History of SC State University

Founded in 1896 as the state's sole public college for black youth, SOUTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY has played a key role in the education of African-Americans in the state and nation. As a land-grant institution, it struggled to provide agricultural and mechanical training to generations of black youngsters. Through its extension program, it sent farm and home demonstration agents into rural counties to provide knowledge and information to impoverished black farm families.

The University has educated scores of teachers for the public schools. It provided education in sciences, literature, and history. The support of the Rosenwald Fund and the General Education Board helped the institution survive the Depression. After World War II, the state legislature created a graduate program and a law school at SOUTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY to prevent black students from enrolling in the University of South Carolina's graduate and legal education programs. The legislature also dramatically increased funding at the college in an effort to make "separate but equal" a reality in higher education in South Carolina. During the 1950s and 1960s hundreds of S.C. STATE students participated in local civil rights demonstrations and were arrested. In 1968 three young men were slain and 27 wounded on the campus by state highway patrolmen in the Orangeburg Massacre.

Since 1966, S.C. STATE has been open to white students and faculty, but it has largely retained its mission and character as an historically black institution. In 1971, the agricultural program was terminated and the college farm was transformed into a community recreation center consisting of a golf course as well as soccer and baseball fields. Today there are nearly 5000 students majoring in a wide range of programs that include agribusiness, accounting, art, English, and drama as well as fashion merchandising, physics, psychology, and political science.


Mission

South Carolina State University, a senior comprehensive teaching institution, is committed to providing affordable and accessible quality undergraduate and graduate degree programs. This public university with a student population between 4,000 and 5,000 is located in Orangeburg, an area that has a traditional rural, agricultural economy which has expanded to include a business and industrial focus that is national and international in scope. South Carolina State University's 1890 land-grant legacy of service to the citizenry of the state is ensured through its collaborative efforts with local, rural, and statewide businesses, public education, colleges and industry. This symbiotic relationship provides a catalyst that spurs a reciprocal economic and social growth for the University, state, nation and the international community at-large.

South Carolina State University, founded in 1896 as a historically Black co-educational institution, embraces diversity among its students, faculty, staff and programs. While maintaining its traditional focus, the University is fully committed to providing life-long learning opportunities for the citizens of the state and qualified students of varied talents and backgrounds in a caring and nurturing learning environment.

South Carolina State University through instruction, research and service activities, prepares highly skilled, competent, economically and socially aware graduates to meet life's challenges and demands that enable them to work and live productively in a dynamic, global society. The University offers sixty baccalaureate programs in the areas of applied professional sciences, engineering technology, sciences, arts, humanities, education and business. A small number of programs are offered at the master's level in teaching, human services and agribusiness, and the educational specialist and doctorate programs are offered in educational administration. Faculty and students participate in research that stimulates intellectual growth, enhances and facilitates student learning and adds to the scientific knowledge base of the academy. Service activities, which are provided through programs, related to agriculture, adult and continuing education, research, cultural arts, small business development and other special interest areas, are designed to enhance the quality of life and promote economic growth. These efforts, supported by various applications of technology, are achieved in a climate of mutual trust and respect through methods of scholarly inquiry and scientific research.

The South Carolina State University Mission Statement was approved by its Board of Trustees on December 2, 1997.


Facts & Statistics

South Carolina State University offers a number of unique programs in the state and the nation.

- Only undergraduate Nuclear Engineering Program in the State
- Only undergraduate Environmental Sciences Field Station in the nation
- Only Masters of Science Degree in Transportation beginning in Fall 2003
- Regional HUB for Science and Math Education
- Only Doctor of Education Degree in South Carolina
- Developed the model and is the Resource Center for the National Summer Transportation Institute
- Named in 1998 by the U.S. Congress and the USDOT as one of 33 University Transportation Centers in the nation, the only one in South Carolina
- Lead institution for the state of S.C.'s Lewis Stokes for Minority Participation (SCAMP)

Of 2,443 higher education institutions, South Carolina State University ranks:

- 17th in minority degrees granted in all disciplines
- 5th in minority degrees granted in Biology
- 4th in minority degrees granted in Mathematics
- 31st in minority degrees granted in Master's level
- 18th in minority degrees in Education
- 29th in minority degrees granted in Computer and Information Science

South Carolina State University is a leader in contributing to the defense of the country through its ROTC program.

- Commissioned over 1,900 officers to date
- Has produced the highest number of minority officers in the country
- 12 graduates have achieved the rank of General
- Only female colonel on active duty in the Army.