Presbyterian College

Presbyterian College, commonly known as PC, is a four-year, private liberal arts college located in Clinton, South Carolina, USA. Affiliated with the Presbyterian Church USA, the college’s current president is Dr. Claude Lilly. Presbyterian's undergraduate and graduate programs emphasize small class sizes, a congenial atmosphere between professors and students, and a commitment to service. PC is also home to Cyrus, the largest bronze statue of a Scotsman in the world.^[2]

History

William Plumer Jacobs

Presbyterian College was founded in 1880 by the Rev. William Plumer Jacobs, who had arrived in the tiny town of Clinton in 1864, served as the pastor of First Presbyterian Church, and founded the Thornwell Orphanage. Originally called Clinton College, its first class (including three women) graduated in 1883. In establishing PC, his “tree of knowledge”, Jacobs’s goal was to educate young people for lives of service to church and society, and thereby be, in his words, “epistles to Christ’s honor and glory”.^[3]

By the time of his death in 1917 the college had grown considerably in size and resources including six major buildings. Neville Hall, PC's most recognized structure, was constructed in 1907. The tenure of president Davison McDowell Douglas (1911-1926) saw the tripling of the size of the faculty and student body, the construction of four new buildings, and the ballooning of the College’s assets from $150,000 to over $1 million.^[4] After weathering the storms of the Great Depression and Second World War, Presbyterian has continued expansion on many fronts throughout the second half of the twentieth century. It became fully co-educational in 1965 (and in so doing dropped its previous motto, “Where Men are Made”) and in 1969, began admitting African-American students.^[5]

Academics

Students at Neville Hall

Undergraduate

Presbyterian College is a Carnegie One Liberal Arts College and is fully accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS).^[6] The School of the Liberal Arts confers B.A. and B.S. degrees in 30 courses of study and 9 pre-professional programs including Pre-Law, Pre-Med, Pre-Theology, and Pre-Pharmacy. PC also offers a dual-degree program in Engineering (with Clemson University, Auburn University, the University of South Carolina, and Vanderbilt University) and minor fields in an additional 13 disciplines such as Africana Studies, Media Studies, and Women's and Gender Studies.^[7] The liberal arts program has small average class sizes (13-15 students), and has six Carnegie/CASE South Carolina Professor of the Year Award winners.^[8]

PC is one of two South Carolina colleges or universities with a Confucius Institute, which fosters economic connections and cultural interaction between the US and China. Through the Institute, Presbyterian participates in a partnership and exchange program with Guizhou University, located in Guiyang City, China. The Confucius Institute sponsors cultural events on PC's campus and offers elementary, intermediate, and advanced courses in Mandarin language.^[9]

Graduate

The School of Pharmacy confers Doctorate of Pharmacy degrees (PharmD) and is oriented towards serving the healthcare needs of underdeveloped and economically depressed areas of South Carolina and the greater US. A 54,000 square-foot facility, its doors opened in the fall of 2010 with an inaugural class of 80 students. The School of Pharmacy is currently going through its accreditation process and plans to be fully accredited by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) in 2015.^[10] Despite its youth, it has accrued multiple awards including a Biomedical/Biobehavioral Research Administration Development (BRAD) grant from the National Institute of Health, and a Generation Rx Champion Award from the South Carolina Pharmacy Association (SCPhA) for its efforts at raising awareness of prescription drug abuse.^[11]

Student body and campus life

Size and makeup

The 2014 edition of U.S. News and World Report regards Presbyterian College as a "selective" institution that accepted 57.8% of applicants in the fall of 2012. Of PC's 1,172 undergraduates, 44% are male and 56% are female, and 97% live on campus.^[12]

Student organizations

Students at PC have many options for extracurricular activities. In addition to intramural athletics, Greek life is an important part of campus life and culture, as around 45% of the student body is affiliated with one of nine fraternities and sororities. For men, there are six North-American Interfraternity Conference (NIC) organizations (chapter designation in Greek): Alpha Sigma Phi (ΑΨ), Kappa Alpha Order (BΠ), Pi Kappa Alpha (Μ), Pi Kappa Phi (B), Sigma Nu (ZΘ), and Theta Chi (BΨ). For women, there are three National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) organizations: Alpha Delta Pi (ΕΞ), Sigma Sigma Sigma (HΠ), and Zeta Tau Alpha (KB). Aside from Greek life, PC offers its students many other social clubs and advocacy organizations like Secular Student Alliance, College Republicans, College Democrats, and Multicultural Student Union.^[13] There are also many religious ministries, including the Presbyterian Student Association, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and Campus Outreach. Finally, Presbyterian actively promotes service organizations and opportunities. Many PC students participate in initiatives like Special Olympics, Relay for Life, tutoring local high school and middle school students, and CHAMPS, a mentoring service for local youth.^[14]

Honor Code

Since 1915 all aspects of life at Presbyterian have been regulated by a student-run honor code.^[15] The signing the honor code is a central fixture of each academic year's opening convocation ceremony and is a requirement for all incoming students, faculty, and coaches. The honor code binds one to “abstain from all deceit,” to “neither give nor receive unacknowledged aid in [one’s] academic work,” to “respect the persons and property of the community” and to “not condone discourteous or dishonest treatment of these by [one’s] peers.”^[16] Suspected violations of the honor code go before the College’s honor council, composed of students and faculty, which has the power to sanction, suspend, or dismiss those found guilty.^[17]

Campus

Neville Hall

PC's 240-acre (97 ha) campus covers areas in and around Clinton, SC, providing academic buildings, dining facilities, recreational areas, and athletics venues. The college's 15 townhouses, 11 residence halls, and 9 apartments house nearly all of the undergraduate student body. Six buildings on Presbyterian College's campus (Doyle Hall, Laurens Hall, Jacobs Hall, the President's House, Neville Hall, and the campus bell tower) are part of the Thornwell-Presbyterian College Historic District, a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Athletics

Athletics is very important to PC's life and culture. Around 1/3 of the student body competes as student-athletes ^[18] and many PC alumni are or were professional coaches at the college level, including current head football coach Harold Nichols ('89), current women’s soccer coach Brian Purcell ('87), former Vanderbilt basketball head coach Roy Skinner ('52), and Bob Waters ('60), a record-setting head football coach at Western Carolina.

