Motto | Sapientia Ipsa Libertas (Latin) Ædes Mores Juraque Curat (Latin) |
---|---|
Motto in English | "Wisdom Itself Is Liberty" "She Cares for Her Temples, Customs and Rights" |
Type | Public university |
Established | 1770 |
Accreditation | SACS |
Academic affiliations | |
Endowment | $135.9 million (2021) [1] |
President | Andrew Hsu |
Administrative staff | 836 |
Undergraduates | 9,972 |
Postgraduates | 913 |
Location | , , United States |
Campus | Midsize city [2] , 80 acres (0.32 km2) |
Newspaper | The College Today |
Colors | Maroon and white [3] |
Nickname | Cougars |
Sporting affiliations | |
Mascot | Cougar |
Website | cofc |
College of Charleston | |
Location | Glebe, George, St. Philip and Green streets, Charleston, South Carolina |
Area | 4 acres (1.6 ha) [4] |
Built | 1827 |
Architect | Edward B. White; George E. Walker |
Architectural style | Early Republic |
NRHP reference No. | 71000748 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | November 11, 1971 [5] |
Designated NHL | November 11, 1971 [6] |
The College of Charleston (CofC or Charleston) is a public university in Charleston, South Carolina. Founded in 1770 and chartered in 1785, it is the oldest university in South Carolina, the 13th-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States, and the oldest municipal college in the nation.
The founders of the College of Charleston included three Founding Fathers who signed the Declaration of Independence during the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia in 1776, Thomas Heyward Jr., Arthur Middleton, and Edward Rutledge, and three who signed the Constitution of the United States in 1788, Charles Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, and John Rutledge.
The College of Charleston was founded in 1770, making it the 13th-oldest institution of higher education and oldest municipal college in the nation. [7] [8] The college's original structure, located at the site of what is now Randolph Hall, was designed similar to a barracks. In March 1785, the South Carolina General Assembly issued a charter to the college, which officially opened in 1790 and hosted its first commencement in 1794. The first president of the college was Robert Smith, who served in the position from 1790 to 1797.
A second charter was issued by the general assembly in 1791 stipulating that the college would not discriminate on the basis of religion. During the Antebellum era, further development efforts in the college resulted in the construction of Randolph Hall and the President's House, both of which were built using slave labor.
In 1837, the Charleston municipal government assumed control over the college. During the mid-20th century, several African Americans attempted to apply to the racially segregated college as part of the Double V campaign against racism in the United States, but they were all rejected. Though the college became a private institution to avoid being racially integrated during the civil rights movement, black students were admitted starting in 1967 as a result of external pressure. [9] [10]
Academic rankings | |
---|---|
Master's | |
Washington Monthly [11] | 302 |
Regional | |
U.S. News & World Report [12] | 8 |
National | |
Forbes [13] | 323 |
WSJ / College Pulse [14] | 501–600 |
The College of Charleston consists of seven academic schools, as well as the Honors College and the Graduate School.
The College of Charleston's main campus in downtown Charleston, South Carolina, includes 156 buildings, a mix of modern and historic buildings built between 1770 and 2009. The average building is over 100 years old, and 20 buildings are under historic, protective easements. The College of Charleston downtown campus is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Outside of downtown Charleston, the campus includes the Grice Marine Lab on James Island, the J. Stewart Walker Sailing Center and the Patriots Point Athletic Complex in Mount Pleasant and the 881-acre (357 ha) Stono Preserve. [15]
In 2017, Travel + Leisure magazine named it "America's Most Beautiful College Campus." [16]
The Mace Brown Museum of Natural History is a public natural history museum located on the campus. The museum has more than 30,000 vertebrate and invertebrate fossils. The collection's focus is on the paleontology of North American mammals, and specifically the South Carolina Lowcountry. [17]
The Bully Pulpit Series is hosted jointly by the College of Charleston's Departments of Political Science and Communication. The series welcomes U.S. presidential candidates from the two major political parties to the campus.
Major candidates that appeared during the 2008 presidential campaign included John McCain, Ron Paul, Barack Obama and John Edwards. During that season, the series was sponsored by Allstate, and attendance on the Bully Pulpit events drew over 6,000 attendees. [18]
During the 2016 presidential campaign, major candidates who participated included Lindsey Graham and Martin O'Malley.[ citation needed ]
In the 2020 presidential campaign, the series hosted Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Julian Castro, Tulsi Gabbard, Amy Klobuchar, Beto O'Rourke, and Bernie Sanders. [19]
The institution's 19 varsity sports teams participate in the NCAA Division I Colonial Athletic Association and are known as the Cougars. The Cougars compete at a variety of athletics facilities in the Charleston area, including the TD Arena, [20] the J. Stewart Walker Sailing Complex, Johnson Center Squash Courts, Patriots Point Athletic Complex, and the Links at Stono Ferry.
College of Charleston athletics are supported by the College of Charleston Athletic Club, [21] which was established in 1974. During the 1970–71 school year, College of Charleston students voted to change the nickname from the Maroons to the Cougars, in honor of a cougar that had recently arrived at the Charles Towne Landing zoo. Clyde the Cougar is the current mascot. [22]
Oliver Marmol, the manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, is a former College of Charleston baseball player.
Greek life has been active on campus for 120 years. In 2017, four fraternities were shut down by the college for alcohol, drugs and a sexual assault. [23]
Charleston is the most populous city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint of South Carolina's coastline on Charleston Harbor, an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean formed by the confluence of the Ashley, Cooper, and Wando rivers. Charleston had a population of 150,227 at the 2020 census. The population of the Charleston metropolitan area, comprising Berkeley, Charleston, and Dorchester counties, was estimated to be 849,417 in 2023. It ranks as the third-most populous metropolitan statistical area in the state, and the 71st-most populous in the United States.
