Francis Marion University is a

public university A public university or public college is a university or college that is in owned by the state or receives significant public funds through a national or subnational government, as opposed to a private university. Whether a national universit ...

near

Florence, South Carolina Florence is a city in and the county seat of Florence County, South Carolina, United States. It lies at the intersection of Interstates 20 and 95 and is the eastern terminus of the former. It is the primary city within the Florence metropolit ...

. It is named in honor of

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

Brigadier General Brigadier general or Brigade general is a military rank used in many countries. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries. The rank is usually above a colonel, and below a major general or divisional general. When appointed ...

Francis Marion Brigadier-General Francis Marion ( 1732 – February 27, 1795), also known as the Swamp Fox, was an American military officer, planter and politician who served during the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War. During the Ameri ...

History

The university dates back to 1957, when the University of South Carolina set up a freshman college in a basement room of the Florence County Library. A few years later, in 1961, USC-Florence was set up on land donated by the Wallace family six miles east of

. Buoyed by these successes, a group of Florence-area citizens continued to push for the establishment of a four-year university in Florence to allow better access to higher education for the people of that area. The existing USC-F was an obvious foundation for a new institution. After several years of lobbying, Governor Robert E. McNair signed into law an act creating Francis Marion College, effective July 1, 1970. The newly created Francis Marion College initially enrolled 907 students from 23 of

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

's 46 counties. In 1992, Francis Marion College achieved university status and subsequently changed its name to ''Francis Marion University''. Today, Francis Marion has a student body of approximately 4,000. FMU draws students from across the country and around the world, but remains true to its original mission: to educate the people of the Pee Dee Region and the State of South Carolina. The student body's average in-state enrollment is 95 percent. Just more than half of FMU's students come from the Pee Dee Region. Francis Marion is one of South Carolina's 13

public universities A public university or public college is a university or college that is in owned by the state or receives significant public funds through a national or subnational government, as opposed to a private university. Whether a national university ...

. Its academic departments are segmented into three schools (School of Business, School of Education, School of Health Sciences) and the College of Liberal Arts. The Slave Houses, Gregg Plantation, located on the FMU campus, were listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1974.

Academics

Francis Marion University offers five undergraduate degrees: Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Business Administration, Bachelor of General Studies, Bachelor of Science, and Bachelor of Science in Nursing. Graduate degrees include the Master of Arts in Teaching, Master of Business Administration, Master of Education, Master of Science in Applied Psychology (clinical and school psychology tracks), and Specialist in School Psychology. All master's degree programs are accredited by their respective professional organizations. In 2017, FMU gained approval for its first doctoral program, a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP). The first class of DNP students enrolled in January 2018. StokesFallBldg1 lg

Francis Marion is

accredited Accreditation is the independent, third-party evaluation of a conformity assessment body (such as certification body, inspection body or laboratory) against recognised standards, conveying formal demonstration of its impartiality and competence to ...

by the Commission on Colleges of the

Southern Association of Colleges and Schools The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) is an educational accreditor recognized by the United States Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. This agency accredits over 13,000 public and priv ...

(SACS) to award

bachelor's A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ye ...

and

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

s. The business programs are accredited by the

Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, also known as AACSB International, is an American professional organization. It was founded as the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business in 1916 to provide accreditation to ...

(AACSB). The teacher education programs of the university are accredited by the

National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) was a professional accreditor focused on accrediting teacher education programs in U.S. colleges and universities. It was founded in 1954 and was recognized as an accreditor by ...

(NCATE) and approved by the

South Carolina State Board of Education South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz ...

under standards developed by the

National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

(NASDTEC). The baccalaureate degree nursing program is accredited by the National League for Nursing. The chemistry program is approved by the

Committee on Professional Training of the American Chemical Society A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...

. The graduate psychology program is accredited by the

Masters in Psychology Accreditation Council Master or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles * Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans * Grandmaster (chess), National Maste ...

(MPAC) and meets the standards of training approved by the Council of Applied Master's Programs in Psychology (CAMPP). The Master of Science in Applied Psychology Program is accredited by the Interorganizational Board for Accreditation of Master's in Psychology Programs (IBAMPP). The theater arts program is accredited by the

National Association of Schools of Theatre National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

(NAST), and the visual arts and art education programs are accredited by the

National Association of Schools of Art and Design The National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD), founded in 1944, is an accrediting organization of colleges, schools and universities in the United States. The organization establishes standards for graduate and undergraduate degrees ...

