Senator suggests taking money USC spent on Ayers
A 1960s radical’s speaking visits to the University of South Carolina became a part of the Senate’s debate Thursday on almost $500 million in budget cuts after a senator said he wanted to transfer the money USC spent to classroom instruction on the Constitution.
Sen. Chip Campsen, a Charleston Republican, said he was upset the university had spent any money to bring William “Bill” Ayers, an Illinois college professor of education, to USC given his 1960s and 1970s participation with a group labeled by the FBI as a domestic terrorism organization and his more recent praise of Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chavez.
Campsen proposed an amendment, later withdrawn, to transfer $6,846 from USC — the amount spent on Ayers’ visits — to a program to instruct students on the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the Federalist Papers.
“I believe it’s very important we do something about this and send a message to USC that we don’t want terrorists who have bombed the state capitol, bombed the New York Police Department, bombed the Pentagon to educate future teachers and students about education philosophy in this state,” Campsen told senators.
He said charges against Ayers were eventually dropped, but he quoted Ayers as saying he had no regrets about his Weather Underground activities.
In a statement, USC President Harris Pastides said state funds spent on Ayers amounted to $2,656. The rest, he said, came from private donor accounts.
“Our university, like all great universities, must serve as a place where the free exchange of ideas is not just encouraged but guaranteed,” he said.
The presidential campaign of U.S. Sen. John McCain has criticized Barack Obama for his association with Ayers. Obama’s campaign has said the two have no relationship, that Obama served on charity boards with Ayers and that Obama has disavowed Ayers’ radical activities.
By Tim Smith
The Greenville News
October 24, 2008
