South Carolina Program’s Success Highlights Minority Access Debate: The Centers for Economic Excellence Program has drawn cheers from higher education and political officials as a model for establishing South Carolina as a base for research that’s groundbreaking and creates jobs.
The program, paid for with lottery and private money, has brought in nearly 5,000 new jobs that pay an average of $63,000 per year, program supporters say. And the best-paying of those jobs are those held by endowed chairs, nationally recognized research experts hired by the state’s three research universities.
But, of the 34 endowed chairs hired so far, only three have been women and none has been African-American.
