Furman University is a

private university Private universities and private colleges are higher education institutions not operated, owned, or institutionally funded by governments. However, they often receive tax breaks, public student loans, and government grants. Depending on the count ...

Greenville, South Carolina Greenville ( ; ) is a city in Greenville County, South Carolina, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 70,720 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of municipalities in South Carolina, sixth-most pop ...

, United States. Founded in 1826 and named after

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

pastor Richard Furman, the liberal arts university is the oldest private institution of higher learning in South Carolina. It became a secular university in 1992, while keeping ''Christo et Doctrinae'' (For Christ and Learning) as its motto. As of Fall 2021, it enrolls approximately 2,300 undergraduate students and 150 graduate students on its campus.

History

Beginnings (19th century)

Furman Academy and Theological Institution was established by the South Carolina Baptist Convention and incorporated in December 1825 in Edgefield. With 10 students, it held its first classes January 15, 1828;"Furman University" in ''The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture'', (Volume 17: Education), Clarence L. Mohr, ed. (UNC Press Books, 2011) p221 although another source says it opened in January 1827. Through 1850, average enrollment was 10 students, and it was at constant risk of insolvency. From 1829 to 1834, it operated in the High Hills of the Santee (now Stateburg, South Carolina). Furman closed from 1834 to 1837. When the school reopened, at the urging of the Reverend Jonathan Davis, chairman of the Board of Agents, the school moved to his native Fairfield County, near Winnsboro. In 1850, the state legislature chartered Furman University. It was not until 1851 that South Carolina Baptists were able to raise the necessary funds for the removal of the school to

. The university closed from 1861 to 1866, when "most students and several faculty members enlisted in the Confederate forces." The Furman Institution Faculty Residence serves as a visible reminder of the early history of Furman University and its brief establishment in Fairfield County.

Growth and expansion (20th century)

The first school building from the downtown Greenville campus was transported to the current campus, where it still stands. In 1933, students from the Greenville Women's College began attending classes with Furman students. Shortly thereafter, the two schools merged to form the present institution. In 1924, Furman was named one of four collegiate beneficiaries of the

Duke Endowment The Duke Endowment is a private foundation established in 1924 by industrialist and philanthropist James B. Duke. It supports selected programs of higher education, health care, children's welfare, and spiritual life in North Carolina and South ...

. Through 2007, Furman has received $110 million from the endowment, which is now one of the nation's largest philanthropic foundations. Three other colleges—

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of Royal family, royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and above sovereign princes. As royalty or nobi ...

, Davidson and Johnson C. Smith—also receive annual support and special grants from the endowment. In 1954, ''

Brown v. Board of Education ''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the ...

'' found the "separate but equal" policy to be

unconstitutional In constitutional law, constitutionality is said to be the condition of acting in accordance with an applicable constitution; "Webster On Line" the status of a law, a procedure, or an act's accordance with the laws or set forth in the applic ...

, starting the lengthy process of desegregating public schools. As of that date, Furman, like most Southern colleges, did not accept

African Americans African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa ...

as students. Some Furman students began to press for change. In 1955, some students wrote short stories and poems in ''The Echo'', a student literary magazine, in support of integration; school administrators destroyed all 1,500 printed copies. In 1953, Furman began construction on its new campus,Furman University: Our History. http://www.furman.edu/about-furman/history/ north of downtown Greenville. Classes on the new campus began in 1958. By 1963, enough faculty were siding with the students over racial desegregation that Furman's

board of trustees A board of directors is a governing body that supervises the activities of a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government agency. The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulatio ...

voted to admit Black students. Action on the trustees' decision was postponed and it was later overturned by South Carolina's Baptist Convention; desegregated admission was not implemented at Furman until its incoming president, Gordon W. Blackwell, a past president of

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU or Florida State) is a Public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preeminent university in the s ...

