Francis Marion University

Francis Marion University is a public university near Florence, South Carolina. It is named in honor of American Revolutionary War Brigadier General Francis Marion.

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 Florence, South Carolina. 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'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. 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 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.

Francis Marion is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) to award bachelor's and master's degrees. 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 Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) 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 and Counseling Accreditation Council (MPCAC) 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.

Campus
Located on a 400 acre tract of land originally included in a grant by the King of England and later made a cotton plantation by the Wallace Family, Francis Marion University is situated 6 mi east of Florence. The campus includes 100 acre of mixed pine-hardwood and bottomland forests accessed by a series of trails. The university is located on U.S. Highways 76 and 301. With a metropolitan-area population of 200,000, the city of Florence is alongside Interstate 95 and at the eastern end of Interstate 20.

Academic facilities
The university's physical plant includes eleven major buildings. 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 14 in reflecting telescope, and a planetarium that offers public shows twice monthly.

The university has a writing center.

Completed in Summer 2011, the FMU Performing Arts Center is located in downtown Florence.

The Griffin Athletic Complex, located near the main FMU campus, opened in 2012.

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 Conference Carolinas (CC), which consists of 13 member schools in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. FMU joined CC after 31 years in the Peach Belt Conference. The school sponsors 15 intercollegiate varsity sports; men's sports are baseball, basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, tennis, and indoor track 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.

Student life
Francis Marion University fields numerous fraternities and sororities, as well as other clubs and organizations on campus.

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

Notable alumni

 * Bree Boyce - Miss South Carolina 2011
 * Yancey McGill - Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina
 * Mark L. Walberg - Television Host
 * Alan Wilson - Attorney General of South Carolina
 * Pearl Moore - Former professional basketball player
 * Josh Edgin - Former New York Mets pitcher
 * Terry Alexander - Member of the South Carolina House of Representatives
 * Carl Anderson - Member of the South Carolina House of Representatives