South Carolina State University

Infobox University
name = South Carolina State University
native_name =


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motto = "Scientia, Officium, Honos"
mottoeng = Knowledge, Duty, Honor
established = Start date|1896|03|04
closed =
type = Public, Land Grant
affiliation =
endowment =
officer_in_charge =
chairman =
chancellor =
president = Dr. George Cooper
vice-president =
superintendent =
provost =
vice_chancellor =
rector =
principal =
dean =
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faculty =
staff = 550
students =
undergrad = 4,525
postgrad = 886
doctoral =
other =
city = Orangeburg
state = South Carolina
country = United States
coor =
campus = convert|446|acre|km2|1 (convert|160|acre|km2|1 at Orangeburg campus, convert|286|acre|km2|1 additional acres at Camp Harry Daniels in Elloree, South Carolina)
former_names =
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free =
sports =
colors = Garnet and Blue
colorbox|#960018 colorbox|blue
colours =
nickname = Bulldog
mascot =
athletics =
affiliations =
website = [http://www.scsu.edu/ www.scsu.edu]

footnotes =

South Carolina State University (also known as SCSU, State College among the older alumni members, SC State, or simply State), is a historically black university located in Orangeburg, South Carolina. It is the only state funded, historically black land-grant institution in South Carolina and is a member school of the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund. Founded in 1896, its current enrollment is 4,525 students, with 550 faculty members. Its nickname is the Bulldogs with the school colors being garnet and blue, the school's campus size is convert|160|acre|km2|1, with an additional convert|286|acre|km2|1 at Camp Harry Daniels in Elloree, South Carolina. The president is Dr. George Cooper.

History (early years)

Under the 1862 Morrill Land Grant Act, the South Carolina General Assembly created the Colored, Normal, Industrial, Agricultural, and Mechanical College of South Carolina on March 3, 1896. The new school, separated from nearby Claflin College, established (now Claflin University) after 24 years, operated in one building, Morrill Hall, which held classrooms, the library, dormitories, and the president's office and residence. The first president was Congressman and Lincoln University, PA AlumnusThomas E. Miller who served from 1896-1911.

1920s - 1950s

Academic programs received more attention as the student population increased, but other programs, such as the university's high school, were forced to close due to the Great Depression. Fortunately, the New Deal Programs were used to create, among other things, Wilkinson Hall, the university's first separate library building (now home to Admissions and Financial Aid).

1940s - 1950s

The college's campus grew, as it purchased over convert|150|acre|km2|1 for agricultural learning. After World War II, many students flocked to the college, creating a classroom shortage problem for the school. In 1947, the United States Army created an ROTC detachment, in which all male students were required to enroll until mandatory enrollment ended in 1969. The school's name changed, as well, as the South Carolina General Assembly renamed the school South Carolina State College in 1954. Because of the "separate but equal" laws in the state, the legislature gave the college large sums of money to build new academic facilities and dormitories, some of which still stand on the campus today, including the Student Union (1954), and Turner Hall (1956). This was done in order to give black students an environment of "equal" education. Also, the legislature created a law program for the college, mainly to prevent black students from attending the law school at the then-segregated University of South Carolina. The law program folded in 1966 after the University of South Carolina integrated.

1960s - 1980s

During the height of the Civil Rights Movement, many students participated in marches and rallies aimed at ending segregation. The struggle came to a climax on the night on February 8, 1968, when three students were killed and 27 others were wounded by state policemen at the height of a protest that opposed the segregation of a nearby bowling alley. The tragedy, known as the Orangeburg Massacre, is commemorated by a memorial plaza near the front of the campus. From the late-1960s to the mid-1980s, under the leadership of Dr. M. Maceo Nance, the campus experienced unprecedented growth in the form of new academic buildings, such as Nance Hall (1974) and Belcher Hall (1986), new residence halls, such as Sojourner Truth Hall (1972), which, at 14 stories, is the tallest building in Orangeburg County, and a new library building (1968), not to mention enlargements and renovations of existing facilities. The school also opened the I.P. Stanback Museum & Planetarium, which is the only facility of its kind on a historically black university campus in the United States. After Dr. Nance's retirement in 1986, Dr. Albert Smith assumed the office of the school's president and, among other achievements, created an honors college in 1988.

1990 - 2002

During the tenure of Dr. Smith, the school also gained university status from the South Carolina General Assembly, becoming South Carolina State University in February 1992. In 1993, Dr. Barbara Hatton became the school's first female president and created many improvements for the campus, such as the 1994 renovation of Oliver C. Dawson Bulldog Stadium, constructing new suites and a larger press box, as well as increasing its capacity to 22,000. Hatton also spearheaded the creation of a plaza which resides in front of the Student Union and passes by several dorms and buildings in the central portion of the campus. Under SC State's next president, Dr. Leroy Davis, South Carolina State University celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1996, and the school constructed a Fine Arts Center in 1999, giving the art and music departments a new home.

2003 - present

Under the leadership of Dr. Andrew Hugine Jr., since 2003, the school constructed a new 771-bed residence hall, which is the largest dormitory in South Carolina. The first four buildings in Phase One opened on August 26, 2006, and the last two in the first phase opened on September 10, 2006. With the opening of the new dorms, SC State will close five dorms, Bethea (freshmen male), Miller (female), Earle (female), Bradham (female), and Manning (female) Halls. Both Bradham and Manning Halls had been used since the World War I era, Miller Hall is being closed due to fire alarm system malfunctions, and Bethea is being closed after 50 years of service due to numerous building and health problems. Bethea Hall will be torn down to make way for a new $33 million complex for the School of Engineering.

