Francis Marion University: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|Public university innear Florence, South Carolina, U.S.US}}

|faculty = 262210|

|students = 4,261045

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 [[Florence, South Carolina]]. Buoyed by these successes, aA 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]]'s 46 counties.

Francis Marion is [[educational accreditation|accredited]] by the Commission on Colleges of the [[Southern Association of Colleges and Schools]] (SACS) to award [[bachelor's]] and [[master's degree]]s. The business programs are accredited by the [[Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business]] (AACSB). The teacher education programs of the university are accredited by the [[National Council for the Accreditation of TeacherEducator EducationPreparation]] (NCATECAEP) and approved by the [[South Carolina State Board of Education]] under standards developed by the [[National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification]] (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]]. The graduate psychology program is accredited by the [[Masters in Psychology Accreditation Council|Masters in Psychology and Counseling Accreditation Council]] (MPACMPCAC) 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]] (NAST), and the visual arts and art education programs are accredited by the [[National Association of Schools of Art and Design]] (NASAD). The university is approved by the [[South Carolina State Board of Education]] and is a member of the [[American Council on Education]] and the [[American Association of State Colleges and Universities]].

Located on a {{convert|400|acre|ha|0|adj=on}} tract of land originally included in a [[land grant|grant]] by the [[King of England]] and later made a [[cotton plantation]] by the Wallace Family, Francis Marion University is situated {{convert|6|mi|km}} east of Florence. The [[campus]] includes {{convert|100|acre|ha|0}} 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]] and the [[Grand Strand]] and four hours from the [[Blue Ridge Mountains]]. With a metropolitan-area population of 200,000, the city of [[Florence, South Carolina|Florence]] is nestled alongside [[Interstate 95 in South Carolina|Interstate 95]], the main north–south corridor from the [[New England]] area to [[Miami]], and at the eastern end of [[Interstate 20]]. The city is served by [[Amtrak]], bus service, and a regional airport.

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 {{convert|14|in|mm|adj=on}} reflecting telescope, and a planetarium that offers public shows twice monthly.

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.

The Francis Marion athletics program is a member of the [[NCAA Division II]] [[Conference Carolinas]] (CC), which consists of 13 member schools in [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], [[North Carolina]], [[South Carolina]], and [[Tennessee]]. FMU joined CC after 31 years in the [[Peach Belt Conference]].<ref>{{cite press release|url=https://conferencecarolinas.com/newmembers|title=Conference Carolinas Announces Addition of Francis Marion and UNC Pembroke|publisher=Conference Carolinas|access-date=April 18, 2020|archive-date=October 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211018073714/https://conferencecarolinas.com/newmembers|url-status=dead}}</ref> The school sponsors 15 intercollegiate varsity sports; men's sports are baseball, basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, tennis, and indoor racktrack 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]] as a single-sport member of the [[Southland Conference]].<ref>{{cite web |title=NCAA Membership Directory: Francis Marion University |url=https://web3.ncaa.org/directory/orgDetail?id=1085 |publisher=NCAA |access-date=January 15, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite press release|url=https://www.southland.org/news/2021/6/24/mens-tennis-southland-conference-adds-mens-womens-golf-affiliate-members.aspx |title=Southland Conference Adds Men's & Women's Golf Affiliate Members |publisher=Southland Conference |date=June 24, 2021 |access-date=October 1, 2021}}</ref>

Francis Marion University fields numerous [[Fraternities and sororities in North America|fraternities and sororities]], as well as other clubs and organizations on campus. Fraternities and sororities present on campus include:

[[Category:EducationalUniversities institutionsand colleges established in 1970]]