(NASAD). The university is approved by the

and is a member of the

American Council on Education The American Council on Education (ACE) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) U.S. higher education association established in 1918. ACE's members are the leaders of approximately 1,700 accredited, degree-granting colleges and universities and higher education ...

and the

American Association of State Colleges and Universities The American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) is an organization of state-supported colleges and universities that offer degree programs leading to bachelor's, master's or doctoral degrees. AASCU grew out of the Association ...

Campus

Located on a tract of land originally included in a

grant Grant or Grants may refer to: Places *Grant County (disambiguation) Australia * Grant, Queensland, a locality in the Barcaldine Region, Queensland, Australia United Kingdom *Castle Grant United States * Grant, Alabama *Grant, Inyo County, C ...

by the

King of England The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the constitutional form of government by which a hereditary sovereign reigns as the head of state of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies (the Bailiw ...

and later made a

cotton plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

by the Wallace Family, Francis Marion University is situated east of Florence. The

campus A campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a college campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls, student centers or dining halls, and park-like se ...

includes of mixed pine-hardwood and bottomland forests accessed by a series of trails. The university is located on U.S. Highways 76 and 301 and is just an hour's drive from

Myrtle Beach Myrtle Beach is a resort city on the east coast of the United States in Horry County, South Carolina. It is located in the center of a long and continuous stretch of beach known as "The Grand Strand" in the northeastern part of the state. Its y ...

and the

Grand Strand The Grand Strand is an arc of beach land on the Atlantic Ocean in South Carolina, United States, extending more than from Little River to Winyah Bay. It is located in Horry and Georgetown Counties on the NE South Carolina coast. The term Gra ...

and four hours from the

Blue Ridge Mountains The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. The mountain range is located in the Eastern United States, and extends 550 miles southwest from southern Pennsylvania through Maryland, West Virgin ...

. With a metropolitan-area population of 200,000, the city of

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

is nestled alongside

Interstate 95 Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from U.S. Route 1, US Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Miami, Florida, to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between M ...

, the main north–south corridor from the

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

area to

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

, and at the eastern end of

Interstate 20 Interstate 20 (I‑20) is a major east–west Interstate Highway in the Southern United States. I-20 runs beginning at an interchange with Interstate 10, I-10 in Scroggins Draw, Texas, and ending at an interchange with Interstate 95, I-95 in Flo ...

. The city is served by

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

, bus service, and a regional airport.

Academic facilities

The university's physical plant includes eleven major buildings: J. Howard Stokes Administration Building, James A. Rogers Library, Robert E. McNair Science Building, Hugh K. Leatherman Sr. Science Facility, Walter Douglas Smith University Center, Founders Hall, John K. Cauthen Educational Media Center (home of Cauthen Cafe, now serving Starbucks), Peter D. Hyman Fine Arts Center, Thomas C. Stanton Academic Computer Center, Lee Nursing Building, and the FMU Honors Center. In addition, the university constructed new student apartments on campus in 2006, known as The Villas. Francis Marion is also home to a two-story observatory, equipped with a reflecting telescope, and a planetarium that offers public shows twice monthly. The university has an excellent writing center available for student and FMU community use throughout the school year; the center provides online and face-to-face assistance for students working on writing assignments for any class. In addition, the FMU English Department offers majors in liberal arts, education, and professional writing tracks as well as hosts a Fiction and Poetry Festival each fall. Francis-Marion-University-Performing-Arts-Center-Exterior

Francis-Marion-University-Performing-Arts-Center-Exterior

Francis Marion also has the Richardson Center for the Child, a child-care facility for faculty, staff, and students. Completed in Summer 2011, the FMU Performing Arts Center is located in downtown Florence. It provides performance venues for the region featuring national, regional, and local performing artists. Additionally, the Performing Arts Center provides instructional facilities, practice rooms, and faculty offices for the Music Industry Program offered by the FMU Department of Fine Arts. The Griffin Athletic Complex, located near the main FMU campus, opened in 2012. The complex includes new baseball, softball, and soccer stadiums, a fieldhouse, and a five-acre lake.

Faculty

-12, FMU has a total of 262 professors. 198 of those professors are full-time. All faculty members have advanced degrees, and 79 percent of the full-time faculty hold doctoral or terminal degrees. The average class size is 21 students. All students are assigned a faculty adviser (in their curriculum) to assist them with class scheduling and academic planning.

Athletics

The Francis Marion athletics program is a member of the

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environmen ...

Conference Carolinas Conference Carolinas, formerly known as the Carolinas-Virginia Athletic Conference (CVAC) or the Carolinas Conference, is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) primarily at the Divisio ...

