Presbyterian College

Presbyterian College is a private liberal arts college in Clinton, South Carolina, USA. Presbyterian College, or PC, is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church USA. PC was founded in 1880 by William Plumer Jacobs, a prominent Presbyterian minister who also founded the nearby Thornwell Home and School for Boys and Girls. The college's current President is Dr. Claude Lilly.

Presbyterian College has around 1300 students and runs on an endowment of around $65 million. PC also has 84 full-time faculty members. Over the years six of its faculty have been selected as South Carolina Professors of the Year, more than any other college or university in the state.

The motto of PC is "Dum Vivimus Servimus" or "While We Live We Serve." Service is a crucial part of PC, and almost all of its students partake in some form of service by the time they graduate. Consequently, students are encouraged to participate in programs like Student Volunteer Services, one of the largest student-run organizations on campus.

The PC mascot is the Blue Hose, represented by a Scotsman clad in a kilt with blue stockings. PC athletics are a part of the Big South Conference of NCAA's Division I. PC is also home to Cyrus, the largest bronze statue of a Scotsman in the world.

History


PC was founded in 1880 by William Plumer Jacobs, a Presbyterian minister who also founded The Thornwell Home and School for Boys and Girls. Rev. Jacobs was born in Yorkville (now York, South Carolina) on March 15, 1842. He died in Clinton on September 10, 1917. For these 75 years, his frail body was driven in unselfish service toward fulfillment of his motto: "I will strive and try not to gain great things for myself but to gain them for God." In addition to founding and/or supporting the church, college and orphanage, Dr. Jacobs served as author, reporter, publisher and took the lead in Clinton civic affairs. He helped secure the location of two railroads, led in the establishment of the Clinton High School Association and sponsored plans for founding a public library. He was fluent in Latin, Greek, French, German and Hebrew, and was an expert in metaphysics, history and astronomy. He was also proficient in shorthand.

Jacobs founded the college to be a community of Christian faith and learning, and the college retains the emphasis of service, for "faith without works is dead." The school's motto is Dum Vivimus Servimus, or "While We Live, We Serve". The mission of the school states:

""The compelling purpose of Presbyterian College, as a church-related college, is to develop within the framework of Christian faith the mental, physical, moral, and spiritual capacities of each student in preparation for a lifetime of personal and vocational fulfillment and responsible contribution to our democratic society and the world community.""

Academics
Presbyterian College has 84 full-time professors and offers 30 majors. The average class size is 13–15 students. The college has three Cooperative and Dual-Degree Programs in Engineering (with Auburn, Clemson, and Vanderbilt Universities), Forestry/Environmental Science (with Duke University) and Religion (with Union Theological Seminary). PC also has eight pre-professional programs.

A Confucius Institute is now an integral part of academic life at PC. Confucius Institutes exist at colleges and universities worldwide to offer educational opportunities in Chinese language and culture. Presbyterian College and the University of South Carolina are the only two venues for Confucius Institutes in South Carolina. PC also maintains active academic partnerships with Guizhou University in China and with Karlsruhe University of Education in Germany.

Pharmacy School
Presbyterian College recently announced the creation of its own pharmacy school. The school opened in the fall of 2010 and is currently on candidate accreditation status

South Carolina Professor of the Year
Six Presbyterian College faculty members have won the annual Carnegie/CASE South Carolina Professor of the Year awards, more than any other college or university faculty in the state. Three PC professors won that award in the 1990s and three in the 2000s.

The historian William Y. Thompson taught at Presbyterian College from 1950–1955, when he joined the faculty of Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, Louisiana.

Admission
Presbyterian college accepts 68.6% of applicants and is regarded as "more selective" by U.S. News and World Report.

Size and Makeup
Roughly 1300 students representing 27 states and 7 foreign countries are enrolled at Presbyterian College, 48% of whom are male and 52% of whom are female. For several years, the student body was maintained at roughly 1200, but in 2006, the incoming freshman class was enlarged from 300 to almost 400. 95% of the student body lives on campus, and the student body boasts over 70 student-run clubs and organizations. The incoming class of 2009 is reported to be the largest incoming class in the college's history.

Honor Code
In the academic and social atmosphere of Presbyterian College, the college's Honor Code often is mentioned and considered. PC has utilized the honor system since 1915. The current version includes prohibitions against dishonorable acts such as cheating, lying, vandalism, plagiarism, and theft.