The dining halls, both Washington Dining Hall and "The Pitt", located in the Student Union, received major facelifts, and the dining hall inside Truth Hall will soon be renovated into a cyber cafe. The university is also working to renovate Lowman Hall, which, when refurbished, will be the new administration building. South Carolina State recently broke ground on the new James E. Clyburn University Transportation Center (UTC), which will be home to the only UTC in South Carolina, one of only three among Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), and one of only 33 total UTCs in the nation.

*South Carolina State hosted the first debate of the 2008 Democratic Party Presidential candidate debate series. This event, which took place on April 26, 2007 at the Martin Luther King Auditorium, was televised nationally on MSNBC. This debate made SC State the first Historically Black University to host a Presidential Candidate debate on its campus.

Hugine's contract was terminated by the SC State Board of Trustees on December 11, 2007, only four days before Fall Commencement Exercises, by a telephone conference meeting. According to the Board, his reasons for dismissal were a Performance Review of Hugine for the 2006-2007 school year, and a second education review. Hugine is on administrative leave, and his last day as president is January 4, 2008. The Board has decided to conduct a national search for a new president immediately. On December 13, 2007, the Board selected Dr. Leonard McIntyre, the Dean of the College of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences at SC State to serve as Interim President.

Hugine is the fourth president to leave SC State since Nance retired in 1986.

Dr. George Cooper, formerly with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, assumed the presidency of S.C. State July 16, 2008.

In an attempt to resurrect the shootings of the "Orangeburg Massacre", filmaker, Dan Klores made a short film entitled, "Black Magic" that debuted on ESPN March 16, 2008. Also set to broadcast on PBS in fall 2008, is the documentary film "Orangeburg," by Bestor Cram and Judy Richardson, both activists from the 1960s. Both films set out to shine light upon an incident that lacked media coverage on the night it occurred and days following. Since it commenced at night, no one expected the shootings and therefore limited pictures or television images were available to the general public. The little attention that this tragedy received was not all accurate either. It was originally perceived that this confrontation was fueled by "black power advocates" and that gunfire was exchanged between the law enforcement officials and the protesters. Later it was discovered that the victims were in fact all unarmed. The recent media awareness and film interest regarding this event may influence the passing of a bill that was introduced in 2007 to reopen the investigation into Orangeburg. [cite web|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/16/arts/16oran.html|title="Films Revisit Overlooked Shootings on a Black Campus"|author=Arango, Tim|publisher=New York Times|date=2008-04-16|accessdate=2008-04-17]

Colleges, departments, and schools

*College of Business and Applied Professional Sciences
** Department of Accounting, Agribusiness, and Economics
** Department of Business Administration
** Department of Family & Consumer Sciences
** Department of Health Sciences
** Department of Military Sciences
*College of Education, Humanities, and Social Sciences
** Department of Education
** Department of English and Modern Languages
** Department of Human Services
** Department of Visual and Performing Arts
* College of Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Technology
** Department of Biological and Physical Sciences
** Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering Technology
** Department of Mathematics and Computer Sciences
* School of Graduate Studies

Facts and figures - state and nation

* Only undergraduate Environmental Sciences Field in the nation
* Only undergraduate Nuclear Engineering Program in the state
* Only Doctor of Education degree in the state
* Only Masters of Science Degree in Transportation
* Of 2,443 higher education institutions, South Carolina State ranks:
** 4th in minority degrees granted in mathematics
** 5th in minority degrees granted in Biology
** 17th in minority degrees granted in all disciplines
** 18th in minority degrees granted in Education
** 29th in minority degrees granted in Computer and Information Science
** 31st in minority degrees granted in the Master's level

* Three buildings, Lowman Hall, Hodge Hall, and Dukes Gymnasium were placed in the South Carolina State College Historic District, making all three buildings National Historical Landmarks.

* South Carolina State was ranked the tenth best university in the nation (and ranked #1 in Social Mobility) by Washington Monthly in its 2006 College Ranking Guide. SC State ranked higher than schools such as Harvard University, Columbia University, The Ohio State University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Pennsylvania, University of Notre Dame, University of Southern California, and Duke University.

In the ROTC

* Commissioned over 1,900 officers to date
* Produced the highest number of minority officers in the country
* 12 graduates have achieved the rank of general

Athletics

South Carolina State is a charter member of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) and participates in NCAA Division I (I-AA for college football). The school sponsors basketball, bowling, golf, soccer, volleyball, softball, cross country, track, and tennis for women, and basketball, bowling, tennis, track, golf, cross country, and football for men.

The school's football team has won more conference championships than any other school in the MEAC, with wins in 1974, 1975 (shared title with North Carolina A&T), 1976 (shared title with Morgan State University), 1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1982 (shared title with Florida A&M), 1983, 1994, and in 2004, when it shared the title with Hampton University. The team also has three Black College Football National Championship titles, with the most recent title won in 1994.

South Carolina State is renowned in the black college football world for its loyal and enthusiastic fans, and for many of those fans, the most successful and magical season in Bulldog football history was in 1994, when legendary head coach Willie Jeffries led the team to a 10-2 record and defeated Grambling State University and its legendary coach Eddie Robinson in the Heritage Bowl by a score of 31-27, which crowned South Carolina State the 1994 Black College Football National Champions. As of December 5, 2005, the football team is ranked 16th in the NCAA I-AA football rankings, but in neither 2004 or 2005, did the Buddy Pough-coached team make the NCAA tournament.

Notable alumni

External links

* [http://www.scsu.edu/ www.scsu.edu] Official website
* [http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2006/0609.national.html Washington Monthly's National College Rankings]

References