Anderson College

Anderson College is a four-year university located in Anderson, South Carolina.

Related Topics:
University - Anderson, South Carolina

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Anderson College is a private, four-year undergraduate college that is associated with the Southern Baptist Convention and began as one of the first institutions for higher learning for women in the United States in 1848 as the Johnson Female Seminary. The founder was the Rev. William B. Johnson who was also the first president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

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Very shortly after its inception, the seminary was forced to close during the Civil War and did not reopen. In time, however, a new generation carried on what had been begun with the Johnson Seminary. A group of citizens from the city of Anderson, who desired to have a school of higher education their area, offered 32 acres (129,000 m²) of land and $100,000 to the South Carolina Baptist Convention at their meeting in 1910. The convention appointed a group of trustees, and Anderson College was granted a charter in 1911 by the South Carolina General Assembly. In 1912, the College opened as a four-year college for women until 1930. In 1929, the South Carolina Baptist Convention approved the institution's transition to a junior college, the first in the state. The College became a coeducational institution in 1930.

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In December, 1989, the Board of Trustees voted to return the College to its status as a four-year institution, which officially began in the fall semester of 1991. This decision was subsequently affirmed by a unanimous vote of the General Board of the South Carolina Baptist Convention. The first four-year class since 1930 graduated in May, 1993.

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The Anderson College student population is around 1400 students, with a student to faculty ratio of 13:1. The student body is made up of young men and women from a variety of states including Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, Mississippi, Kentucky, Alabama, Virginia, Colorado, Maine, and New York, as well as many different countries including Spain, Sweden, France, Tasmania, Argentina, Brazil, Barbados, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Kirgestan, India, and Japan.

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Anderson College is situated on a 56 acre (227,000 m²) main campus with an additional 12 acres (49,000 m²) within the city limits of Anderson, South Carolina. Most of the buildings on campus are red brick, built throughout the 20th century. The Merritt Administration Building, Denmark Hall, and Pratt Hall were the original buildings on the Anderson College campus, being built at the time of the college's founding in 1911. The front lawn of Anderson College is heavily wooded with large oak trees, as is the interior of the main campus which is landscaped in a series of rising terraces.

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Dr. Evans P. Whitaker is the current president of the college.

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