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===Fight song===
===Fight song===
The university's fight song is the [[jazz standard]], the "[[Tiger Rag]]".{{Citation needed|date=December 2010}}
The university's fight song is the [[jazz standard]], the "[[Tiger Rag]]".{{Citation needed|date=December 2010}}

The fight song has been renamed Chapel Hill is a wewy scary place by Rick Barnes, Oliver Purnell, and whoever this new jacka$$ coach is they now have.


===Fraternity and sorority life===
===Fraternity and sorority life===

Revision as of 21:55, 3 February 2011

"Clemson" redirects here. For the city, see Clemson, South Carolina.
Clemson University
File:Clemson university seal.png
Former names
Clemson Agricultural College
TypePublic
Established1889
Endowment$331.1 million (as of June 30, 2009)[1]
PresidentJames Barker [2]
ProvostDoris R. "Dori" Helms
Academic staff
1,264[citation needed]
Undergraduates15,459 (as of Fall 2010)[3]
Postgraduates3,994 (as of Fall 2010)[3]
Location
Clemson
,
South Carolina
,
United States

34°40′42″N 82°50′21″W / 34.678284°N 82.839174°W / 34.678284; -82.839174
CampusRural
17,000 acres (69 km2; 27 sq mi)
Colors    Clemson Orange and Regalia [4]
NicknameClemson Tigers
MascotThe Tiger
Websiteclemson.edu
Logo of Clemson University

Clemson University (pronounced /ˈklɛmsən/[5]) is an American public, coeducational, land-grant, sea-grant, research university located in Clemson, South Carolina.

Founded in 1889, the university is academically divided into five colleges: Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences; Architecture, Arts and Humanities; Business and Behavioral Sciences; Engineering and Science; and Health, Education and Human Development.[6]

As of the year 2011, Clemson University enrolled a total of 15,346 undergraduate students for the spring semester. [7]

Location

The university is located in upstate South Carolina off Interstate 85, just outside of the greater Anderson, South Carolina, area — approximately two hours by car from Atlanta, Georgia; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Columbia, South Carolina. The university is situated in South Carolina's foothills, with vistas of the rising Blue Ridge Mountains.

It operates a research park in Pendleton, South Carolina, as well as the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (I-CAR) center in Greenville, South Carolina. The university has agricultural extension offices in every county in South Carolina as a public service in its furtherance of its founding goals as an agricultural institution.

The city of Clemson is served by the Clemson Area Transit bus system, as well as the Amtrak's Crescent line running through Clemson's train station right off Highways 28, US 76, and US 123. Oconee County Airport is located adjacent to the university's campus and is the closest public-use airport to the campus (as well as the home of the Clemson Flying Club and Dixie Skydivers), with Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport offering commercial airline service forty-five minutes away.

History

Fort Hill was the home of John C. Calhoun and later Thomas Green Clemson and is located at the center of the university campus (June 2006).

Thomas Green Clemson, the university's founder, came to the foothills of South Carolina in 1838, when he married Anna Maria Calhoun, daughter of John C. Calhoun, a South Carolina statesman and seventh U.S. Vice President. When Clemson died on April 6, 1888, he left most of his estate in his will to be used to establish a college that would teach scientific agriculture and the mechanical arts to South Carolinians. His decision was largely influenced by South Carolina Governor Benjamin Tillman. Tillman strongly lobbied the South Carolina General Assembly to create the school as an agricultural institution for the state and in the end, the resolution to accept Clemson's gift and create the institution passed by only one vote.

In November 1889, South Carolina Governor John Peter Richardson III signed the bill, thus establishing the Clemson Agricultural College of South Carolina. As a result, federal funds for agricultural education were transferred from South Carolina College to Clemson. (See Hatch Act of 1887 and Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act.)

Clemson Agricultural College formally opened in July 1893 with an initial enrollment of 446. From its beginning, the college was an all-white male military school. The school remained this way until 1955 when it changed to "civilian" status for students and became a coeducational institution.

In 1963, the school admitted its first African-American student, future Charlotte, North Carolina, mayor Harvey Gantt.[8] In 1964, the college was renamed Clemson University as the state legislature formally recognized the school's expanded academic offerings and research pursuits.[9]

Academics

Enrollment (Fall 2010)[3]
College Total Enrollment
College of Agriculture, Forestry, and Life Sciences 3,512
College of Arts, Architecture, and Humanities 2,433
College of Business and Behavioral Sciences 4,664
College of Engineering and Science 5,669
College of Health, Education, and Human Development 3,039
Calhoun Honors College[1]
  1. ^ Not a degree-granting college.

