Spartanburg Methodist College

Spartanburg Methodist College (SMC) is a private college in Saxon, South Carolina, United States. The college is affiliated with the United Methodist Church and enrolled 1,037 students during the 2023–2024 academic year.

History
Spartanburg Methodist College was founded in 1911 as the Textile Industrial Institute (TII) by David English Camak. Camak was inspired by the challenges faced by southern cotton textile workers. With the support of Walter S. Montgomery, president of Spartan Mill, Camak established an elementary and secondary school in a vacant house near Duncan Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church. The school grew steadily, eventually becoming a mission of the South Carolina Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Founding and early years (1911–1919)
In 1913, the college acquired its present campus and began construction of Charles P. Hammond Hall, which still serves as a residence hall.

Even though the work and study schedules helped students to attend Textile Industrial Institute, the school needed additional income to operate. The TII Board of Trustees recruited members from the South Carolina Methodist conferences, allow the land to be on sale, and pay off the debts to create new funds for the project. The Model Mill opened in 1919, providing TII the opportunity to combine education and work as Camak had envisioned. The Model Mill made weaves, dyed and bleached materials, improved the threads to make them stronger, and perfected the art of depth in precise dying. The success of the Model Mill was short-lived. In 1921, the mill employed only TII students, but issues with financing led the Model Mill to close in 1922. Students once again returned to off-campus jobs to support them while enrolled at TII.

Expansion and challenges (1920–1940)
By 1927, TII expanded its offerings to include the first two years of college-level education, providing students with various pathways for their future. After initially providing high school-level courses for young adults working in the area's textile mills, TII expanded its curriculum in 1927 to offer two years of college-level work, granting associate degrees in liberal arts. That allowed graduates to transfer to senior-level colleges or enter the workforce with valuable skills.

The college continued. The industrial mill jobs on campus created declines in health from working in rash conditions. Many students worked on the campus in the kitchen, laundry, or farm; others worked in town. With the increased enrollment, the trustees soon realized that extra housing would be needed. Eliza Attleton Judd, wife of a local bank president, was interested in helping women access education and offered a solution to the school's housing problem by donating money to create a building for girls on campus. The trustees believed that completing Hammond Hall was a more urgent priority than building a dormitory for girls. Mrs. Judd continued to support TII with a gift of timberland. In 1928, a decade after her death, the Textile Industrial Institute built Judd Hall, a women's dormitory, in her honor.

In 1940, TII discontinued its high school classes, and in 1942, the institution changed its name to Spartanburg Junior College. In 1974, it changed its name to Spartanburg Methodist College.

Transitioning to a four-year institution
For decades, Spartanburg Methodist College served as a two-year junior college. In 2019, Spartanburg Methodist College further expanded its academic offerings by introducing bachelor's degree programs. Today, the college is a four-year institution.

Presidents


The university's current president, Scott Cochran, assumed office on November 16, 2015. The president is appointed by the university's board of trustees, which has 24 members, five clergy and 19 laity, whose terms are staggered on a three-year basis.

Accreditation and affiliations
Spartanburg Methodist College is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges and the University Senate of the United Methodist Church. It is affiliated with the United Methodist Church and the South Carolina Annual Conference.

Academics
SMC offers six associate degree and six bachelor's degree programs. Bachelor's degrees are available in business administration, criminal justice, psychology, professional writing and digital communications, sports management, or a general studies degree where students can select two concentrations from a pool of six: business, criminal justice, English, history, psychology, and religion.

Campus
SMC occupies 110 acres near the western edge of the city limits of Spartanburg. The campus has seven residential halls (Willard, Hammond, Kingman, Parsons, Judd, Bridges, and Sparrow) that are co-ed or all-female. Over the past decade, SMC has expanded its campus facilities. In 2012, a new academic building, Ellis Hall, was opened on campus. It houses nine classrooms, a bookstore, and academic offices, including the Vice President for Academic Affairs office, the Write Place, student publications, the President's Hall, and Gibbs Auditorium (which seats 275). In 2019, the 4,000-square-foot Moore Family Fitness Center was opened on campus and provides students with access to aerobics machines, free weights, weight machines, and an aerobics classroom.

Athletics
Prior to the 2024-2025 academic year, SMC was a Division I member of Region 10 of the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), offering 14 intercollegiate athletic programs which included Men's and Women's Soccer, Men's and Women's Tennis, Men's and Women's Golf, Men's and Women's Basketball, Men's and Women's Cross Country, Softball, Volleyball (indoor and beach), Baseball, and Men's and Women's Track and Field. Region X includes colleges in the Carolinas, West Virginia, and Virginia. The college's athletic teams have won numerous regional, divisional, and national titles.

Notably, SMC's men's soccer team won the NJCAA national championship in 1994. In addition to this achievement, several other athletic teams appeared in their respective NJCAA Division I national tournaments. Most recently, women's golf (three individual Top 50 finishes, 2011), men's tennis (26th-place finish, 2010), wrestling (29th-place finish, 2010), men's cross-country (2nd place, 2012), women's cross-country (16th place, 2009), men's and women's half-marathon (3rd place, 2012), and volleyball (16th-place finish, 2009).

On October 2, 2023, it was announced that the Spartanburg Methodist College Pioneers would be joining the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) as a member of the Continental Athletic Conference beginning in the 2024-25 academic year.