(CC), which consists of 13 member schools in

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

, and

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

. FMU joined CC after 31 years in the

Peach Belt Conference The Peach Belt Conference (PBC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. The 11 member institutions are located in the South Atlantic states of South Carolina ...

. The school sponsors 15 intercollegiate varsity sports; men's sports are baseball, basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, tennis, and indoor rack and field), and women's sports are basketball, cross-country, soccer, softball, tennis, indoor and outdoor track and field (counted by the NCAA as separate sports), and volleyball. The Patriot men's golf team competes in

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of College athletics, intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major ...

as a single-sport member of the

Southland Conference The Southland Conference, abbreviated as SLC, is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the South Central United States (specifically Texas and Louisiana). It participates in the NCAA's Division I for all sports; for football, it pa ...

Student life

Francis Marion University fields numerous

fraternities and sororities Fraternities and sororities are social organizations at colleges and universities in North America. Generally, membership in a fraternity or sorority is obtained as an undergraduate student, but continues thereafter for life. Some accept gradu ...

, as well as other clubs and organizations on campus. Fraternities and sororities present on campus include: Inter-Fraternity Council (IFC):

Kappa Alpha Order Kappa Alpha Order (), commonly known as Kappa Alpha or simply KA, is a social Fraternities and sororities, fraternity and a fraternal order founded in 1865 at Washington and Lee University, Washington College (now Washington and Lee University) i ...

(Delta Tau),

Tau Kappa Epsilon Tau Kappa Epsilon (), commonly known as or Teke, is a social college fraternity founded on January 10, 1899, at Illinois Wesleyan University. The organization has chapters throughout the United States and Canada, making the Fraternity an internat ...

(Tau Sigma)

National Panhellenic Conference The National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) is an umbrella organization for 26 (inter)national women's Fraternities and sororities, sororities throughout the United States and Canada. Each member group is autonomous as a social, Greek alphabet#Use ...

(NPC):

Alpha Delta Pi Alpha Delta Pi (), commonly known as ADPi (pronounced "ay-dee-pye"), is an International Panhellenic sorority founded on May 15, 1851, at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia. It is the oldest secret society for women. Alpha Delta Pi is a mem ...

(Zeta Phi),

Kappa Delta Kappa Delta (, also known as KD or Kaydee) was the first sorority founded at the State Female Normal School (now Longwood University), in Farmville, Virginia. Kappa Delta is one of the "Farmville Four" sororities founded at the university, wh ...

(Epsilon Psi),

Zeta Tau Alpha Zeta Tau Alpha (known as or Zeta) is an international Fraternities and sororities in North America, women's fraternity founded on October 15, 1898 at the State Female Normal School (now Longwood University) in Farmville, Virginia. Its Internatio ...

(Eta Chi)

National Pan-Hellenic Council The National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) is a collaborative umbrella council composed of historically African American fraternities and sororities also referred to as Black Greek Letter Organizations (BGLOs). The NPHC was formed as a permanent ...

(NPHC):

Alpha Phi Alpha Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. () is the oldest intercollegiate historically African American fraternity. It was initially a literary and social studies club organized in the 1905–1906 school year at Cornell University but later evolved int ...

(Kappa Chi),

Alpha Kappa Alpha Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. () is the first intercollegiate historically African American sorority. The sorority was founded on January 15, 1908, at the historically black Howard University in Washington, D.C., by a group of sixteen stud ...

(Iota Xi),

Kappa Alpha Psi Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. () is a historically African American fraternity. Since the fraternity's founding on January 5, 1911 at Indiana University Bloomington, the fraternity has never restricted membership on the basis of color, creed ...

(Mu Theta),

Omega Psi Phi Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. () is a historically African-American fraternity. The fraternity was founded on November 17, 1911, by three Howard University juniors Edgar Amos Love, Oscar James Cooper and Frank Coleman, and their faculty advi ...

(Lambda Lambda),

Delta Sigma Theta Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. () is a historically African American sorority. The organization was founded by college-educated women dedicated to public service with an emphasis on programs that assist the African American community. Delta ...

(Xi Omicron),

Phi Beta Sigma Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. () is a historically African American fraternity. It was founded at Howard University in Washington, D.C. on January 9, 1914, by three young African-American male students with nine other Howard students as char ...

(Pi Chi),

Zeta Phi Beta Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. () is a historically African American sorority. In 1920, five women from Howard University envisioned a sorority that would raise the consciousness of their people, encourage the highest standards of scholastic achie ...

