University of South Carolina
The University of South Carolina holds the largest collection of Ernest Hemingway material in the world. It also keeps the biggest collection of Robert Burns and Scottish literature outside Scotland. Those holdings sit on a campus of more than 359 acres in downtown Columbia, close to the South Carolina State House.
Students and alumni call the school USC, SC, or simply Carolina. It is the flagship of the University of South Carolina System and the largest university in the state by enrollment. It is also classed among the R1 doctoral universities with the highest research activity.
Behind that record sits a stranger story. What was a college created in 1801 supposed to accomplish? Why did the politics of one state reshape who could study here, and more than once? And how did a school with such a turbulent past come to care so deeply about its buildings, its songs, and its research?
On the 19th of December 1801, the South Carolina General Assembly created South Carolina College. Governor John Drayton had pushed for the act, hoping a shared school would bring harmony between the Lowcountry and the Backcountry. Classes began on the 10th of January 1805, with nine students and a traditional classical curriculum.
The first president was Reverend Jonathan Maxcy, a Baptist minister and theologian. Maxcy was a Brown University alumnus with an honorary degree from Harvard University. Before reaching Columbia he had served as the second president of Brown and the third president of Union College. His tenure ran from 1804 through 1820.
When classes began in 1805, a single building stood on campus, one block southeast of the State Capitol. Today it is called Rutledge College. It held administrative offices, classrooms, student rooms, and a chapel all under one roof.
The master plan called for eleven buildings facing a large green gathering space. The original President's House rose in 1807, and the building now called DeSaussure College followed shortly after. The other eight went up over the next several decades. Together the eleven formed a U that opens toward Sumter Street, and the shape became known as the Horseshoe.
The Horseshoe is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and most of its buildings reflect the federal style of the young republic. Among them is the South Caroliniana Library, designed by Robert Mills. It was the first freestanding academic library in the United States.
The eleven original buildings survived a fire, an earthquake, and the Civil War. In 1939 McKissick Museum replaced the original President's House. A President's House returned to the Horseshoe in 1952, in a remodeled building dedicated for that purpose. Much of what stands on that lawn was built by people who never appeared on any enrollment list.
Two rival groups, the Clariosophic Society and the Euphradian Society, ruled student life in the antebellum South. They arose from a split in an older literary society called the Philomathic. From the 1820s onward, the two societies drew in most of the student body.
The college became a symbol of the South because its graduates stood on the forefront of secession from the Union. With generous backing from the General Assembly, it earned a reputation as the leading institution of the region. It attracted noteworthy scholars, including Francis Lieber, Thomas Cooper, and Joseph LeConte.
Slavery and slave labor were fundamental to building the university. Many of the central Horseshoe buildings were raised by enslaved workers, and with bricks that enslaved workers made. Enslaved people also kept up the student tenements and faculty duplexes, cleaned them, and prepared meals for early campus life.
In January 1862 the college had 72 students. It kept running until the Confederate government called on South Carolina to supply 18,000 soldiers. Conscription of all men aged 18-45 began on the 20th of March, though many students had already volunteered.
With its classrooms emptying, the faculty announced that the college would accept students under 18. Only nine showed up for class. After the war, a new law would invite students the old college had never admitted.
The University Act of 1869 reorganized the school during Reconstruction and gave it generous financial support. W. J. Whipper, a black representative from Beaufort, added an amendment that barred racial discrimination in admissions. On the 9th of March 1869, the legislature elected two black trustees, Benjamin A. Boseman and Francis Lewis Cardozo. The bill misspelled the first name as "Bozeman."
The legislature also set up a normal school on campus, along with a preparatory school for black students. Most former slaves were poorly prepared for academic work, so lawmakers added this support. To encourage enrollment, tuition and other fees were abolished.
On the 7th of October 1873, Henry E. Hayne registered for the fall session at the medical college. Hayne was the Secretary of State of South Carolina, and he became the first black student. Many white students and faculty left in protest, and his registration made national news.
Two years later, most students at the university were black. They included Richard T. Greener, T. McCants Stewart, William D. Crum, William Sinclair, and Alonzo Townsend. Opponents of desegregation called the school "the radical university" and blamed its changes on outsiders with radical ideas. The experiment lasted four years.
Reconstruction ended in 1877, and South Carolina's legislature became all white again. State leaders closed the university that same year. It reopened in 1880 as a white only agricultural college. Greener, the university's first black professor, had to leave.
The charters from this stretch show how unsettled the institution was. The name flipped between University of South Carolina and South Carolina College, with a stop at South Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanics in 1880. The last of those charters, dated the 17th of February 1906, restored the name University of South Carolina.
In 1893, the South Carolina legislature required the university to let women enroll, though women could not yet live on campus. Frances Guignard Gibbes was admitted in 1895. Mattie Jean Adams became the first female graduate in 1898.
By the 1920s, women made up a quarter of the student body. In 1924 they were finally allowed to live in the dormitories. That spring, Irene Dillard Elliott became the first dean of women. She also worked as a full-time English professor, and she strived to smooth the transition to a coeducational school.
