By ANNA BROWN

When Lewis Jeter talks about USC-Union, he has both fond memories of his days there as a student and the future vision he sees for the university as a member of the Union/Laurens Commission on Higher Education.

And as assistant superintendent for personnel and pupil services with the Union County School District he champions the university every chance he has and promotes it as a college option for local students.

“I tell students all the time that USC-Union prepares you to go farther,” he said. “The cost is minimal, you can work and go to school, you can stay at home and go to school and you don’t have to worry about if you are prepared. You are prepared. You can go to Carolina, Clemson, Winthrop, Upstate — you can leave there and go to Harvard and not take a back seat to anyone. It was one of the best experiences I have ever had in my life.”

Jeter graduated from Union High School in 1967. He attended college at the main campus in Columbia for a year, until his money ran out.

He went to work and later made the decision to go back to school. First, however, he was drafted into the Army.

After completing his military service, Jeter entered USC-Union in the fall of 1971. Because of the convenience of having a college in town, Jeter said he was able to work full time at Torrington while he attended classes.

During his second year at USC-Union, Jeter was a member of the basketball team — the Bantams, who had a very historic year in 1972-73. Despite playing much larger schools in the system, USC-Union tied for the region regular season championship, won the conference tournament, won the Southeastern Regional Tournament and advanced to the National Little College Athletic Association tournament, where they finished third in the nation.

“We only had eight players on the team the second half of the season and two were back at the hotel sick and didn’t play in one of the games,” Jeter said. “ We won the first game, we lost the next game and we played a team from New York for the consolation. We beat that team for third place. We celebrated that third place.”

Looking back at his teachers, Jeter said USC-Union had an array with varied backgrounds who brought different gifts and talents to the school. He remembers some of his favorites — social studies teacher Bill Brockington, English teacher Tandy Willis and math teacher Margaret Kurtz. Jeter said he admired Mrs. Kurtz because she cared about her students and had high ideals.

“We became friends because she stood for something,” he said. “She helped me get over several humps in mathematics.”

Jeter remembers that Mrs. Kurtz invited him to her church. He told her that he appreciated the invitation but felt at that time people would not have accepted a black person at a white church.

“She was one great lady,” he said. “ A great person, a great math teacher. She was as sincere as she could be.”

Jeter said USC-Union prepared him very well for his transfer to Winthrop College, now Winthrop University, in the spring of 1973.

“I didn’t have any problem whatsoever in my classes,” he said. “When I went to Winthrop I still had money I had saved and money from the G.I. bill and I didn’t have to take a backward step at all in my educational program. I graduated from Winthrop in December of 1974 — with three semesters and some summer school.”

Jeter had earned a degree in political science. He continued his education at Winthrop, earning a master of arts in teaching. He also holds and educational specialist degree.

“I owe all of that to the instruction at USC-Union, to the people, the way they treated us — they treated us not us numbers but as individuals. I saw instructors sit on the steps and talk with students about life, about classes and things that were taking place in the classes to help them get a better understanding. You don’t see that on larger campuses.”

Jeter went to work for the school district as a special education teacher at Sims Jr. High in 1979. He later taught special education at Union High. In 1992, he became assistant principal at Jonesville High, where he remained eight years.

In 2000, he became Achievement Academy principal. In 2002 he became assistant superintendent and public information officer for the school district.

In 2005, the pupil services portion of his job was added, which includes dealing with transportation, safety and discipline. Jeter said he likes most the aspects of his job that allow him to interact with others.

“That is the part I really enjoy- the contact with people,” he said. “I owe that to that beginning at USC-Union and part of the way I do things and work with people has a lot to do with the way people at USC-Union worked with me.”

Jeter was chosen as a member of the Union/Laurens Commission on Higher Education in 2005.

Closing USC-Union would be a mistake, Jeter said.

“When they talk about closing the school, it makes me think we have people who are not truly for education for all of our citizens,” he said. “There are some people who would not be able to school if it were not for USC-Union. The experience at USC-Union can’t be matched anywhere.”

USC-Union pays many dividends academically and intellectually. Jeter pointed out that the school also offers a bachelor’s degree, graduate courses in education, plans are being made to offer a nursing program on the campus and USC-Union is in a partnership with Spartanburg Community College to build a robotics center on the Furman Fendley Highway.

“This will be a boon for this part of the state,” he said. “This (robotics) is what is happening in manufacturing now — the computers, the technology. Once outside industries find out that our people are educated and they know how to use computers and robotics we will start to see more investment in Union County. If we prepare our people for this work, the level of income will go up dramatically. If we lose USC-Union, we lose the opportunity to prepare people locally. People who want to close it don’t know what we have.”