, made it a condition of his acceptance of the new position. In 1965, Joseph Vaughn was the first black undergraduate to enroll. In 1992, the South Carolina Baptist Convention ended its affiliation with Furman. Furman's "heritage is rooted in the non-creedal, free church Baptist tradition which has always valued particular religious commitments while insisting not only on the freedom of the individual to believe as he or she sees fit but also on respect for a diversity of religious perspectives, including the perspective of the non-religious person."

21st century

In 2012, a new facility, named for alumni Sarah and Gordon Herring, was built for continuing education. The student center was expanded and renovated in 2012. David Trone, a Furman alumnus, together with his wife June, participated through a $3.5 million gift resulting in the center being named the Trone Student Center. In October 2018, the Task Force on Slavery and Justice set up by Provost George Shields issued ''Seeking Abraham'', a report making recommendations "to acknowledge the role slavery and racism had in the school's history." The task force was a response to the article, "Slavery, Memory and Reconciliation: What is the Furman Legacy?" published in October 2016 in the university newspaper, which pointed out that Richard Furman, the university's namesake, and even more so his son James Clement Furman, Furman's first president, were slave owners and active defenders of slavery. "Abraham" is a reference to Abraham Sims, a slave at the house of James Furman. The task force issued 19 recommendations, which were unanimously accepted by Furman's board of trustees. James C. Furman Hall was renamed Furman Hall, and a statue was erected to honor Joseph Vaughn, "the first Black student to attend the school".

Campus

Furman University's campus is located at the foothills of the

Blue Ridge Mountains The Blue Ridge Mountains are a Physiographic regions of the United States, physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Highlands range. The mountain range is located in the Eastern United States and extends 550 miles southwest from southern ...

in the upstate region of South Carolina. Furman's campus has been named one of the most beautiful campuses in the nation. In 2016, ''USA Today'' named Furman's campus as the 4th most beautiful campus out of 10. ''Times Higher Education'' named it ninth out of the ten most beautiful campuses in the nation in 2017. In 2019, '' Travel + Leisure'' listed Furman as 23rd out of 25 of the most beautiful college campuses in the United States.

Timmons Arena

Timmons Arena is a 4,000-seat multi-purpose

arena An arena is a large enclosed venue, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, Music, musical performances or Sport, sporting events. It comprises a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for specta ...

.Official Site
Timmons Arena It is home to the Furman University Paladins

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

team since its opening on December 30, 1997.Timmons Arena - FurmanPaladins.com
/ref>

Cliffs Cottage

A ''Southern Living'' showcase home called Cliffs Cottage opened in 2008. The building is solar-powered using two panels, and features geothermal heating. Cliffs Cottage was the first sustainable showcase home for ''Southern Living'' magazine, which featured it in the article ''Our Most Innovative House Ever'', detailing how to create a house that requires less energy and generates power.

Place of Peace and Asian garden

The campus also includes an Asian garden, the centerpiece of which is the Place of Peace, a Buddhist temple moved to the site from Japan. A replica of the cabin that Henry David Thoreau inhabited while writing ''On Walden Pond'' is located on the west side of the lake. File:Furman library.jpg, James B. Duke Library File:Furman Hall.jpg, John E. Johns Hall File:Furman University - Place of Peace 1.JPG, Place of Peace

Environmental sustainability

Furman works to conserve, reduce, and recycle on campus, has constructed green buildings and provided students with alternative transportation. Furman has a farm on campus. The Furman Farm is a quarter-acre garden located beside the Cliffs Cottage and the Furman Lake. A wide variety of produce is grown throughout the year using sustainable agricultural practices such as crop rotations, composting, drip lines, natural fertilizers, and integrated pest management. Furman also has installed a 6-acre solar farm with a 743 kW solar photovoltaic (PV) array near the campus entrance. The university hopes to achieve

carbon neutrality Global net-zero emissions is reached when greenhouse gas emissions and removals due to human activities are in balance. It is often called simply net zero. ''Emissions'' can refer to all greenhouse gases or only carbon dioxide (). Reaching net ze ...

by 2026. The ''

Princeton Review The Princeton Review is an education services company providing tutoring, test preparation and admission resources for students. It was founded in 1981, and since that time has worked with over 400 million students. Services are delivered by 4,0 ...