Roanoke College is a private liberal arts college in Salem, Virginia. It has approximately 2,000 students who represent approximately 40 states and 30 countries. The college offers 35 majors, 57 minors and concentrations, and pre-professional programs. Roanoke awards bachelor's degrees in arts, science, and business administration and is one of 280 colleges with a chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolling students in 1795, making it one of the oldest public universities in the United States.
Clemson University is a public land-grant research university in Clemson, South Carolina. Founded in 1889, Clemson is the second-largest university by enrollment in South Carolina. For the fall 2023 semester, the university enrolled a total of 22,875 undergraduate students and 5,872 graduate students, and the student/faculty ratio was 15:1.
The University of Houston is a public research university in Houston, Texas. It was established in 1927 as Houston Junior College, one of multiple junior college institutions formed in the first decades of the 20th century. In 1934, HJC was restructured as a four-year degree-granting institution and renamed as the University of Houston. Today, Houston is the fourth-largest university in Texas, awarding 11,156 degrees in 2023. It has a worldwide alumni base of nearly 200,000.
Saint Xavier University is a private Roman Catholic university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1846 by the Sisters of Mercy, the university enrolls 3,749 students.
Southwestern University is a private liberal arts college in Georgetown, Texas. Formed in 1873 from a revival of collegiate charters granted in 1840, Southwestern is the oldest college or university in Texas. Southwestern offers 40 bachelor's degrees in the arts, sciences, fine arts, and music as well as interdisciplinary and pre-professional programs. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and the National Association of Schools of Music and historically affiliated with the United Methodist Church.
Randolph–Macon College is a private liberal arts college in Ashland, Virginia. Founded in 1830, the college has an enrollment of more than 1,500 students. It is the second-oldest Methodist-run college in the country, and the oldest in continuous operation. The college primarily offers bachelor's degrees.
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) is a public university in Edwardsville, Illinois. Located within the Metro East of Greater St. Louis, SIUE was established in 1957 as an extension of Southern Illinois University Carbondale. It is the younger of the two major institutions of Southern Illinois University system. SIUE has eight constituent undergraduate and graduate colleges, including those in arts and sciences, business, dentistry, education, engineering, graduate study, nursing, and pharmacy, in addition to the East St. Louis Center.
Charleston Southern University (CSU) is a private Baptist university in North Charleston, South Carolina. It is affiliated with the South Carolina Baptist Convention.
The Houston Cougars are the athletic teams representing the University of Houston. Informally, the Houston Cougars have also been referred to as the Coogs, UH, or simply Houston. Houston's nickname was suggested by early physical education instructor of the university and former head football coach, John R. Bender after one of his former teams, Washington State later adopted the mascot and nickname. The teams compete in the NCAA's Division I and the Football Bowl Subdivision as members of the Big 12 Conference.
Pfeiffer University is a private university in Misenheimer, North Carolina. It is affiliated with the United Methodist Church.
North Carolina Wesleyan University (NCWU) is a private Methodist university in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. It was founded in 1956. North Carolina Wesleyan offers courses at its main Rocky Mount campus, as well as satellite locations in Brunswick, Durham, Goldsboro, Greenville, Manteo, New Bern, Raleigh, Washington, Wilmington and Winston-Salem.
Johns Island is an island in Charleston County, South Carolina, United States, and is the largest island in the state of South Carolina. Johns Island is bordered by the Wadmalaw, Seabrook, Kiawah, Edisto, Folly, and James islands; the Stono and Kiawah rivers separate Johns Island from its border islands. It is the fourth-largest island on the US east coast, surpassed only by Long Island, Mount Desert Island and Martha's Vineyard. Johns Island is 84 square miles (220 km2) in area, with a population of 21,500.
West Ashley, or more formally, west of the Ashley, is one of the six distinct areas of the city proper of Charleston, South Carolina. As of July 2022, its estimated population was 83,996. Its name is derived from the fact that the land is west of the Ashley River.
This is an incomplete list of historic properties and districts at United States colleges and universities that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). This includes National Historic Landmarks (NHLs) and other National Register of Historic Places listings. It includes listings at current and former educational institutions.
The Charleston Cougars are the varsity intercollegiate athletic teams representing the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina. The Cougars compete in NCAA Division I and are currently members of the Coastal Athletic Association. The university sponsors 20 varsity sports teams including men and women's basketball, cross country, golf, soccer and tennis; women's-only dance team, equestrian, beach volleyball, softball, track and field and volleyball; men's-only baseball; and co-ed sailing and cheerleading. The university's most successful sports are co-ed sailing, which has won 14 national championships since 1986, women's volleyball, which has qualified for the NCAA Tournament seven times since 2002 and men's baseball, which has qualified for the NCAA Tournament seven times since 2004.
The Charleston Cougars men's basketball team is an NCAA Division I college basketball team representing the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina. The Cougars compete in the Coastal Athletic Association. Home games are played at TD Arena, located on College of Charleston's campus. While a member of the NAIA, they were National Champions in 1983. The Cougars have appeared seven times in the NCAA tournament, most recently in 2024.
The Citadel Bulldogs are the athletic teams that represent The Citadel. All sports participate in the NCAA Division I except football, which competes in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). Since 1936, varsity sports have competed in the Southern Conference. The Citadel fields teams in sixteen sports, nine for men and seven for women.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires |journal=
(help) and Accompanying four photos, exterior and interior, from 1970 (1.43 MB)32°47′3″N79°56′17″W / 32.78417°N 79.93806°W