Located in Rock Hill, Winthrop University traces its roots to Reconstruction. David Bancroft Johnson, superintendent of the Columbia City School System, lobbied Robert C. Winthrop, president of the Board of Trustees of the Peabody Education Fund, for money to start a teacher-training institution in 1886. Impressed by the need for teachers in South Carolina, Winthrop provided $1,500 of Peabody funds, plus $50 from his own pocket. On November 15, 1886, Winthrop Training School opened its doors in Columbia to nineteen students. Despite name changes, Winthrop University asserted its \u201ccentury-old heritage as the preeminent teacher preparation program in the Southeast.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 1891 the General Assembly passed an act creating \u201cThe Winthrop Normal and Industrial College of South Carolina for the education of white girls.\u201d Support came in the form of scholarships; each county was granted two. The act\u2019s intent proclaimed that the college be \u201cgood enough for the richest and cheap enough for the poorest.\u201d In 1900 it was argued that \u201cSouth Carolina generously maintains three institutions for the higher education of men. The women in the State are greater in numbers than the men, and the State\u2019s welfare is more dependent upon them. To educate the mother assures the education of the children.\u201d<\/p>\n
Winthrop did not remain in the state\u2019s capital; three towns competed for a new Winthrop facility. In 1895 the institution was moved to Rock Hill. The state pledged buildings, equipment, and the \u201clabor of 100 convicts for three years.\u201d By 1920 the name was changed again, this time to Winthrop College, the South Carolina College for Women. By 1929 Winthrop\u2019s board of trustees proudly presented data to the General Assembly bragging of the college\u2019s production of teachers. To that date the college had produced 2,601 graduates with certificates to teach. Their nearest competitor had produced 396.<\/p>\n
Leadership in the early years was consistent. Dr. D. B. Johnson served as the college\u2019s president from 1886 until 1928. Typical of southern women\u2019s colleges, Winthrop did not have a female president until 1986. Martha Kims Piper served only two years before she died in office in 1988.<\/p>\n
Throughout its history, the college retained its roots in the liberal arts. As a women\u2019s institution, Winthrop observed the social conventions of the times. Female students wore uniforms until 1955, and they remained under the care of the college until they returned home. As early as 1900 more than five hundred students were enrolled, and the campus grew to accommodate its growing population. By the 1940s the \u201cCollege Farm\u201d was producing vegetables, dairy, and poultry in support of the institution.<\/p>\n
Integration came before coeducation. In 1964 the first African American student enrolled. By 2002\u20132003 African Americans accounted for approximately one-quarter of the student body. In 1974 the governor authorized the board of trustees to pursue coeducation.<\/p>\n
By the end of the twentieth century, Winthrop was awarding both bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees and enrolled more than six thousand undergraduate and graduate students. The college houses the South Carolina Center for Teacher Recruitment, the nation\u2019s oldest teacher recruitment program, although business management has replaced education as Winthrop\u2019s largest program.<\/p>\n
Chepesiuk, Ronald, and Magdalena Chepesiuk. Winthrop University. <\/em>Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia, 2000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Located in Rock Hill, Winthrop University traces its roots to Reconstruction. David Bancroft Johnson, superintendent of the Columbia City School System, lobbied Robert C. Winthrop, president of the Board of Trustees of the Peabody Education Fund, for money to start a teacher-training institution in 1886. Impressed by the need for teachers in South Carolina, Winthrop […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","class_list":["post-12267","entry","type-entry","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","ecms-a-z","ecms-education","ecms-encyclopedia","ecms-midlands","ecms-richland-county","ecms-w","ecms-women","ecms-york-county"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n