University of South Carolina history

Seventy-two students were present for classes in January 1862 and the college functioned as best it could until a call by the Confederate government for South Carolina to fill its quota of 18,000 soldiers.

After many unsuccessful attempts to reopen the college, the trustees passed a resolution on December 2, 1863, that officially closed the college.

The Union army took possession of the college on May 24, 1865, and although the future for the college appeared bleak with it under military control, General John Porter Hatch sent a letter on June 19 to the remaining professors at the college that it should reopen as soon as possible.

Perry reinstated the trustees to their positions and the board met on September 20 to authorize the college to reopen on the first Monday of January in 1866.

The University Act of 1869 reorganized the university and provided it with generous financial support.

On October 7, 1873, Henry E. Hayne, the Secretary of State of South Carolina, became the first black student when he registered for the fall session in the medical college of the university.

Chartered as South Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanics on October 3, 1880

Chartered as South Carolina College in 1882

Chartered as South Carolina College on April 21, 1890

Founded in 1919, the Moore School has a history of innovative educational leadership, blending academic preparation with real-world experience through internships, consulting projects, study abroad programs and entrepreneurial opportunities.

That college became a two-year regional campus of the University of South Carolina system in 1959, but soon it was clear that the people of the southern Lowcountry needed and deserved more.

Three full-time faculty members, a secretary, and 139 students joined for the university’s first academic semester in September 1961.

The first associate degrees were awarded in June 1968.

The university purchased property from the Graniteville Company and moved from Banksia to its present site in 1972.

The Gregg-Graniteville Library was completed in 1975.

In 1977, the university was fully accredited as a senior college by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges, now known as the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), and granted its first baccalaureate degrees.

Master’s degree programs began being offered on campus in 1994.

In 1998, the school was named for South Carolina native Darla Moore, making the University of South Carolina the first major university to name its business school after a woman.

Doctor Lawrence S. Rowland"New College, New Nation: Remarks at the re-Dedication of the Beaufort College Building, November 2, 2000"

When Senator Strom Thurmond retired in 2002, Graham ran for his seat, winning the general election with more than 54 percent of the vote.

He took office in 2003.

With no four-year baccalaureate degree-granting institution in Beaufort, Jasper, Hampton, or Colleton Counties, USCB won its hard-fought petition to become a full four-year comprehensive university in 2004.

Doctor Walter B. Edgar"Celebrating Higher Education in Beaufort, 1795-2010"

In December of 2013, the Darla Moore School of Business took occupancy of its new home at the gateway to the university’s Innovista research district.

After Trump took office in 2017, however, Graham became one of his most vocal supporters, and he moved farther right on various issues.

The university’s communications studies faculty and students co-produce By The River, an in-depth interview program featuring Lowcountry authors and poets, which began airing regularly on SCETV in 2018.

In 2019, the university began an effort to examine and address historic context as well as to identify and include the contributions of marginalized and underrepresented people or groups whose voices have typically not been heard.

In the subsequent Senate trial, Graham voted not to convict the president, who was acquitted in a nearly party-line vote in 2020.

In 2021, USCB launched a cybersecurity concentration after winning a US Department of Defense grant that names USCB as one of the collaborative partners for the new South Coast Cyber Center.