'' featured Furman in its 2023 list of 455 Green Colleges; it received a green rating of 90, within a possible range of 60-99 . In. 2015, the

Sierra Club The Sierra Club is an American environmental organization with chapters in all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The club was founded in 1892, in San Francisco, by preservationist John Muir. A product of the Pro ...

included Furman in its list of the top 50 eco-friendly universities in America. Furman received a grade of "A−" from the Sustainable Endowments Institute on its College Sustainability Report Card in 2011 along with 52 other institutions. Furman takes part in the voluntary self-reporting Sustainability Tracking Assessment Ratings System (STARS), in which it received a gold rating in 2021.

Organization and administration

Leadership and guidance to the university is provided by a board of trustees, whose 36 members meet at least three times per academic year and are elected for three-year terms. Former board members may be designated as 'Trustees Emeriti'. These include former Governor and U.S. secretary of education Richard Riley.Trustees Emeriti. http://www.furman.edu/about-furman/university-leadership/board-of-trustees/trustees-emeriti/ , current board members include David Trone, U.S. representative for Maryland's 6th congressional district, and William Byrd Traxler Jr., Senior Judge of the United States Court of Appeals.Board Members. http://www.furman.edu/about-furman/university-leadership/board-of-trustees/board-members/. Board members also come from private companies Under the governance of the board of trustees, Furman is led by a President. Elizabeth Davis became Furman's president on July 1, 2014. She is the 12th president of the institution, or 16th when also counting interim presidents. eleven senior administrators manage academic and administrative departments. These administrators are composed of a provost, a dean of faculty, and nine other members.Senior Administrators. http://www.furman.edu/about-furman/university-leadership/senior-administrators/

Academics

Furman offers majors and programs in 42 subjects. All students must complete general education requirements as part of the liberal arts curriculum. The general education requirements include mind and body wellness, textual analysis, two natural sciences, math/formal reasoning, two empirical studies of human behavior, history, ultimate question, foreign language, and world culture. Furman is not divided into colleges, but includes centers and four institutes. Furman's four institutes are the Shi Institute for Sustainable Communities, the Richard W. Riley Institute, the Institute for the Advancement of Community Health, and the Hill Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Its most popular undergraduate majors, by 2021 graduates, were: *Health Sciences (58) *Biology/Biological Sciences (51) *Speech Communication and Rhetoric (48) *Political Science and Government (47) *Business Administration and Management (46) *Psychology (41) Furman has produced 20 Truman Scholars, as well as several

Rhodes Rhodes (; ) is the largest of the Dodecanese islands of Greece and is their historical capital; it is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, ninth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Administratively, the island forms a separ ...

scholars and recipients of Goldwater,

Fulbright The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...

and National Science Foundation Awards.

Reputation and rankings

In 2025, Furman was ranked tied for 45th out of 211 in U.S. News & World Report's 2023 National Liberal Arts Colleges rankingsUS News, Furman University.https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/furman-university-3434/overall-rankings As of 2023, Furman is also featured in The Princeton Review's "Best 378 Colleges" list and was named as one of 143 "Best Southeastern Colleges" The Princeton Review also ranked Furman in 5th place on its list of universities committed to national service in 2016. In 2019, Furman University was ranked 21st in a list of the top 25 colleges and universities in the South by ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

''. Furman ranked 23rd among all liberal arts colleges in number of graduates who went on to receive PhDs from 1990 to 1995. Furman ranked 76th among all universities in the nation of graduates that went on to receive PhDs from 2008 to 2017.

Student life

Athletics

Furman competes in

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest division of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athlet ...

athletics, and at the FCS (Football Championship Subdivision) level in football. Furman fields seven men's teams and nine women's teams, as well as 16 club sports and many intramural teams. The university is a member of the

Southern Conference The Southern Conference (SoCon) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I. Southern Conference College football, football teams c ...