Presbyterian is a member of the Big South Conference of NCAA Division I ^[19] and fields fifteen varsity teams in ten sports: football (FCS), men’s and women’s cross country, volleyball, men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s basketball, softball, men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s tennis, women’s lacrosse, and baseball.^[20] The College's colors are royal blue and garnet and its teams are known as the Blue Hose. Although PC's mascot Scottie the Scotsman is a medieval Scottish warrior, the Blue Hose name originally referred to the socks worn by the football team in the early 20th century.^[21] PC's traditional rivals include Wofford College, Furman University, The Citadel, and Newberry College.

The Bronze Derby

The Bronze Derby

A triumphant PC player hoists the Bronze Derby

Until 2007 PC's fierce rivalry with Newberry College was expressed in the annual Bronze Derby football game, named for the series's trophy which made its debut in 1947 after a basketball game between the two colleges. After the game, which PC won 51-47, a scuffle broke out between supporters of both colleges and a derby hat was snatched from the head of a PC student. The hat was eventually returned, cast in bronze, and transformed into a symbol of the rivalry. The last installment of the Bronze Derby game was played in November 2006 at Bailey Memorial Stadium in Clinton, where PC defeated Newberry 10-0. The Blue Hose lead the all-time Bronze Derby series, but since Presbyterian's transition to Division I in 2007 the annual clash has been postponed indefinitely.

Notable alumni

Some notable examples of Presbyterian College's 10,000 living alumni include:

• R. Bentley Anderson, Ph.D., author of Black, White, and Catholic: New Orleans Interracialism, 1947–1956, an associate professor of history at St. Louis University^[22]
• Art Baker, former head football coach at Furman University (1973–1977), The Citadel (1977–1982), and East Carolina University (1985–1988)
• Justin Bethel, NFL safety for the Arizona Cardinals
• Glen Browder, Ph.D., member of the Alabama House of Representatives (1982–1986), Secretary of State, State of Alabama (1987–1989), member of the US House of Representatives (1989–1997), Professor Emeritus of political science, Jacksonville State University^[23]
• Shelly Carson, Finance Director, National Republican Senatorial Committee
• Harry S. Dent, Sr., attorney, aide to U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond and president Richard Nixon
• Charles W. Eagles, Professor of History, Emeritus, the University of Mississippi.
• Caughman Taylor, MD, Chairman, Department of Pediatrics and Senior Medical Director, Palmetto Health Children's Hospital.
• John William Elrod, President, Washington and Lee University, 1995-2001
• Dr. Carlos Julio Emanuel, Former Manager of the Central Bank of Ecuador, Former Ecuadoran Minister of Finance
• Fulton Ervin, Chief Financial Officer and Associate Vice President of Finance, McLeod Regional Medical Center
• Dixie Goswami, Professor Emerita of English, Clemson University
• Rev. Joan Gray, Moderator of the 217th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA)^[24]
• Kimberly Nicole Hampton (August 18, 1976 – January 2, 2004) Captain in the United States Army and the first female US military pilot to be shot down and killed by hostile fire
• Jennifer Hansel, Foreign Service Officer, U.S. Agency for International Development
• Charles Joyner, Distinguished Professor of History, Emeritus, Coastal Carolina University
• Mike LeFever, President and CEO of South Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities, Inc. (SCICU)
• Ann Eliza Hatton Lewis, founder of Georgia Magazine
• George L. Mabry, Jr., US Army Major General, Medal of Honor recipient
• John McKissick, head football coach at Summerville High School (S.C.), the record holder for most career wins in high school football
• Lonnie McMillian, PC head football coach
• Matthew Miller, United States Foreign Service officer
• Allen Morris, tennis player, 1956 U.S. Davis Cup team member, quarterfinalist at Wimbledon
• Bebo Norman, contemporary Christian musician
• Kelly Pope, Family Court Judge, South Carolina
• Jim Samples, President of television station HGTV
• Ernest Shahid, businessman and real estate developer
• Roy Skinner (1930–2010), former head coach of the Vanderbilt Commodores men's basketball team.^[25]
• Bob Waters, former head football coach and Athletic Director at Western Carolina University
• Rev. Theodore Wardlaw, president and professor of homiletics, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary^[26]
• Walter Wells, Executive Editor, International Herald Tribune (retired), political columnist for France Today
• Jackie Gingrich Cushman, political columnist, daughter of speaker Newt Gingrich

References

External links

• Presbyterian College official website
• Presbyterian College Admissions
• Presbyterian College Athletics
• Blue Hose Basketball Record Book
• PC on Twitter

Coordinates: 34°27′52″N 81°52′12″W / 34.46444°N 81.87000°W / 34.46444; -81.87000