by anna simon
STAFF WRITER

CLEMSON -- Spring semester classes started Wednesday at Clemson University as the state institution and its students grapple with a financially uncertain future.

Nathan Mitchell, a junior from Ft. Mill studying ceramics and materials engineering, said he was saved by a $2,500 increase in state LIFE scholarships for qualifying math and sciences majors after the stock market, where most of his college savings were, took a dive.

Clemson junior Alex Padgett, also from Ft. Mill, was caught in a national credit crunch when his private loan with Sallie Mae, a national student lender, was denied.

“I’m going to have to stop eating out and start cooking in more often,” said Padgett, who plans to learn to live leaner and supplement his federal Stafford loan with his summer job savings instead the private loans he’s had in the past.

The university and its approximately 4,000 employees will live leaner, too. After losing $38 million in state funding this fiscal year, Clemson eliminated vacant and temporary positions, froze hiring, cut nonessential travel, deferred construction projects and mandated 5-day furloughs for all faculty and staff.

Sophomore Margaret Kernodle said a syllabus for one of her courses shows no classes on the instructor’s furlough days.

Padgett said two classes have been cancelled due to the furlough in one of his courses, but some other professors indicated they’ll work without pay on furlough days in order to cover the all the course material. He’s concerned they have to make that sacrifice.

“The instructors are one of the biggest resources we have,” Padgett said.

Clemson spokeswoman Cathy Sams said furloughs are to be taken in a way that doesn’t impact course content and work may be assigned online or in other ways on days that classes are cancelled.

“We hope what has been done so far will have a minimal impact on students,” Sams said.

Unfortunately there’s more to come.

The furloughs and other already announced measures will balance the university’s budget this year, but more action will be necessary to cover the shortfall next year and in the future, Sams said

Details of an early retirement program in Clemson’s public service programs and voluntary time reductions to be offered across the university are being worked out and will be announced soon, Sams said.