History of the University of South Carolina

The university was founded as South Carolina College on December 19, 1801, by an act of the General Assembly after Governor John Drayton pushed for its foundation on November 23, 1801.

Once in Charleston, General Beauregard assigned the company to guard Sullivan's Island, much to the dismay of the students who greatly desired to be a part of the Battle of Fort Sumter.

The Union attack of the South Carolina coast in November at the Battle of Port Royal led Governor Pickens to agree to their request to be mustered for active duty, but President Longstreet and the faculty steadfastly maintained their opposition to the students leaving for service.

Seventy-two students were present for classes in January 1862 and the college functioned as best it could until a call by the Confederate government for South Carolina to fill its quota of 18,000 soldiers.

In addition, a company of the 25th Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment was stationed at the campus on February 17 to protect it from harm and to thwart off pillaging Yankee soldiers.

The appointment of Benjamin Franklin Perry as provisional governor of South Carolina on June 30 by President Andrew Johnson restored civilian rule to the state.

In a message to the legislature in October, Perry sought to convert the college into a university because with the state in an impoverished situation, it would provide a more practical education.

Perry was succeeded in November as governor by James Lawrence Orr, a graduate of the University of Virginia, who also wished to see the college adopt the curriculum of his alma mater.

[1] The reopening of the university was pushed back to January 10 due to the dilapidated condition of the buildings on the campus and to celebrate the anniversary of the original opening of South Carolina College.

"[2] Former Governor Orr urged the legislature to preserve the university as an institution for the whites and to convert the dormant campus of The Citadel into a college for the blacks.

Governor Robert Kingston Scott ignored this request and recommended that the legislature bring the university into compliance with the Morrill Act to make it qualify as a land grant college and accept federal aid; it had to remove race as an admissions criteria.

On October 7, 1873, Henry E. Hayne, the Secretary of State of South Carolina, became the first black student when he registered for the fall session in the medical college of the university.

When the Democrats regained control of the state legislature in 1876, they quickly acted to end admission of blacks, closing the university on June 7, 1877, by a joint resolution of the General Assembly.

Because the state could not afford a liberal arts university, it took advantage of the Morrill Act in order to acquire federal funds, and offered some agriculture program to satisfy its requirements.

With a much higher appropriation, the trustees abolished the farming and mechanical foreman positions, in 1882 restoring the institution to its antebellum status as the South Carolina College.

The number of students steadily declined from a high of 235 in 1889 to a low of 68 in 1894; but despite the urging of legislators to close it, Tillman ensured through his governorship that the college received an adequate level of funding.

The victory by Duncan Clinch Heyward in the gubernatorial election of 1902 marked the end of Tillmanism and the return of support by the governor's office for the institution.

By November 1944 it was clear that World War II would soon be coming to a close and the servicemen would return to enroll in the university in massive numbers due in large part because of the passage of the G.I.

The Board of Trustees approved the plan in December 1944 by a vote of 17–2, although complaints were issued from the dissenting voters that the decision was made with too much haste and without any input from the public.

However, Blatt's proposal caused an intense uproar[clarification needed] in the state because alumni and students felt that it would needlessly sever the university from its antebellum tradition.

[15] President Smith faced increasing criticism through his tenure because he failed to articulate a clear policy for the university's future and he did not campaign for the legislature to appropriate enough funds for its needs.

Instead, Sol Blatt grew tired of having to carry the burden for the university in the legislature and Governor Thurmond felt that he received an icy reception from the administration.

[16] In response to the ruling by the Supreme Court of Brown v. Board of Education, the university instituted entrance examinations so as to prevent the mass rush of black high school graduates to enroll at USC.

For the next two decades following integration, the university experienced rapid growth and expansion due in large part to the baby boomer generation entering college.

[19] Black students protested the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in April 1968 by setting fire to Hamilton College and the USC Field House.

On May 7, 1970, approximately 400 students seized the Russell House as a symbolic gesture towards honoring those killed in the Kent State shootings and four days later on May 11, they attempted to meet with the members of the board of trustees, but were rebuffed.

Right away, Holderman championed a proposal to create an honors college because it would foster an academic environment conducive to excellence necessary to keep South Carolina's best students instate.

He was able to put USC on the map by bringing in such world leaders as UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim, President Ronald Reagan, Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser and many other foreign dignitaries.

Paul Perkins, a journalism student upset with tuition increases, requested that the university release the salary of visiting professor Jehan Sadat.

In the spirit of Palms' "Cathedrals of Excellence" budgeting philosophy, the board of directors moved to transform university land on Assembly Street into an "innovation district" called Innovista that will develop four strengths: biomedicine, nanotechnology, environmental science and alternative fuels.