The school has a massive deficit so it’s being closed to clean house.

Charise Frazier of NBC News reported.

Lawmakers Vote to Shutter SC State University to Manage Deficit

Nestled between the southern metropolis of Charleston and Columbia, is Orangeburg, South Carolina. The city is a midpoint for many travelers wheeling down Interstate I-26, and it’s also home to South Carolina State University, the only public historically black college in South Carolina.

This week, a house subcommittee voted to close the school for two years, starting July 1. Subcommittee members say that closing the school and firing all administrators and athletic programming will create breathing room to decrease a $17.5 million deficit. Under the proposal, SC State would open again for the 2017-2018 school year under new leadership.

The Congressional Black Caucus responded today, outraged that some members of the South Carolina legislature have an interest in closing the university, calling this “overreaching and overreacting to the administrative difficulties being experienced.” Chairman G. K. Butterfield, (D-NC) continued, “There are many remedies available to the state’s government without using the nuclear option of closing the institution.”

The next steps rest in the hands of a full house and senate vote. Governor Nikki Haley will also need to approve the bill.

If the school closes, 1,000 faculty members and 3,000 students will be greatly affected, changing the trajectory of dreams, now deferred. On Tuesday, senior Aaron Russell, student government president, posted a video on YouTube, saying, “The students are confident in the university and we stand behind our administration.”