Black students did not return until 1963, when Henrie Monteith, Robert Anderson, and James Solomon enrolled. The university was one of the last large public universities to desegregate. The three feared violence, and they were excluded from many parts of social life and extracurricular activities.
Monteith graduated in 1965. She was the university's first black graduate since Reconstruction and its first black female graduate. On campus, the integration process stayed peaceful, but it was not supportive.
The South Carolina Honors College, founded in 1978, serves academically gifted undergraduates. Admitted students must apply to it separately and show significant academic achievement. In 2019, its entering freshmen averaged a weighted GPA of 4.71 and a midrange SAT score of 1460-1530. For the wider freshman class of 2022, half scored between 1150 and 1360 on the SAT, or between 26 and 31 on the ACT.
President John Palms described his budgeting approach as "Cathedrals of Excellence." He wanted fundraising money sent to the best programs instead of spread evenly. The bet was that those programs would become nationally prominent, win a name for the school, and attract grants. His primary goal was admission to the Association of American Universities, a group of the 62 leading research universities in the United States and Canada.
Former president Andrew Sorensen raised even larger sums, including a $300 million grant for colorectal cancer. In the spirit of the Palms approach, the board moved to turn university land on Assembly Street into an innovation district called Innovista. It was meant to develop four areas: biomedicine, nanotechnology, environmental science, and alternative fuels.
In May 2009, the U.S. Department of Energy picked the university as one of 31 schools nationwide to house an Energy Frontier Research Center. The award was expected to bring $12.5 million, the largest single award in the university's history, to the College of Engineering and Computing. President Pastides said, "This award solidifies the university's position as a leader in alternative-fuel research."
In the 2024 fiscal year, the university was awarded $309 million in sponsored awards. That was a 27 percent increase in research funding from the year before. The school is also a member of the SECU, formerly the SEC Academic Consortium, which promotes research and scholarship among the universities of the Southeastern Conference.
The university fields 19 varsity teams known as the Gamecocks. Most compete in the Southeastern Conference. Men's soccer plays in the Sun Belt Conference, and women's sand volleyball competes as an independent.
In 1968, band director James Pritchard obtained a band arrangement of "Step to the Rear." Elmer Bernstein wrote the song for the Broadway musical How Now, Dow Jones. The marching band played it at the first game of the 1968 season, and it caught the ear of Coach Paul Dietzel.
Dietzel contacted Pritchard about making it the official fight song, replacing the original "Carolina Fight Song," also called "Carolina Let Your Voices Ring." That older tune is now known as the Old Fight Song. Dietzel wrote the new lyrics but asked to stay anonymous. He feared the basketball program would reject a song written by the football coach.
The song was officially introduced on the 16th of November 1968, before the football game against Virginia Tech. It has been the fight song since the fall of 1969.
The Gamecock reported in its March 1911 issue that the faculty had offered a $50 reward for an alma mater, with little progress made. English professor George A. Wauchope took it on himself that year and wrote lyrics to the tune "Flow Gently, Sweet Afton" by Robert Burns. Other songs were written and sung, but his proved the most popular. The university adopted it in 1912.
A tradition grew around it. At the phrase "Here's a Health, Carolina," alumni raise their right hands as though lifting a cup in a toast. As of 2017, the university reported more than 300,000 living alumni who could join in.
More than 34,500 students attend the Columbia campus, drawn from all 46 South Carolina counties. Students from all 50 states and more than 100 foreign countries are also represented. Almost 16,000 more study at the regional campuses of the university system.
University Housing provides over 6,200 on-campus units, with utilities included in the rent. Undergraduates can choose a living and learning community that groups students with similar academic or career interests. In the fall of 2004, the $29 million West Quad opened, now called the Green Quad. It became one of only four complexes in the world certified under the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED program. The 172,000 square foot complex has three four-story buildings.
During the 20th century, campus spread far beyond the Horseshoe. It now includes the student union, 24 residence halls, Longstreet Theatre, the Koger Center for the Arts, the Carolina Coliseum, the Colonial Life Arena, and Carolina Stadium. Williams-Brice Stadium sits about one mile off campus. The Darla Moore School of Business opened its new home at Assembly and Greene in 2014, and a new School of Law building opened on Senate Street in 2017.
A 50-member Student Senate leads the student government. The Daily Gamecock, an editorially independent daily founded in 1908, has more than 30,000 readers. The radio station WUSC began on the AM dial in 1947, moved to FM in January 1977, and has sat at 90.5 FM since 1982. The literary magazine Garnet & Black formed in 1994 and appears four times a year, free of charge. A student television station launched in the fall of 2006 and now goes by Student Gamecock Television.
About 22% of undergraduate men and 34% of undergraduate women join fraternities and sororities. Many have large Greek Revival mansions along Lincoln Street, Gadsden Street, and Mark Buyck Way, a stretch called the Greek Village. Off campus, students gather in Five Points and the Congaree Vista, both within walking distance. On weekends the "Carolina Cab" gives free rides from Five Points to homes within 5 miles of campus.
