Annexation!
How the JCUAC came back into usefulness after the Mayor, City Administrator and City Council proposed to annex Clemson University’s land mass
The first document relating to the annexation proposal that this researcher discovered was the six-page (with map) April 22, 1992 MOU to President Lennon from Mayor Abernathy and Charles F. Helsel, City Administrator. Startled by its objective assumption that “The City of Clemson offers to bring the main campus of Clemson University into the corporate limits of the City of Clemson and allow for consolidation of municipal services where feasible” could possibly be agreeable to the University President and Board of Trustees, I found little in the President’s documents within Box 64 in Special Collections. Closer review turned up a hand-written, then typed, letter from President Lennon back to Mayor Abernathy, written ten months later, reporting “the administration’s decision not to move ahead with the annexation proposal submitted by your office last spring.” The box of Joint City/University Advisory Committee minutes and other documents located in the Clemson City Hall held numerous useful clues that came before Lennon’s denial.
Four items provide a much broader context for both the annexation proposal and its denial. As early as March 14, 1989 (letter from LA to ML), Mayor Abernathy wrote to President Lennon, suggesting that, “With your permission, I would very much like to assign to the Joint University/City Committee the task of studying the University’s possible annexation into the City.” The President’s immediate response alters language a bit, using “consolidate City and University services,” then closing with “I think at this point you and I should let the Joint City/University Committee know of our general views and see what evolves from their study.”
Finally, a White Paper (1992) titled “Issues Related to City of Clemson’s Proposal for Annexation of Clemson University Campus into the City of Clemson” was written by a group of selected faculty on September 18, 1992 with this recommendation: “On balance, the annexation response team advises the university to continue to pursue ways to enhance town-gown relationships, but recommends unanimously, and without reservation, that the university not be annexed or merged with the city of Clemson.”
In the period following this White Paper, the Mayor approached President Lennon about another aspect of collaboration. According to a letter dated November 12, 1992, Mayor Abernathy notes that the City of Clemson received a $10,000 America the Beautiful grant, which would be matched by local funding from the City, Clemson Area Chamber of Commerce and Clemson University to create a “Community Tree Plan for the City of Clemson.” In Box 64 of Special Collections, VP Gary Ransdell requests that the University financial share be taken from the JCUAC budgeted funds, noting the $2000 would be more than the account contains and will be covered “with positive balances in other accounts.” Clearly, even as the rebuttal of the annexation proposal wound its way through the University channels, cooperative actions continued between town and gown. While the question of annexation was closed, many collaborative issues continued to keep the entities connected.