. In 2018, Furman was placed 73rd out of 291 colleges in the NACDA Directors' Cup Division I Final Standings, highest among Southern Conference members. In the 2019–2020 season, Furman finished in 32nd place out of 157 institutions in the NACDA Director's Cup Final Fall Standings.

Notable people

Notable alumni

Alexander Stubb Cai-Göran Alexander Stubb (, born 1 April 1968) is a Finnish politician who has been the 13th president of Finland since 2024. He previously served as Prime Minister of Finland from 2014 to 2015. Rising in politics as a researcher specialis ...

, President of Finland *

Ben Browder Robert Benedict Browder (born December 11, 1962) is an American actor, writer and film director, known for his roles as John Crichton in '' Farscape'' and Cameron Mitchell in '' Stargate SG-1''. Early life Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Browder ...

, actor, writer and director *

Brad Cox Brad J. Cox (May 2, 1944 – January 2, 2021) was an American computer scientist who was known mostly for creating the Objective-C programming language with his business partner Tom Love and for his work in software engineering (specifically so ...

, computer scientist, creator of the

Objective-C Objective-C is a high-level general-purpose, object-oriented programming language that adds Smalltalk-style message passing (messaging) to the C programming language. Originally developed by Brad Cox and Tom Love in the early 1980s, it was ...

programming language * Thomas T. Cullen, United States District Judge for the Western District of Virginia * Clint Dempsey, professional soccer player * Brad Faxon, professional golfer * Billy Napier, college football head coach * David C. Garrett Jr., businessman, CEO of

Delta Air Lines Delta Air Lines, Inc. is a Major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, operating nine hubs, with Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport being its ...

* Jamie Lee Henry, first openly transgender officer in the

United States Armed Forces The United States Armed Forces are the Military, military forces of the United States. U.S. United States Code, federal law names six armed forces: the United States Army, Army, United States Marine Corps, Marine Corps, United States Navy, Na ...

* Jay Jackson, Major League Baseball pitcher *

Victoria Jackson Victoria Jackson (born August 2, 1959) is an American actress and comedian. She was a cast member on the series ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1986 to 1992. Early life Jackson was born in Miami, Florida, the daughter of Marlene Esther (née Blac ...

, actress and comedian * Ryan Ken, screenwriter * Herman W. Lay, founder of

Frito-Lay Frito-Lay, Inc. (; ) is an American food company that manufactures, markets, and sells snack foods. It began in the early 1930s as two companies, Fritos, the Frito Company and Lay's, H.W. Lay & Company, that merged in 1961. Frito-Lay itself merg ...

potato chips *

Keith Lockhart Keith Alan Lockhart (born November 7, 1959) is an American conductor. He is the Conductor of the Boston Pops orchestra, and the Artistic Director of the Brevard Music Center in North Carolina. Keith Lockhart, the conductor, is the brother of ...

, music director and conductor * Jordan Loyd (born 1993), professional basketball player * John Michael McDonnell, Admiral, Director of the

National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the director of national intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and proces ...

, and Director of National Intelligence in George W. Bush's administration * Julie McElrath, HIV

immunology Immunology is a branch of biology and medicine that covers the study of Immune system, immune systems in all Organism, organisms. Immunology charts, measures, and contextualizes the Physiology, physiological functioning of the immune system in ...

and

vaccine A vaccine is a biological Dosage form, preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious disease, infectious or cancer, malignant disease. The safety and effectiveness of vaccines has been widely studied and verifi ...

researcher * John F. Mulholland Jr., CIA associate director * Eleanor Beardsley, bilingual journalist and foreign correspondent *

Amy Grant Amy Lee Grant (born November 25, 1960) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. She began her music career in contemporary Christian music (CCM) before crossing over to pop music in the mid-1980s. Grant has been referred to as "Honorific ...