Lake Murray and the Saluda, Broad, and Congaree rivers offer outdoor recreation around Columbia. Charleston, Myrtle Beach, and Hilton Head are each a drive of 1.5-2 hours away.
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Common questions
When was the University of South Carolina founded?
The University of South Carolina was founded as South Carolina College on the 19th of December 1801 by an act of the South Carolina General Assembly. Classes began on the 10th of January 1805 with nine students.
Who was the first president of the University of South Carolina?
Reverend Jonathan Maxcy, a Baptist minister and theologian, was the first president. He had been the second president of Brown University and the third president of Union College, and he served from 1804 through 1820.
What is the Horseshoe at the University of South Carolina?
The Horseshoe is the original campus quadrangle, made up of eleven buildings arranged in a U that opens toward Sumter Street. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and includes the South Caroliniana Library, the first freestanding academic library in the United States.
Who was the first black student at the University of South Carolina?
Henry E. Hayne, the Secretary of State of South Carolina, became the first black student when he registered at the medical college on the 7th of October 1873. Black students did not return until 1963, when Henrie Monteith, Robert Anderson, and James Solomon enrolled.
When did women first attend the University of South Carolina?
The legislature required the university to admit women in 1893. Frances Guignard Gibbes was admitted in 1895, Mattie Jean Adams became the first female graduate in 1898, and women were allowed to live in dormitories in 1924.
What is the University of South Carolina fight song?
The fight song is based on "Step to the Rear" by Elmer Bernstein, from the Broadway musical How Now, Dow Jones. Coach Paul Dietzel wrote the lyrics anonymously, and the song was introduced on the 16th of November 1968.
What is the University of South Carolina alma mater?
The alma mater was written in 1911 by English professor George A. Wauchope and set to the tune "Flow Gently, Sweet Afton" by Robert Burns. The university adopted it in 1912, and alumni raise their right hands at the phrase "Here's a Health, Carolina."
All sources
51 references cited across the entry
- 1University of South CarolinaHenry Lesesne — University of South Carolina, Institute for Southern Studies — June 28, 2016
- 3U.S. and Canadian 2025 NCSE Participating Institutions Listed by Fiscal Year 2025 Endowment Market ValueNational Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO)
- 4About The University of South CarolinaUniversity of South Carolina
- 5Institutional Profile: University of South Carolina-ColumbiaCarnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
- 7BookA Southern Moderate in Radical Times: Henry Washington Hilliard, 1808–1892David Durham — LSU Press — 2008
- 9BookThe Americana: A Universal Reference Library, Comprising the Arts and Sciences, Literature, History, Biography, Geography, Commerce, Etc., of the WorldFrederick Converse Beach — Scientific American Compiling Department — 1907
- 10NewsUSC celebrates 110 years of black presenceLoretta Costello Brown — December 2, 1983
- 11BookReconstruction in South CarolinaJohn S. Reynolds — Negro University Press — 1969
- 12BookUniversity of South CarolinaDaniel Walker Hollis — University of South Carolina Press — 1956
- 13Remembering the Days — USC during ReconstructionChris Horn — February 5, 2024
- 15Book101 Women Who Shaped South CarolinaWalter Edgar — Valinda Littlefield — December 30, 2020
- 17Forgotten pioneersChris Horn — August 30, 2023
- 21Green, Edwin Luther. “Chapter VII. The University of South Carolina, 1865–1873.” History of the University of South Carolina. The State Co., 1916
- 23BookA history of the University of South CarolinaEdwin L. (Edwin Luther) Green — Columbia, S. C., The State Co. — 1916
- 24About the South Caroliniana Library – University LibrariesUniversity of South Carolina
- 27University of South Carolina Admissions10 March 2016
- 29NewsNew program at University of South Carolina targets top studentsEllyde Roko — December 2, 2004
- 30Admitted Class ProfileUniversity of South Carolina
- 34BookA History of the University of South Carolina, 1940–2000Henry H. Lesesne — University of South Carolina Press — 2001
- 35Record award to create Energy Frontier Research CenterUniversity of South Carolina
- 36SECUSEC
- 37SECU: The Academic Initiative of the SECSEC Digital Network
- 38College Scorecard: University of South Carolina-ColumbiaUnited States Department of Education
- 39sc.edu
- 40Apartment Style DescriptionHousing.sc.edu
- 42USC Institutional Assessment and ComplianceIpr.sc.edu
- 43About WUSCWusc.sc.edu
- 45University of South Carolina Student Life16 June 2014
- 46USC Greek LifeSa.sc.edu — October 11, 2012
- 47USC Greek HousingSa.sc.edu — October 11, 2012
- 49USC: Office of the University Registrar: A University TraditionRegistrar.sc.edu
- 50USC: Alma MaterSc.edu
- 51Out-of-state students double at USCAvery Wilks — March 24, 2017