South Carolina State University will be weighing whether to invest in a new landline phone system or install an entirely new wireless system after water damaged the existing lines.
“The phone problem started about two weeks ago and it has worsened,” S.C. State President Alexander Conyers said.
Officials from AT&T and Segra, one of the largest fiber infrastructure companies in the Eastern U.S., have been on campus working to fix the problem.
“They've been diligently working trying to get this problem resolved. What we've done in the meantime is purchase all major areas of the university cell phones and given those (numbers) to customers so that we can have this contact, especially over the last couple of weeks as parents and students are trying to return to school," Conyers said.
“We certainly recognize the challenges and inconveniences of that, and we're working diligently every day to improve the situation,” he said.
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The university's phone system is old and recent rains have not helped, Conyers said.
“The phone system is a very old and antiquated system and maintenance has not been performed on it like required. The major problem with the phone system is our lines are buried. When it rains in Orangeburg – just like Orangeburg County – we have some significant issues. When it rains on campus, (there is) lots of flooding on campus,” Conyers said.
He continued, “It's documented that our campus is a very high water table area. So when these heavy rains come, it affects these old lines. So we're steady pumping water out ... on campus."
Conyers said the university is in the process of purchasing 750 new phones.
“But the phones aren't the problem – it's the lines. I have a consultant that will start next week that will give us a top-to-bottom review of all things IT/phone related so that we can invest in the absolute best technology going forward,” he said.
The president continued, “We have funding for it, but we want to ensure that we invest the first time with the right and best equipment, everything from phone systems to internet infrastructure so that we can improve virtual learning if we have to go back to online classes.”
Kevin Summers, owner of Branchville-based Summers Estates LLC, is the consultant being brought in.
“I'm really excited with the consultant that will start next week,” Conyers said. He's local and retired from corporate information technology work.
The president said the university's phone system is more than 15 years old.
“When you combine that with the lines being buried where all of the flooding exists over the years, it causes issues. So we're looking at whether we do new lines, or whether we go to totally wireless phones for our new phone system,” Conyers said.
The president said university operations have been affected, “across the board if you've got static in the lines, which comes from water damage in the phones.”
“The flooding problem in Orangeburg isn't just germane to South Carolina State, the county and the state. It's a federal problem as well," Conyers said.
The university is working to address the flooding issues.
“We've done some things over the years with retention ponds, but we just haven't been able to resolve the problems yet. A lot of the rain flows from the city and ends up resting on the campus of South Carolina State," he said.
Conyers said the Orangeburg County is aware of the issue and has provided funding to help. But it’s a much larger issue.
“We hope to be able to identify funding at the federal level with the infrastructure bill that may be able to assist with this,” the president said.
He continued, "We have to get the (U.S. Army) Corps of Engineers involved to really look at the way the campus is situated. It's a very complex situation that involves the county, university, state and federal” governments.
Orangeburg County Administrator Harold Young said a meeting was held July 28 with university and state Department of Natural Resources officials to discuss the flooding issues.
“We're studying the flood zones and getting engineering recommendations from the S.C. Department of Natural Resources. We're talking about upgrades and things that need to be done to waterways and flood zones in the county to prevent overflow,” Young said.
He said the meeting was a first step.
“Times have changed. If you look at the landscape of Orangeburg County, there's been a lot more development over the years,” he said. Forests, which can absorb water and help prevent flooding, are not where they used to be and areas that were once unpaved are now paved.
Young said watersheds have to be studied and climate change has to be taken into account.
“You have more torrential rains that have happened sporadically and more strong storms coming through climate change,” Young said. “It's just the new normal we're having to adjust to.”
Conyers said he realizes the problem needs to be addressed so that it does not impact student recruitment.
“Every day we're working to mitigate the situation until we come up with a permanent solution such as new phone lines or an entirely new phone system,” he said.
“This is largely due to the deferred maintenance on the university for many, many years. Everything requires maintenance on the campus, including phone lines and phone systems,” the president said.
Contact the writer: dgleaton@timesanddemocrat.com or 803-533-5534. Follow "Good News with Gleaton" on Twitter at @DionneTandD