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Wofford College

Motto	Intaminatis fulget honoribus
Motto in English	Untarnished, She Shines with Honor.
Type	Private liberal arts college
Established	1854; 171 years ago (1854)
Religious affiliation	United Methodist Church
Academic affiliations	Annapolis Group CIC IAMSCU
Endowment	$378.8 million (2022)
President	Nayef Samhat
Academic staff	140 (fall 2021)
Undergraduates	1,800 (dec 2020)
Location	Spartanburg, South Carolina, U.S. 34°57′32″N 81°56′06″W / 34.959°N 81.935°W / 34.959; -81.935
Campus	Suburban, 175 acres (71 ha)
Colors	Gold & black
Nickname	Terriers
Sporting affiliations	Division I – SoCon
Mascot	Terrier
Website	www.wofford.edu

Wofford College is a private liberal arts college in Spartanburg, South Carolina. It was founded in 1854. The 175-acre (71 ha) campus is a national arboretum and one of the few four-year institutions in the southeastern United States founded before the American Civil War that still operates on its original campus.

Wofford was founded with a bequest of $100,000 from Benjamin Wofford (1780–1850), a Methodist minister and Spartanburg native who sought to create a college for "literary, classical, and scientific education in my native district of Spartanburg." The college's Main Building is the oldest structure on campus and was designed by the noted Charleston architect Edward C. Jones. In 1941, the college was awarded a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the nation's oldest academic honor society, and the Beta of South Carolina chapter was the first at a private college in South Carolina.

Wofford College Historic District

Wofford College Historic District
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district
Show map of South CarolinaShow map of the United States
Location	Wofford College campus, Spartanburg, South Carolina
Area	30 acres (12 ha)
Built	1854
Architect	Edward C. Jones
Architectural style	Italianate, Georgian
NRHP reference No.	74001879
Added to NRHP	December 27, 1974

The Wofford College Historic District consists of the Main Building, which was designed by Edward C. Jones in the Italianate style, and six two-story brick residences. It was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. The Wofford campus has been landscaped, developed, and designated as a national arboretum.

Construction of the Main Building began in 1852 and the first classes were held in the fall of 1854. During the Civil War, the endowment was invested in Confederate bonds and other securities, which became worthless by the end of the war.

Endowment

In February 2021, Jerry Richardson, alumnus and founding owner of Carolina Panthers, donated $150 million to the college's endowment, which exceeds $400 million.

Rankings

Wofford is ranked 69th in U.S. News & World Report's list of the best national liberal arts colleges, a ranking that has improved in the last 10 years. In 2010, Forbes ranked it 58th on its inaugural Forbes List of America's 650 Best Colleges. In 2018 Forbes also named Wofford the number one four-year college in South Carolina.

Academics

The academic year consists of a four-month fall semester, a one-month January term called the Interim, and a four-month spring semester.

Faculty

136 full-time faculty teach at the college, 92 percent of whom have earned a doctorate or equivalent terminal degree. The FTE faculty to student ratio is 1:11.

Majors and minors

Wofford offers academic majors in a variety of areas including 27 majors.

The college also offers pre-professional programs in Teacher Education (secondary certification), Dentistry, Medicine, Law, Ministry, Engineering, and Veterinary Science. The college's Army ROTC program was established in 1919.

Interim program

The Interim program is designed to provide students with opportunities to gain new experiences outside the realm of traditional academics and allows students to become involved in departments outside their academic majors. Interims generally fall into one of four categories. In the most common type, students enroll in faculty-proposed projects on campus. These projects range from participation in theatre to pottery, knitting and short story writing. Students may elect to enroll in internship projects that are supervised by faculty, but involve working off-campus in legal, medical, dental, congressional, corporate, or non-profit settings. Students may propose independent research projects under the supervision of a faculty sponsor. Finally, faculty-led travel projects take groups of students and professors to study in other parts of the United States or in Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, or Australia. Recent travel projects have included study in England and Ireland, South Africa, Peru, Brazil, Belize, Vietnam, China, and Japan.

International programs

The college's Office of International Programs helps students select from over 200 study abroad programs in 59 countries. Wofford consistently ranks in the nation's top ten in the Institute of International Education Open Doors Survey, which is based on comparing the number of students earning credits abroad in a given year the number of students in the graduating class. Wofford's 2009 score was 93%, compared to the Lincoln Commission national average of 9% of graduates earning credits abroad. The college has had six Fulbright English Teaching assistantships in the past four years as well as two Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarships. In 2012, Rachel Woodlee was selected as Wofford's sixth Rhodes Scholar.

Athletics

The Wofford Terriers compete in NCAA Division I in the Southern Conference. Wofford's colors are old gold and black. The school mascot is the Terrier. In the 2010 NCAA Division I graduation success report, 9 of 13 Wofford teams posted GRS scores of 100, the highest available mark. For the past 16 years, the Carolina Panthers have made their summer training camp home at Wofford. The Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas (a high school all-star football game) is played at Wofford's Gibbs Stadium. Boss, a Boston Terrier, is the mascot for Wofford Athletics.

