Today, more than 20,000 Pacer alumni live in each of the 50 states and worldwide, making valuable contributions to their communities. At USC Aiken, alumni are more engaged than ever. This year, the USC Aiken Alumni Association launched an Education Alumni Chapter with 40 new members and reestablished the Employee Alumni Chapter with about 50 members. The association has also awarded eight scholarships totaling $16,000 this year – four awards each for its Alumni Legacy and Student Leadership scholarships. In all, alumni have shown increased participation in USC Aiken affinity groups, including the Black Alumni Council; grown special events such as Homecoming weekend and the Alumni Golf Classic; and given back more than $10.4 million to the university to enhance the student experience.

USC Aiken Athletics competes in 10 collegiate sports. It hired a new Athletic Director and welcomed 79 new student-athletes this year. More than 190 student-athletes compete at USC Aiken. About 70% maintain a 3.0 GPA. The USC Aiken Golf Facility, the new home for our Pacer golf team and the First Tee of Aiken, was dedicated in September 2022. The soil grading for the new soccer and softball fields was completed by the National Guard, and the design for the softball field and new roadway received approvals from the state.

The College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences offers seven undergraduate programs, leading to degrees in Communication, English, Fine Arts, Music Education, History, Political Science, and Sociology.

Highlights include:

• The college enjoys a 100% placement rate for students in law and graduate schools.
• In February, the annual Winter Nocturne concert — led by pianist Alexander Bernstein — had a record number of attendees.
• Music Department Chair Dr. Joel Scraper and Dr. Mark Hollingsworth, dean of the college, proudly composed USC Aiken’s new fight song, which debuted during homecoming 2023.
• The Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Department held an open house in January to promote the study of foreign languages. It was well attended and will become an annual event.

The College of Sciences and Engineering includes the departments of Biology and Geology, Chemistry and Physics, Exercise and Sports Science, Psychology, Computer Science, Engineering, and Mathematics. The college has concentrated this year on bringing state-of-the-art curriculum to the college with curriculum additions in deep learning, cloud computing, data science, and simulation. The college has also tried to increase its outreach to the community, adding several new industry partners, a new visiting scholar program, and STEM focus Friday. Also, the cyber security program has just been designated a National Security Agency – Center of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity.

The facility, support staff, and collections of the Gregg-Graniteville Library comprise an integral part of USC Aiken’s instructional program. The two-story 40,000 square foot building houses an extensive book, periodical, and microform collection. Recent highlights at the Gregg-Graniteville Library include the curation and display of an exhibit celebrating USC Aiken’s 60th anniversary entitled “USC Aiken: A Community Dream at 60.” It has also worked to expand affordable learning for our students through access to digital holdings and open educational resources.

The School of Business Administration is committed to achieving patterns of student excellence. Recent successes include student achievement in national competitions, including the Enactus student team’s invitation to compete in the national finals in Dallas. The school was recently approved to begin a chapter of the prestigious Beta Alpha Psi Honor Society. Finance students are already training on Bloomberg equipment, and students are training for the completion of industry-recognized certification exams. The recent launch of the Pacer Center for Excellence in Business Research and Entrepreneurship provides more opportunities for students to engage in real-world activities. Also, USC Aiken’s Pacer Center Research Team recently released the results of a study that found the impact of the university on Aiken County’s economy is $248 million and more than $350 million on the state of South Carolina.

The School of Education is committed to the university's goal of active learning through excellence in teaching, faculty and candidate scholarship, and service.

Recent highlights include:

• Pacer LIFE launching Fall 2023 – the goal is to provide a post-secondary program to people with intellectual disabilities.
• Call Me MiSTER - the goal is to increase the number of teachers from diverse backgrounds to teach in underserved, socio-economically disadvantaged, and educationally at-risk communities.
• Teaching Fellows – the goal is to recruit talented high school seniors into the teaching profession and help them develop leadership qualities.

The faculty and staff in the School of Nursing work diligently to prepare our students with the knowledge and skills necessary for success in a rapidly changing society. Our nursing students are part of a caring and active learning environment that includes traditional classroom methods, hands-on lab experiences, high-fidelity simulation, and actual practice in various healthcare settings. The School of Nursing has increased its ability to provide nursing scholarships from contributions from generous donors. Its students have graduated and passed their licensing exam with a pass rate above the national average for the past six years. Also, its program has grown, with students now earning a USC Aiken nursing degree in Union and Sumter.

The Ruth Patrick Science Education Center (RPSEC) is a cooperative effort by the University of South Carolina Aiken, local industry, and public school districts in the Central Savannah River Area. The purpose of this effort is to establish a permanent program for enhancing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education in the elementary, middle, and high schools of the area. While moving past COVID, the Ruth Patrick Science Education Center (RPSEC) is regaining its impact by having over 93,000 visits to our programs for K-12 students, educators, and the community over the last two years. The RPSEC strives to offer programs to infuse the love of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

The Etherredge Center is proud to serve as one of the “faces” of the university—where so many members of the public come and engage with us. Since the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year, the center has been thrilled to see that level of engagement begin to increase, coming out of the difficulties of the pandemic, with over 40,000 patrons attending events in its beautiful building!