, contemporary Christian/pop artist * Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr., television pioneer, the co-inventor of the first

arcade game An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily game of skill, games of skill and in ...

to use a

cathode-ray tube A cathode-ray tube (CRT) is a vacuum tube containing one or more electron guns, which emit electron beams that are manipulated to display images on a phosphorescent screen. The images may represent electrical waveforms on an oscilloscope, a ...

* Judy Clarke, criminal defense attorney * Robert Blocker, dean of the Yale School of Music * Mark Sanford, politician, former Governor of South Carolina and former U.S. Representative for South Carolina's 1st district * Tomiko Brown-Nagin, legal historian, former dean at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

* Beth Daniel, professional golfer * Robert G. Owens Jr., U.S. Marine Corps major general and

flying ace A flying ace, fighter ace or air ace is a military aviation, military aviator credited with shooting down a certain minimum number of enemy aircraft during aerial combat; the exact number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an ...

* Bear Rinehart, musician * Richard Riley,

United States Secretary of Education The United States secretary of education is the head of the United States Department of Education. The secretary serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States, and the federal government, on policies, programs, and activi ...

under President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...

* John E. Sloan, US Army major general, attended as a member of the class of 1907 * Allie Beth Stuckey, podcast host, blogger, and conservative commentator * Charles H Townes, physicist, 1964

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

winner in physics * Letitia H. Verdin, Associate Justice-elect of the South Carolina Supreme Court *

John B. Watson John Broadus Watson (January 9, 1878 – September 25, 1958) was an American psychologist who popularized the scientific theory of behaviorism, establishing it as a List of psychological schools, psychological school.Cohn, Aaron S. 2014.Watson, J ...

, psychologist, founder of

Behaviorism Behaviorism is a systematic approach to understand the behavior of humans and other animals. It assumes that behavior is either a reflex elicited by the pairing of certain antecedent stimuli in the environment, or a consequence of that indivi ...

* Xavier Woods, professional wrestler and YouTube personality *

Sam Wyche Samuel David Wyche (; January 5, 1945 – January 2, 2020) was an American professional football quarterback and coach. He was a quarterback and head coach for the Cincinnati Bengals and a quarterbacks coach for the San Francisco 49ers. As hea ...

, professional football coach * Walker Zimmerman, professional soccer player Charles Townes and first maser.jpg, Charles H. Townes received his BS in physics from Furman. A Nobel Laureate in Physics, he invented the maser and laser. Mark Sanford, Official Portrait, 113th Congress.jpg, Mark Sanford received his BA in business from Furman. He was the

Governor of South Carolina The governor of South Carolina is the head of government of South Carolina. The governor is the ''ex officio'' commander-in-chief of the National Guard when not called into federal service. The governor's responsibilities include making year ...

. Amy Grant - West Wendover, Nevada.jpg, Amy Grant won six Grammy Awards. Her first ticketed concert took place during her first year at Furman.

Notable faculty

* Jay Bocook, composer and arranger, whose work was heard during the 1984 Olympic Games Opening Ceremonies in Los Angeles * Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr., physicist, who helped pioneer the invention of color television, and inventor of the first video game * Richard Riley, politician, Governor of South Carolina and sixth U.S. Secretary of Education * Mark Kilstofte, musician, winner of the American Academy in Rome's Rome Prize for 2002–2003
* Charles H Townes, physicist, 1964 Nobel Prize winner in Physics * Alan Axelrod, historian and author of business and management books * Brent Nelsen, political scientist and professor * Anthony Ensolen, writer and translator of classical works * Edvard Tchivzhel, conductor and music director * William Preucil, composer, violinist and

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

winner

References

;Furman University Website (A) ;Newspapers (B) ;Ranking websites (C) ;Other sources (D)

External links

*
Furman Athletics website
{{Authority control Furman University Educational institutions established in 1826 Universities and colleges accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Buildings and structures in Greenville, South Carolina Tourist attractions in Greenville, South Carolina 1826 establishments in South Carolina