Spring 2008 PDF - University of South Carolina Upstate

Susu and George Dean Johnson, Jr. at the
December Press Conference.
A member of the Patriot Guard leads the
motorcycle escort for The Wall That Heals.
A Disabled American Veteran salutes
wreaths in memory of his fellow soldiers.
Rotarian presidents and Dr. Stockwell at
the Rotary Peace Park Dedication.
D
uring the 2007-08 academic year, the
University of South Carolina Upstate celebrated
forty years of growth.
We all know the stories…starting with
a two-year nursing program in the basement
of Spartanburg General, acquiring
campus properties piecemeal, building
the Administration Building and moving
to four-year degrees and a thousand
students within four years; hiring a great
core faculty, offices in a motel, a national
basketball championship, more buildings…Dr.
Hodge and the Commission
fighting with governors, the State Commission
and others for our very survival.
Frieda Davison, dean of the Library, led
a committee that assembled a cluster of
celebratory events throughout this year.
We recognized and engaged emeriti,
alumni, faculty, staff, friends and neighbors;
and we connected lectures and
presentations related to the historic period
of our founding in 1967, the period,
by the way, during which many of the
nation’s metropolitan universities were
founded.
One of our most important connections
was with the era of Vietnam. The University
hosted the traveling Wall That
Heals, a half-size replica of the Vietnam
Wall Memorial in Washington, D.C. Over
17,754 people visited the Wall while it
was on campus, including an unbelievable
phalanx of 1,300 motorcyclists who
escorted the Wall on the last leg of its
journey to the campus. It was a moving
week of ceremony, visitations and remembrance.
During that same mid-April week, the
University dedicated The Rotary Peace
Park installed on six acres at the entrance
to the campus, a park supported
by the generosity of Spartanburg’s Rotary
Clubs and the dedicated effort of
Rotarian Elizabeth Belenchia. With its
hundreds of newly planted trees and its
benches, walkways, amphitheatre, bridges,
lake and fountain, the University’s
Rotary Peace Park, together with other
Rotary Peace parks around the world,
will serve as a continuing reminder of the
work of peace.
Who could have anticipated in 1967
what USC Upstate would become…a
residential campus with 5,000 students,
300 acres, 17,000 living alumni and
1,000 graduates a year and climbing
And even as recently as last year, who
could have imagined not only the residential
campus, but a new downtown
professional campus for the University’s
fastest growing programs in business
and economics Who could have imagined
the partnership with the City of
Spartanburg making possible the downtown
property and a major new parking
facility
Most importantly, who could have imagined
the significant personal financial
commitments that would have made
possible the construction and endowment
of this new downtown campus
And who could have imagined the name:
The George Dean Johnson, Jr. College
of Business and Economics
This issue of The University Review begins
to tell the even more exciting story
of the second forty years.
Dr. John C. Stockwell, Chancellor