At the annual Opening Convocation, each incoming student and new faculty member signs a pledge to adhere to these principles. Many community members recognize several resulting benefits. Some students do not lock their dorm rooms or their bicycles. Professors and students are allowed greater flexibility as all are considered by default to be trustworthy and not to be suspected of cheating. Such liberties are partly maintained by the seriousness with which the Honor Council manages cases of violations. The standard, but by no means required, punishment for violating the honor code is suspension for two semesters. Every year, despite the regularity with which attention is focused on the honor code, a small number of violations are reported to and sometimes tried by the Honor Council.

In 2006, Presbyterian College revised its Honor Code to its current version: ""On my honor, I will abstain from all deceit. I will neither give nor receive unacknowledged aid in my academic work, nor will I permit such action by any member of this community. I will respect the persons and property of the community, and will not condone discourteous or dishonest treatment of these by my peers. In my every act, I will seek to maintain a high standard of honesty and truthfulness for myself and for the College.""

Further details can be found at the PC website.

Greek life
43% of students at PC are involved in Greek Life.

PC has 6 national fraternities:


 * Alpha Sigma Phi
 * Kappa Alpha Order
 * Pi Kappa Alpha
 * Pi Kappa Phi
 * Sigma Nu
 * Theta Chi

PC has 3 national sororities:
 * Alpha Delta Pi
 * Sigma Sigma Sigma
 * Zeta Tau Alpha

Each fraternity has a house on campus, located at Fraternity Court.

Rankings
Presbyterian College is a member of the Annapolis Group, an association of over 100 liberal arts colleges that has spoken out against rankings systems, particularly the system published annually by the U.S. News and World Report. Specifically, Presbyterian College and others of the group do not participate in the highly subjective "reputational survey" portion of the overall survey (this section accounts for 25% of the total rank). In spite of PC's refusal to submit the often subjective peer-assessment portion of the survey, U.S. News ranks the college 105th among liberal arts colleges according to its Best Colleges 2010 list.

In the days following PC's formal denouncement of ranking systems, however, Presbyterian College was ranked no. 1 in the 2007 version of Washington Monthly's Top US Liberal Arts Colleges Rankings based on its production of research valuable to society and its commitment to national service. Consequently, the issue of college rankings has become the subject of much debate on PC's campus, with students and faculty voicing strong opinions on both sides of the issue.

Campus


Six buildings on Presbyterian College's 240 acre campus are part of the Thornwell-Presbyterian College Historic District, a historic district that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places: Doyle Hall, Laurens Hall, Jacobs Hall, the president's house, Neville Hall, and the campus bell tower.

To house its students, Presbyterian College features 11 residence halls, 9 apartments, and 15 townhouses that together provide lodging for over 90% of the students at the college. Most of the residence halls are named for friends of the college. Men's residence halls include Bailey Hall and Georgia Hall. Women's residence halls include Belk Hall, Grotnes Hall, Laurens Hall, and Smyth Hall. Four residence halls, Carol International House, Senior Hall, Barron Hall and Clinton Hall are co-educational, either by suite, room, or floor. Reynolds Hall, once housing the campus's infirmary, is either housed by women or men only depending on the year. The college also uses 15 townhouse units to house 72 senior students and 9 Scottish Arms apartments to house an additional 18 students.

During the 2008–2009 academic year, Presbyterian College acquired a piece of property that will be used as the primary facility for the School of Pharmacy. The School of Pharmacy building will be a 54000 sqft, multi-story facility housing classrooms, faculty offices, teaching and research laboratories, assessment areas, and a pharmacy clinic, the Center for Pharmacy Care. The facility is located in Clinton approximately 1 mi from the Presbyterian College campus. A relationship between the City of Clinton and the college developed so that the city and college jointly acquired the building, the unoccupied former home of Presbyterian Home, an assisted living center. Renovation of the facility is scheduled to begin on April 1, 2009, with a completion and move-in date of April 1, 2010. Classes are scheduled to begin in August 2010.

Interestingly, Neville Hall is rumored to be haunted. The actual identity of the ghost is disputed, but many believe it to be either the spirit of the building's namesake (Neville) or the spirit of William Plumer Jacobs himself. However, another story suggests that the building is haunted by a student who allegedly committed suicide in the top floor of the building. The building is also labeled as a nuclear fallout shelter, along with several other academic buildings on campus.

Athletics
Presbyterian College competes in NCAA Division I athletics as the PC Blue Hose. The school is a member of the Big South Conference and supports 16 varsity sports teams. Prior to joining Division I, the Blue Hose first appeared in an NCAA tournament in 1993 when coach Beth Couture led the women's basketball team to the NCAA Division II National Tournament. PC also has 4 club teams: men's swimming, men's volleyball, women's swimming and women's volleyball.