(Xi Nu),

Sigma Gamma Rho Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. () is a historically African American sorority, international collegiate, and non-profit community service organization that was founded on November 12, 1922, by seven educators on the Irvington campus (1875–1 ...

(Xi),

Iota Phi Theta Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc. () is a historically African American fraternity. It was founded on September 19, 1963, at Morgan State University (then Morgan State College) in Baltimore, Maryland, and is currently the 5th largest Black Greek Le ...

Other Greek Affiliated Sororities & Fraternities :

Gamma Sigma Sigma Gamma Sigma Sigma () is a national service sorority founded on October 12, 1952, at Beekman Tower in New York City. It partners with other organizations such as March of Dimes, National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, American Cancer Society, a ...

(Eta Beta),

Lambda Tau Omega Lambda Tau Omega Sorority, Inc. () is a multicultural sorority founded in 1988 at Montclair State College (now Montclair State University), by sixteen women who felt the need for a multicultural sorority at Montclair State College. Lambda Tau Ome ...

(Phonoxy Pi),

Delta Sigma Pi Delta Sigma Pi () (officially the International Fraternity of Delta Sigma Pi, Inc.) is a coeducational professional business fraternity and one of the largest in the United States. Delta Sigma Pi was founded on November 7, 1907, at the School ...

(Omicron Upsilon) Non-Greek Organizations: Patriot Marketing Club,

Young Americans for Liberty Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) is a libertarian, classical liberal and Conservatism in the United States, conservative student activism organization headquartered in Austin, Texas. Formed in 2008 in the aftermath of the Ron Paul 2008 presiden ...

, Gender-Sexuality Alliance, The American Chemical Society,

Baptist Collegiate Ministries The Baptist Collegiate Network (BCN) is a college-level organization that can be found on many college campuses in the United States and Canada. Organizations These ministries are groups of students, faculty members and staff who are seeking t ...

, Intramural Council

University Presidents

The university has had four presidents to date: Dr. Walter Douglas Smith (1969 to 1983), Dr. Thomas C. Stanton (1983 to 1994), Dr. Lee A. Vickers (1994 to 1999), and Dr. Luther Fred Carter, the current president.

Notable alumni

Bree Boyce Andrea "Bree" Boyce, (born March 25, 1989) is an American beauty pageant titleholder from Florence, South Carolina who was named Miss South Carolina 2011. Biography From first to seventh grade, Boyce attended The Kings Academy in Florence, S ...

- Miss South Carolina 2011 * Kellie Rasberry - radio host of ''

Kidd Kraddick in the Morning ''The Kidd Kraddick Morning Show'' (formerly ''Kidd Kraddick in the Morning'') is an Radio in the United States, American ensemble morning zoo, morning radio show that originates from Dallas, Texas. The show is heard weekday mornings on flagship ...

'' *

Yancey McGill John Yancey McGill (born September 18, 1952) is an American politician from South Carolina. He was a member of the state Senate from 1989 to 2014. He served as the 90th Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina from June 2014 to January 2015. , he is ...

- Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina *

Mark L. Walberg Mark L. Walberg (born August 31, 1962) is an American actor, television personality, and game show host best known for hosting ''Antiques Roadshow'', '' Temptation Island'', and the game shows '' Russian Roulette'' on GSN and '' The Moment of Tr ...

- Television Host * Alan Wilson - Attorney General of South Carolina *

Pearl Moore Pearl Moore (born March 16, 1957) is a retired American professional basketball player who played for the Women's Professional Basketball League. During her collegiate career at Francis Marion University, Moore established herself as one of the mos ...

- Former professional basketball player *

Josh Edgin Joshua Wayne Edgin (born December 17, 1986) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He made his MLB debut with the New York Mets in 2012 and last appeared in MLB in 2017. Before he began his professional career, he played college ba ...

- Former New York Mets pitcher * Terry Alexander - Member of the South Carolina House of Representatives * Patricia Moore Henegan - Member of the South Carolina House of Representatives *

Heather Ammons Crawford Heather Ammons Crawford is an American politician who has served in the South Carolina House of Representatives from the 68th district since 2012. Crawford serves on the House Ways and Means Committee."House Standing Committees". ''South Carolin ...

- Member of the South Carolina House of Representatives * Jeff Noble - Former member of the Michigan House of Representatives * Carl Anderson - Member of the South Carolina House of Representatives

References

External links

Official website

Official athletics website

Francis Marion University Digital Collections
{{Authority control Buildings and structures in Florence, South Carolina Universities and colleges accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Educational institutions established in 1970 1970 establishments in South Carolina Public universities and colleges in South Carolina