Admissions

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching classifies the university as more selective,[10] since the university admitted less than fifty-five percent of those who applied to be freshmen in 2006.[11][12] When admitting freshmen, the university places emphasis on the rigor of high-school study and scores on standardized tests, SAT or ACT. The university also considers class rank, extracurricular activities, and an optional personal statement. The average incoming freshman had a combined SAT score of 1194 and a high-school weighted grade-point average (GPA) of 3.9 in 2006.[13] In 2008, admission was the most competitive in university history.

It had over 15,000 applications for its freshman class of approximately 2,800 students. It was especially competitive for out-of-state students in that it is a state-supported institution. Of those 15,000+ applications, over 10,000 were from outside of South Carolina; however, a little over 1,000 freshmen from other states gained admission.[14]

Research and rankings

Academic rankings
National
Forbes[15]338
U.S. News & World Report[16]64
Washington Monthly[17]62
Global
ARWU[18]301–400
QS[19]NR
THE[20]551–600
Cooper Library and the Reflection Pool - in addition to its aesthetic appeal, the 1,960,000 gallon reflecting pool also serves as a heat exchange for the cooling systems of several academic buildings.[21][unreliable source?]

The university has undertaken an endeavor to become a "Top 20" public institution, undergoing a process of enhancing its graduate programs while continuing to emphasize the quality of the undergraduate experience. It has steadily moved up the rankings for public universities from 34,[22] to 30,[23] to 27,[24] to 22[24] in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 respectively: according to the U.S. News & World Report. For 2011, US News & World Report ranked Clemson as the 23rd best public national university in the country.[24]

As part of its push to enhance graduate-level education, several new Ph.D. programs have been created including interdisciplinary doctoral programs in Rhetoric and Planning, Design, and the Built Environment (formerly Environmental Design and Planning). Also noteworthy is a new master's degree in historic preservation, jointly offered in collaboration with the College of Charleston.

The Clemson University reflection pond.

The university's currently most ambitious academic and research endeavor is the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR).[25] The CU-ICAR is a 250-acre (1 km²) automotive and motorsports research campus located in nearby Greenville, South Carolina. ICAR will include a graduate school offering master's and doctoral degrees in automotive engineering, and offering programs focused on systems integration. The campus also includes an Information Technology Research Center being developed by BMW. BMW, Microsoft, IBM, Bosch, The Timken Company and Michelin are all major corporate partners of the CU-ICAR. Private-sector companies that have committed so far to establishing offices and/or facilities on the campus include the Society of Automotive Engineers and Timken. Plans for the campus also include a full-scale, four-vehicle capacity rolling-road model wind tunnel.

In 2004 the Restoration Institute was founded. Its mission is to "advance knowledge in integrative approaches to the restoration of historic, ecological, and urban infrastructure resources." The institute is located in North Charleston and subsume the Hunley Commission that is currently undertaking the stabilization of the H.L. Hunley, the world's first submarine to sink a ship.

Student life

Athletics

Main article: Clemson Tigers

The university offers club, intramural, and varsity sports. Its nineteen varsity men's and women's sports teams compete in the Atlantic Division of the Atlantic Coast Conference of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I as the Clemson Tigers. The most-prominent athletics facilities on campus are Memorial Stadium, Littlejohn Coliseum, Doug Kingsmore Stadium, Historic Riggs Field, and Fike Recreation Center. Clemson has won four national championships including football (1981), two in men's soccer (1984 and 1987), and men's golf (2003).

Two-dollar bills

It has been a university tradition dating from September 24, 1977, for the school's fans to spend two-dollar bills on away-game trips. This began when the school played Georgia Tech "for the last time" as Tech refused to travel to Clemson. Of the seventeen games played between Tech and Clemson between 1953 and 1977, only once, in 1974, did the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets deign to come to Death Valley (Memorial Stadium). To show the Atlanta business community how much money Clemson fans contributed to the local economy which would not be coming to town anymore, Tiger fans spent vast quantities of two-dollar bills, many of them stamped with "Tiger Paws". This was the start of Clemson's two-dollar bill tradition, which was very popular in the 1980s and 1990s, but has waned since then.[26][unreliable source?][27]

Fight song

The university's fight song is the jazz standard, the "Tiger Rag".[citation needed]

The fight song has been renamed Chapel Hill is a wewy scary place by Rick Barnes, Oliver Purnell, and whoever this new jacka$$ coach is they now have.

Fraternity and sorority life

The newly renovated Fraternity Quad.

