SHORT TAKES : Actor May Quit Carolina Post

Actor and filmmaker Robby Benson says he’ll give up his teaching job at the University of South Carolina if the community doesn’t appreciate his efforts.

Criticism of Benson’s $63,630 annual salary and his use of USC students to film a movie surfaced about the time of reports on school President James B. Holderman’s lavish spending habits during the last 1 1/2 years at the school.

“If people think that I’m doing a disservice rather than a service here, then definitely I want to take the effort--because it’s a sincere effort--elsewhere,” said Benson, who has been artist-in-residence at the school’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences since 1988.

Benson said Monday that he felt compelled to speak out since questions were raised about his filming here of the newly released movie, “Modern Love,” with the use of some of his students. He said he was particularly disturbed by a recent letter to a newspaper criticizing him.