Men's sports include:
 * baseball
 * basketball
 * cross-country
 * football
 * golf
 * soccer
 * tennis

Women's athletics include:
 * basketball
 * cross-country
 * golf
 * lacrosse
 * soccer
 * softball
 * tennis
 * volleyball

Division I
In 2006, PC announced that it would move to the Big South Conference of the NCAA's Division I. The Presbyterian College football team competed in Division I-AA. The 2007–2008 season was the first year of the four-year transition period for Presbyterian. PC football went 6–5 in their first season in Division I-AA. The men's Basketball team has garnered recognition during the transition phase for their status as "road warriors", having traveled more than any other team in the 2007–2008 season (25 away games). Their nation-wide criss-cross included match-ups with major programs like Ohio State, Clemson, Wake Forest, N.C. State, and others. The team gained fame by being featured on ESPN.com, as well as articles in The New York Times and The Washington Post. Presbyterian was also featured in The Washington Post for its 2009–2010 basketball season. In 2011, the Bleacherreport selected Presbyterian's mascot as one of the worst in collegiate football. From the website: "It refers to fierce Scottish warriors who wore blue socks. Still, maybe "Scotsmen" would be better, and harder to make fun of, than Blue Hose."

The Bronze Derby
Traditionally, one of the athletic highlights on PC's campus is the Bronze Derby football game. Played annually against nearby Newberry College, the game is the subject of a long-standing rivalry between the two schools.

The rivalry dates back to the a particularly heated game played during 1946–47 basketball season. Before the game commenced, a set of PC students unfurled a large banner inscribed with “Beat H ... Out of Newberry!” on the wall of the gymnasium behind the PC student section. While the crowd was distracted, however, a group of Newberry students climbed the outside of the gym wall, crawled through a window, and ripped the banner off the wall before fleeing into the night. After the game ended (PC won 51–47), PC students demanded that the banner be returned. The Newberry students refused, and a fight ensued. In the midst of the epic struggle, a Newberry student snatched a derby from the head of a PC student.

In the days following the derby theft, Frank E. Kinard – a senior at Newberry and editor of the school paper – received a letter from Charles MacDonald, then assistant athletic publicity director at PC. MacDonald suggested that the derby be recovered so that it could be made to be a symbol of athletic rivalry between the two schools, to which Kinard and the Newberry student body agreed. The derby was then unearthed, although the identity of the abductor was kept secret, and the hat was immortalized in bronze, forever a symbol of the rivalry between the two teams.

During the early years of the Bronze Derby rivalry, the hat was exchanged between Newberry and PC at every athletic event, the first occurring at a basketball game on February 28, 1947, which PC won 44–42. Eventually, however, it was decided that the derby would be awarded only to the winner of the Annual Thanksgiving Turkey Day Bronze Derby Game, rather than at every athletic event. The game was then rescheduled during the 1992 season after the teams and the conference moved to NCAA Division II (the game date conflicted with the playoff schedule).

Currently, the annual Bronze Derby game has been temporarily suspended, given PC's move out of Division II athletics and into Division I. The game, however, is still intended to be played once PC's transitional phase is completed.

Notable alumni

 * R. Bentley Anderson, Ph.D., author of Black, White, and Catholic: New Orleans Interracialism, 1947–1956, currently an associate professor of history at St. Louis University
 * Art Baker, former head football coach at Furman University (1973–1977), The Citadel (1977–1982), and East Carolina University (1985–1988)
 * Alison Barnard, Media and Public Affairs Specialist, U.S. Dept. of State, Sydney, Australia
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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)
 * Kimberly Nicole Hampton (August 18, 1976 – January 2, 2004) Captain in the United States Army and the first female military pilot in United States history to be shot down and killed as a result of 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 who coined "Death Valley" nickname of Clemson Memorial Stadium
 * Matthew Miller, United States Foreign Service Officer
 * Allen Morris, 1956 U.S. Davis Cup team member, quarterfinalist at Wimbledon
 * Kelly Pope, Family Court Judge, South Carolina
 * Jim Samples, President of HGTV
 * Ernest Shahid, businessman and pioneering real estate developer
 * Roy Skinner (1930–2010), former head coach of the Vanderbilt Commodores men's basketball team.
 * Bob Waters, former head football coach at Western Carolina University
 * Rev. Theodore Wardlaw, president and professor of homiletics, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary
 * Walter Wells, Executive Editor, International Herald Tribune (retired), political columnist for France Today