Wofford is represented by 18 men and women's varsity sports. Gibbs Stadium, opened in 1996, is the home field for Terrier football games. The baseball team, 2022 regular season conference champions, plays its home games at Russell C. King Field. Men's and women's basketball and volleyball teams play in the Benjamin Johnson Arena of the Campus Life Building, opened in 1981. The inaugural men's basketball game was played in 3300-seat Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium on 10 November 2017. Soccer teams play on Snyder Field, which was the college's football stadium through 1995. Wofford men's basketball has won the Southern Conference Championship and an NCAA bid five times since 2010, and in 2018/19 went a perfect 21–0 in Southern Conference play and won an NCAA tournament game for the first time. Wofford football won the SoCon championship in 2017, 2018, and 2019.

Student life

Wofford offers a self-contained environment (93% of students live on campus). The Village apartment-style housing for the senior class was a 2008 "Dorm of Distinction" as chosen by University Business Magazine. Phase V of The Village, an $11 million project, opened in the fall of 2011. It added 80 beds in loft apartments, bringing the capacity of The Village to 428 students. It also houses The Space in the Mungo Center (formerly The Center for Professional Excellence), specialized classroom spaces, and a dining and market area called the "Grand Galleria."

Student organizations

Students participate in various service, pre-professional, religious, social, and other student organizations. Student publications at the college date to the first literary magazine, first published in 1889. The student newspaper, the Old Gold and Black, is published every other week, and the yearbook, The Bohemian, is published each spring. Delta Phi Alpha, the national collegiate German honorary society, was founded at Wofford, as was the National Beta Club, an honorary society prominent in American high schools.

In 1941, the college was awarded a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the nation's oldest academic honor society. This was the first chapter at a private college in South Carolina.

Service learning

Wofford has a variety of student service organizations on campus, including the Bonner Scholars, Twin Towers, Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity, and ONE.

Wofford was included in the 2010 President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, published by the Corporation for National and Community Service. Washington Monthly compared 23 of 252 Top Liberal Arts Colleges contributions to the public good in three broad categories: Social Mobility (recruiting and graduating low-income students), Research (producing cutting-edge scholarship and PhDs), and Service (encouraging students to give something back to their country). In the magazine's 2010 ratings, Wofford finished 23rd among 252 Top Liberal Arts Colleges and was number 1 in South Carolina. Newsweek identified Wofford as one of the most "service-minded" campuses in the country, ranking the college second in listings released in September 2010. Six recent Wofford graduates have been selected for the Teach For America Corps.

Student government

The student government rests in the Campus Union, with executive officers and an assembly elected by the student body. Students serve on various campus committees and represent the student body before various committees of the board of trustees.

Student conduct is governed by the Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities, a document written by an Interim project in 1970–1971. The code is enforced by a judicial commission consisting of elected and appointed members. An honor council enforces the student honor code in academic matters.

Fraternities and sororities

Around half the student body participates in Greek life.

Diversity

In each of the years from 1901 through 1904, two women graduated from Wofford. In 1964, Wofford became the first private college in South Carolina to desegregate voluntarily with the admission of Albert Gray.

Alumni

Academia

• Paige West, Columbia University and Barnard College anthropologist, 2021 Guggenheim Fellow

Athletics

• Brenton Bersin, football player
• Fisher DeBerry, football coach
• Robert Galloway, tennis player
• Eric Garcia, basketball player
• Forrest Lasso, soccer player
• Brad Loesing, basketball player
• Fletcher Magee, basketball player
• William McGirt, golfer
• Andrew Novak, golfer
• Danny Morrison, president of the Carolina Panthers NFL football teams
• Ameet Pall, football player
• Kasey Redfern, football player
• Jerry Richardson, football player
• Nate Woody, football player

Business

• Rob E. Gregory Jr., attorney, and president/CEO of several apparel companies, including Lee Jeans and London Fog
• George Dean Johnson, Jr., banker
• Jerry Richardson, restaurant franchise owner
• Jude Reyes, billionaire co-chairman (with his brother J. Christopher Reyes) of Reyes Holdings

Entertainment

• Craig Melvin, journalist
• Wendi Nix, journalist
• Ellison Barber, journalist

Politics, law, and public service

• Paul S. Atkins, former commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
• Ibra C. Blackwood, governor of South Carolina (1931–1935)
• Adam Bowling, member of the Kentucky House of Representatives
• Michael J. Copps, former commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission
• Samuel Dibble, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and the first graduate of Wofford College (Class of 1856)
• Henry F. Floyd, judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
• Buster Murdaugh, member of the murdaugh family
• Donald Fowler, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee
• Clyde H. Hamilton, judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
• Joseph C. Hutchinson, lieutenant general in the Florida National Guard and Chairman of the Seminole County Commission in 1960-1964
• Olin D. Johnston, former United States senator, South Carolina (1945–1965); governor of South Carolina (1935–1939, 1943–1945)
• C. Bruce Littlejohn, associate justice South Carolina Supreme Court (1966–1984); chief justice (1984–1985)
• Thomas Gordon McLeod, governor of South Carolina (1923–1927)
• Costa M. Pleicones, associate justice, later chief justice, of the South Carolina Supreme Court since 2000
• Dennis W. Shedd, judge on the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
• Ellison D. Smith, former United States senator, South Carolina (1909–1945: 17th longest-serving senator in history)
• John G. Stabler, associate justice South Carolina Supreme Court (1926–1935); chief justice (1935–1940)
• Charles Albert Woods, associate justice South Carolina Supreme Court (1903–1913); judge on the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (1913–1925)

