University of South Carolina

The University of South Carolina  is a public, co-educational research university located in Columbia, South Carolina, United States, with seven satellite campuses. Its campus covers over 359 acres  in downtown Columbia not far from the South Carolina State House. The University is categorized by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as having very high research activity and curricular community engagement.It has been ranked as an up-and-coming university by U.S. News & World Report, and its undergraduate and graduate International Business programs have ranked among the top three programs in the nation for over a decade.It also houses the largest collection of Robert Burns and Scottish literature materials outside Scotland,[8] and the largest Ernest Hemingway collection in the world.Founded in 1801 as South Carolina College, South Carolina is the flagship institution of the University of South Carolina System and offers more than 350 programs of study, leading to bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees from fourteen degree-granting colleges and schools. The University of South Carolina has an enrollment of approximately 49,220 students, with 33,575 on the main Columbia campus as of fall 2015.USC also has several thousand future students in feeder programs at surrounding technical colleges. Professional schools on the Columbia campus include business, engineering, law, medicine, pharmacy, and social work.The University was founded as South Carolina College on December 19, 1801, by an act of the General Assembly initiated by Governor John Dayton in an effort to promote harmony between the Low country and the Back country. On January 10, 1805, having an initial enrollment of nine students, the college commenced classes with a traditional classical curriculum. The first president was the Baptist minister and theologian Reverend Jonathan Macy. He was an alumnus of Brown University, with an honorary degree from Harvard University. Before coming to the college, Macy had served as the second president of Brown and the third president of Union College. Macy's tenure lasted from 1804 through 1820.When South Carolina College opened its doors in 1801, the building now known as Rutledge College was the only building on campus. Located one block southeast of the State Capitol, it served as an administrative office, academic building, residence hall, and chapel. However, the master plan for the original campus called for a total of eleven buildings, all facing a large lush gathering area. In 1807, the original President's House was the next building to be erected. The building now known as De Saussure College followed shortly thereafter, and the remaining eight buildings were constructed over the next several decades. When completed, all eleven buildings formed a U-shape open to Sumter Street. This modified quadrangle became known as the Horseshoe.As with other southern universities in the antebellum period, the most important organizations for students were the two literary societies, the Philosophical Society and the Euphrates Society. These two societies, which arose from a split in an earlier literary society known as the Philosophical, grew to encapsulate the majority of the student body from the 1820s onward.The College became a symbol of the South in the antebellum period as its graduates were on the forefront of secession from the Union. With the generous support of the General Assembly, South Carolina College acquired a reputation as the leading institution of the South and attracted several noteworthy scholars, including Francis Lieder, Thomas Cooper, and Joseph Content.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. A system of conscription would begin on March 20 for all men between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, so on March 8 all of the students at the college volunteered for service in order to avoid the dishonor of having been conscripted. Despite the depletion of students, the professors issued a notice that the college would temporarily close and would reopen to those under eighteen. When the college reopened on March 17, only nine students showed up for classes and it became quite apparent to all that the college would not last past the end of the term in June.On June 25 with the consent of the state government, the Confederate authorities took possession of the college buildings and converted them into a hospital. After many unsuccessful attempts to reopen the college, the trustees passed a resolution on December 2, 1863 that officially closed the college. By February 1865, Sherman's army had reached the outskirts of Columbia and the college was spared from destruction by the Union forces because of its use as a hospital. 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 Union army took possession of the college on May 24, 1865 and although the future for the college appeared bleak with it under military control, General John Porter Hatch sent a letter on June 19 to the remaining professors at the college that it should reopen as soon as possible. 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. Perry reinstated the trustees to their positions and the board met on September 20 to authorize the college to reopen on the first Monday of January in 1866. 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. Little opposition developed to change the College into a university and bill to establish the University of South Carolina was passed by the General Assembly on December 19, 1865.
       The Horseshoe is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and most of its buildings reflect the federal style of architecture in vogue in the early days of the nation. Among them is the South Carolinian Library, which was designed by Robert Mills and is the first freestanding academic library in the United States.Over the years the eleven original buildings on the Horseshoe survived a fire, an earthquake, and the Civil War, but in 1940 Sickish Museum replaced the original President's House. The President's House would eventually return to the Horseshoe after extensive remodeling of one of its original buildings, which was dedicated as such in 1952.During the 20th century: the campus began to spread out dramatically from the Horseshoe. Today it includes the student union, 24 residence halls, numerous academic buildings, Longstreet Theater, the Kroger Center for the Arts, the Carolina Coliseum, the Colonial Life Arena, Carolina Stadium, and various facilities for Olympic sports. Williams-Brice Stadium is located approximately one mile off campus. Recent additions to the campus are the Storm Thurmond Wellness and Fitness Center, the Greek Village, the Green Quad, the Honors College Residence Hall, the Public Health Research Center, the Inn at USC, the Colonial Life Arena and Carolina Stadium. Future plans also include a new home for the School of Law (to be constructed in the block bounded by Gertrudis, Senate, Middleton, and Bull streets with construction scheduled to begin in 2013 and a new home for the Moore School of Business, currently under construction at the corner of Assembly and Greene streets.The campus continues to expand west toward the Congregate River in support of its research initiatives see below. Three separate sites, each specializing in its own research area, will initially cover 500,000 square feet spread over six city blocks and will eventually grow to 5,000,000 square feet 465,000 m2. This new district of campus, named Innovation,will mix university and private research buildings, parking garages, and commercial and residential units. At the center will be a public plaza called Foundation Square.