The university's fraternities and sororities system (or Greek system) is somewhat different from other large universities in the southern U.S. in that there are no Greek houses on campus. There are residence halls designated for fraternities and sororities, but there are no traditional Greek houses on campus. The Fraternity Quad on campus (consisting of seven fraternity and sorority halls) is certified by the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program. The remaining sorority's on-campus housing is located on the other end of campus in what is commonly referred to as "the horseshoe" in Smith and Barnett Halls.

As of the 2010-2011 school year there are twenty IFC Fraternities, eleven NPC Sororities, and nine NPHC Chapters, which make up approximately 20 percent of the undergraduate student body.[28]

Military heritage

Clemson's rich military history is very conspicuous on campus.

Although the university became a coeducational civilian institution in 1955, it still maintains an active military presence. The university is home to detachments for U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) as well as a host school for the U.S. Marine Corps PLC program adjacent to the Semper Fi Society.

In addition to students from the university, these organizations also serve students from Anderson University, Southern Wesleyan University, and Tri-County Technical College. The following organizations are present among the military personnel at Clemson:[29]

The university's AAS squadron was selected to be home of Arnold Air Society's National Headquarters for the 2005–2006 year, and again for the 2006–2007 year. This is the first time is AAS's history that any university has served as national headquarters two years in a row.[30]

The C-4 Pershing Rifles have won the national society's drill meet seven times: 1999, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2009.[31] Company C-4 also performs colorguards, twenty-one-gun salutes, exhibition-drill performances, and POW/MIA ceremonies. Company C-4 performs colorguard performance at the university's home football games. In addition to the C-4 drill company, the university is the former home of the 4th Regimental Headquarters (4RHQ), the National Headquarters for the Junior ROTC level of Pershing Rifles (BlackJacks) and the Co-ed Auxiliary for Pershing Rifles (CAPeRs).

Its Air Force ROTC Detachment 770 "Flyin' Tigers" was selected as the #1 "medium-sized" Air Force ROTC detachment in the nation for 2006 (the "High Flight" and "Right of Line" awards), #1 Detachment in the "Southeast" in 2006 ("medium-sized") and 2007 ("large-sized"), and #1 in the state of South Carolina (out of three — University of South Carolina and The Citadel) three consecutive years (2005, 2006 and 2007).

The university has also developed a group of Marines and Marine Officer Candidates within an organization called the Semper Fi Society. The society is not associated with the ROTC, but can lead to a commission into the U.S. Marine Corps via the Platoon Leaders Course program.

Notable alumni

Main article: List of alumni of Clemson University
  • Brian Dawkins, professinonal football player, Denver Broncos free safety and 8 time Pro-Bowler.
  • Oguchi Onyewu, professional soccer player, currently plays for AC Milan and is part of the US national team
  • C.J. Spiller, football player, Buffalo Bills running back and #9 overall pick in the 2010 NFL Draft
  • Lucas Glover, golfer, 2009 US Open Champion
  • James F. Byrnes, U.S. Congressman, Senator, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (1941–1942), Secretary of State (1945–1947), Governor of South Carolina (1951–1955), and confidant of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. A dormitory on the eastern part of the university's campus is named after Byrnes. While not a graduate of Clemson, Byrnes was a Life Trustee of Clemson University (appointed in 1941).
  • Kris Benson, baseball player
  • David Beasley, South Carolina governor (1995–1999). Beasley ran for the South Carolina State House while a student at Clemson and transferred to the University of South Carolina upon taking office, from which he went on to graduate with a bachelor's degree and law degree.
  • Strom Thurmond, U.S. Senator from South Carolina who was the longest-serving Senator in U.S. history.
  • David H. Wilkins graduated from Clemson cum laude in 1968 with a bachelor's degree in history. He attended the school as an undergraduate on a tennis scholarship. Wilkins was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives in 1981 and was elected Speaker Pro Tempore in 1992. After the elections of 1994, Wilkins was elected Speaker of the House; the first Republican Speaker in the South since Reconstruction. Wilkins had many legislative accomplishments during his tenure as Speaker, including welfare reform, property tax reform, tort reform and finding a compromise to remove the Confederate Flag from atop the statehouse dome. On April 27, 2005, President George W. Bush nominated him to be the U.S. Ambassador to Canada.
  • Lt.Col. Jimmie Dyess, of the United States Marine Corps, the only person in history to earn both the Congressional Medal of Honor and the Carnegie Medal of Honor. Annually, the Semper Fi Society on campus holds a 5K in the Spring to honor LtCol Dyess and those Marines that served from Clemson.
  • Stuart Holden, played soccer for the university until being signed with the Sunderland U.K. club in March 2005; played for the U.S. team in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, and currently plays for the Bolton Wanderers U.K. club
  • Jim Speros, the majority owner of UFL Norfolk; served on coaching staffs of the Washington Redskins and Buffalo Bills in the 1980s. Won a Super Bowl with the Washington Redskins; youngest assistant coach in NFL history; played linebacker at the university from 1978 to 1981; member of the championship winning 1981 Clemson Tigers football team.
  • Ambassador Kristie A. Kenney, United States Ambassador to the Republic of the Philippines. She received a Bachelors degree in Political Science from Clemson University. She was nominated by George W. Bush on November 3, 2005, confirmed by the United States Senate on February 16, 2006, and sworn in to office by Secretary Condoleezza Rice on March 6, 2006. On March 17, Kenney arrived in the Philippines to assume her duties as the first female ambassador to this former U.S. colony in Asia.
  • Nancy O'Dell, American television host and entertainment journalist.
  • Robert H. Brooks, founder of Hooters of America, Inc.