Religion

• William H. Willimon, author, Duke University chaplain, minister, and retired Bishop of the United Methodist Church, North Alabama Conference

Education

• William Preston Few, first and longest serving president of Duke University and the fifth and last president of its predecessor, Trinity College
• James Kirkland, second and longest-serving chancellor of Vanderbilt University
• James A. Knight, psychiatrist, theologian, and medical ethicist; first dean of the Texas A&M School of Medicine

Religion

• William Wallace Duncan, bishop in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South
• Francis L. Garrett, chief of chaplains of the U.S. Navy
• Marion J. Hatchett, a liturgical scholar in the Episcopal Church who helped to shape the 1979 Book of Common Prayer
• Albert C. Outler, theologian and philosopher

Gallery

• Wofford College in 1905
• Science Hall, 1905 (since demolished)

References

1. As of June 30, 2022. U.S. and Canadian Institutions Listed by Fiscal Year 2022 Endowment Market Value and Change in Endowment Market Value from FY21 to FY22 (Report). National Association of College and University Business Officers and TIAA. February 1, 2022. Retrieved April 10, 2023.
2. "President - Wofford College". Wofford.edu. July 1, 2013. Retrieved July 11, 2013.
3. ^ "Wofford College - Fast Facts". Wofford.edu. Retrieved July 14, 2014.
4. Wofford College Logo Sheet (PDF). November 1, 2014. Retrieved April 9, 2016.
5. David Duncan Wallace, History of Wofford College (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1951) pp. 48-56
6. Wofford: Shining With Untarnished Honor, 1854-2004 (Spartanburg, SC: Hub City Writers Group, 2005), p. 14
7. ^ "Wofford College - Phi Beta Kappa". Wofford.edu. October 22, 2007. Retrieved July 11, 2013.
8. ^ "National Register Information System – (#74001879)". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
9. Brabham, William H. (August 29, 1974). "Wofford College Historic District" (PDF). National Register of Historic Places - Nomination and Inventory. Retrieved August 25, 2012.
10. "Wofford College Historic District, Spartanburg County (Spartanburg)". National Register Properties in South Carolina. South Carolina Department of Archives and History. Retrieved August 25, 2012.
11. "A History of Wofford, 1854-present". Retrieved January 22, 2019.
12. "Richardson gives record $150 million to Wofford College Endowment". Wofford College (Press release). Spartanburg, South Carolina. February 24, 2021. Retrieved March 11, 2021.
13. Jaschik, Scott (February 25, 2021). "Wofford Receives $150 Million Gift". Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved March 11, 2021.
14. "Why Wofford". Wofford.edu. Retrieved July 11, 2013.
15. "Wofford College | Best College | US News". Colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com. Retrieved October 15, 2020.
16. "America's Best Colleges". Forbes.com.
17. ^ "Interim". Wofford.edu. October 22, 2007. Retrieved July 11, 2013.
18. "Wofford College - Academics". Wofford.edu. October 22, 2007. Retrieved July 11, 2013.
19. David Duncan Wallace, History of Wofford College (Vanderbilt University Press, 1951, p. 212.
20. "Wofford College - Wofford ranks among leaders in nation for study abroad". Wofford.edu. November 15, 2010. Retrieved July 11, 2013.
21. Wofford Today, Summer 2011
22. "Wofford housing wins 2nd national award". GoUpstate.com. August 1, 2008. Retrieved July 11, 2013.
23. Shackleford, Lynne P. (October 2, 2011). "Wofford College seniors relish Village as school unveils Phase 5 of housing project". GoUpstate.com. Retrieved July 11, 2013.
24. "the Bonner Scholars". Wofford.edu. October 22, 2007. Retrieved July 11, 2013.
25. "ONE Campus Challenge". One.org. April 23, 2013. Retrieved July 11, 2013.
26. "Diversity & Inclusion". Retrieved January 22, 2019.
27. "First African American Wofford Student Albert W. Gray and First African American Wofford Graduate Douglas Jones Sr. honored with room naming at Wofford". May 24, 2013. Retrieved January 22, 2019.
28. "Robert Galloway Men's Doubles Overview". www.itftennis.com. Retrieved August 18, 2020.
29. "Jude Reyes". Forbes. Retrieved January 28, 2015.

External links

• Official website

Links to related articles

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