, the president replied; it's consistent with the university's "decision to concentrate on the core functions of the university" and to outsource the rest.

Food service, facilities and grounds maintenance and student loan collections are among the functions that have been outsourced.

How are those contracts working out? Washington, who all along had pressed for quarterly reports from the administration, changed course Thursday. He said asking employees to prepare four reports a year would be too distracting from their primary jobs. "I'd like to request annual reports," Washington said.

Corbitt was taken aback. "A year seems to be a long time to wait," he said.

Hugine said the university really "needs a year's history" to accurately gauge the savings generated by the outsourcing.

Meanwhile, the plan to borrow $55 million for facilities improvements awaits approval by:

n The full SCSU Board of Trustees, which will meet on April 28.

n The S.C. House of Representatives.

n The Budget and Control Board, which must approve all loans by state agencies. Hugine has asked to address the board at its May 17 meeting.

SCSU ran into a bit of trouble the last time it asked the B&CB to approve a loan. It was last August, and the university wanted permission to borrow $36 million to build the student housing, $3 million to pay off the mortgage on Battiste Hall, which is the university's only existing debt, and $2 million for loan closing costs.

State Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom balked at that request, saying the university had a pattern of audit tardiness and had not turned in its fiscal year 2002-03 audit information.

A month later, Eckstrom said the university had shown sufficient progress on the audit, and the board established the student housing construction as a permanent improvement project, with a budget of $25 million for the first phase and $11 million for the second phase.

Since that time, the university's audit report for 2002-03 has been completed, but the 2003-04 audit report has not yet been posted on the state auditor's Web site.

It was supposed to be done by October 2004, but the auditor was busy performing the 2002-03 audit until its completion in September 2004. University financial officials said in December their goal for completing the audit report was Jan. 31. In late February, vice president for financial affairs John Smalls told the board of trustees the audit would be ready in a matter of weeks.

The latest deadline was announced Thursday. "We should receive the management letter sometime within the next two weeks," SCSU Board Chairman Maurice Washington said.

Complicating matters, Hugine said, has been the university's difficulty in recruiting "accountants, procurement directors and controllers," even though "we've tried to make the salaries as competitive as we can."

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