Although rarely recognized as such, Charleston is a college town. The College of Charleston, along with the Charleston area’s three other public colleges and universities – the Medical University of South Carolina, The Citadel and Trident Technical College – account for a total of nearly 50,000 students, faculty and staff. That’s the equivalent of a University of Georgia or a University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill.
Over the years, proposals to merge two or three of the Charleston-area universities have come and gone. In the early 1820s, for instance, the College actually turned down an opportunity to create a medical school. As a result, the Medical College of South Carolina, now MUSC, was established as a separate institution in 1824. More recently, former College president Harry M. Lightsey Jr. in the 1980s and former state senator and College alumnus Arthur Ravenel Jr. ’50 in the 1990s floated the idea of bringing the College and other area institutions under the umbrella of a large research university in Charleston.
Although the four institutions remain separate today, we collaborate in a variety of ways. The College and The Citadel offer joint master’s degree programs in English, history, computer and information sciences, and teaching in middle grades. Trident Technical College is a major feeder school for the College. And, in turn, the College is a key supplier of applicants to MUSC’s graduate and medical programs. As many as 20 percent of the students in certain MUSC programs are graduates of the College.
The College and its sister institutions are so deeply woven into the economic and social fabric of Charleston that it’s easy to take them for granted. But just imagine Charleston without them. The impact on our local workforce alone would be catastrophic. Combined, the four institutions account for more than 15,000 full-time and part-time jobs. That’s roughly the same number of jobs the Lowcountry lost from the closure of the Charleston Naval Station and Shipyard in 1996 – and that was a serious economic blow by any measure.
Imagine downtown Charleston without the College. Our main campus of 130 buildings is spread across 41 acres of some of the most expensive real estate in South Carolina. Eighty of our buildings are over 100 years old and several are over 200 years old, making the College the largest historic preservationist in Charleston.
And what would King Street be like without the enormous economic boost that our campus community provides to its shops and restaurants?
Our students play an important part in what makes Charleston a world-class city. From their thousands of hours of community service and volunteer work in local schools to internships in local businesses and field research projects throughout the Lowcountry, our undergraduate and graduate students enrich our community with their intelligence, youth, diversity and energy.
And our faculty don’t just teach. They help raise the quality of life in the Charleston region by working to solve coastal and environmental issues, analyzing economic and employment trends, and preserving our city’s rich history and culture.
The College has always recognized the importance of its relationship with the city of Charleston. Our histories are intertwined and our futures are interdependent. The College’s Strategic Plan emphasizes our dual obligation to utilize Charleston’s assets as a living laboratory for our students and to simultaneously support and nurture those assets. Our power of place is so fundamental to our existence that we include it as one of our core values: “the history, traditions, culture and environment of Charleston and the Lowcountry and the opportunities they afford our students for learning and our faculty for scholarship.”
An example of this synergistic relationship is the College’s contributions to the arts in Charleston. We are deeply engaged in Charleston’s arts and music culture through, among other things, our relationships with Spoleto Festival USA and the Piccolo Spoleto Festival. Each year, the College’s faculty, staff, students and alumni play integral roles in the operational, programming and performance aspects of the two festivals. In addition, the College’s facilities are used extensively for performances, exhibitions, rehearsals, lodging and dressing areas.
More generally, Charleston’s public colleges and universities draw visitors to our city from all over the world: prospective students and their families touring our campus; parents visiting their students; professionals and academics attending conferences and symposiums; alumni returning for reunions and homecomings. These visitors stay in our hotels, eat in our restaurants and shop in our stores.
We bring world leaders, U.S. presidents, entertainers, CEOs and newsmakers to our campuses. The College of Charleston and The Citadel have become key campaign stumps on the road to the White House.
Our colleges and universities educate and supply the teachers who form the backbone of our public K-12 school systems. We partner with our school districts to improve literacy, develop new curricula and provide pathways to college for under-represented populations. And our graduates become the parents who are likely to be involved in their children’s education and involved in our schools.
The economies of Charleston and the state of South Carolina also benefit from the direct and indirect spending of our universities and colleges. We are major purchasers of products and services. We buy computers, vehicles, office supplies, furniture and food. We hire accounting, legal, cleaning and catering services.
We are real estate developers who build dormitories, classroom and office buildings, laboratories, libraries, museums, theaters, athletic facilities and parking garages – all of which require building supplies and provide jobs for architects, engineers, contractors and construction workers.
We also pump millions of dollars into our community by seeking out and attracting philanthropic support, federal grants and corporate and foundation grants.
So the next time you find yourself in Charleston, take a good look around. Stop and appreciate the many ways in which higher education blends seamlessly into our historic city. Indeed, it can be hard to tell where our campuses end and the city begins. That’s part of the allure of Charleston – its diverse blend of historic neighborhoods, businesses and, yes, the public universities and colleges that make Charleston a college town.
– P. George Benson