Notable faculty

See also

References

  1. ^ "U.S. and Canadian Institutions Listed by Fiscal Year 2009 Endowment Market Value and Percentage Change in Endowment Market Value from FY 2008 to FY 2009" (PDF). 2009 NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments. National Association of College and University Business Officers. Retrieved March 12, 2010.
  2. ^ Jim Barker (academic) (undated). "Welcome". Office of the President — Clemson University. Retrieved December 29, 2010. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Text "Barker, Jim]]" ignored (help)
  3. ^ a b c "Clemson University Fact Book". Clemson.edu. 2008-02-05. Retrieved 2011-01-02.
  4. ^ "Clemson Color Palette".
  5. ^ The pronunciation of Clemson varies. The consonant written ‹s› may be either /z/ or /s/, in which case many insert a [p] between the two syllables. Because of the pin-pen merger, many locals use [ɪ] as the first vowel.
  6. ^ "The University Today — Clemson University". Archived from the original on April 28, 2007. Retrieved June 20, 2007.
  7. ^ http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/clemson-sc/clemson-university-3425
  8. ^ "Harvey Gantt and the Desegregation of Clemson University; an Online version of an exhibit presented by the Library in conjunction with "Integration With Dignity: A Celebration of 40 Years" on January 28, 2003". Retrieved January 21, 2011.
  9. ^ "The History of Clemson University". Retrieved June 20, 2007.
  10. ^ "Carnegie Classifications of Clemson University". Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Retrieved June 20, 2007.
  11. ^ "U.S. News Rankings Top National Schools". Retrieved August 17, 2007.
  12. ^ "Clemson Freshman Admissions Data".
  13. ^ "University Common Data Set for 2006". Clemson.edu. Retrieved 2011-01-02.
  14. ^ {http://www.clemson.edu/newsroom/articles/2008/april/RecordApplications2008.php5}
  15. ^ "Forbes America's Top Colleges List 2023". Forbes. Retrieved September 22, 2023.
  16. ^ "2023-2024 Best National Universities". U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved September 22, 2023.
  17. ^ "2023 National University Rankings". Washington Monthly. Retrieved February 10, 2024.
  18. ^ "ShanghaiRanking's 2023 Academic Ranking of World Universities". Shanghai Ranking Consultancy. Retrieved February 10, 2024.
  19. ^ "QS World University Rankings 2025: Top global universities". Quacquarelli Symonds. Retrieved June 6, 2024.
  20. ^ "World University Rankings 2024". Times Higher Education. Retrieved September 27, 2023.
  21. ^ "Reflection pond". ClemsonWiki. 2008-07-01. Retrieved 2011-01-02.
  22. ^ "U.S. News & World Report". August 28, 2005: 111–115. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  23. ^ "U.S. News & World Report". August 29, 2006: 80–84. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  24. ^ a b c "U.S. News & World Report". August 27, 2007. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help) Cite error: The named reference "national rank" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  25. ^ "Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR)". Retrieved June 20, 2007.
  26. ^ "1977". ClemsonWiki. Retrieved 2011-01-02.
  27. ^ Blackman, Sam; Bradley, Bob; and Kriese, Chuck (2001). Clemson: Where The Tigers Play. Sports Publishing, L.L.C. (Champaign, Illinois. Page 144. ISBN 1-58261-369-9.
  28. ^ "Clemson Greek Life". Retrieved January 1, 2011.
  29. ^ "List of Student Organizations". Retrieved June 20, 2007.
  30. ^ "Student Achievements". Retrieved June 20, 2007.
  31. ^ "Student Achievements". Retrieved June 20, 2007.

External links

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