SWU Background:

SWU History

Southern Wesleyan University, incorporated under the laws of South Carolina, is sponsored and controlled by The Wesleyan Church, with headquarters at Indianapolis, Indiana. The establishment of the school grew out of a belief in the need of developing Christian character while giving thorough intellectual training. Charles B. Smith, a layman of the South Carolina Conference, made its beginning possible by a liberal gift.

The university was established and maintained for several years by the denominational Missionary Society of the former Wesleyan Methodist Church of America under the special direction of its secretary, the Rev. Eber Teter.

The work of erecting a suitable building was begun in the summer of 1906 and completed in the fall of the same year. The Rev. L. J. Harrington became the first president of Wesleyan Methodist Bible Institute and with three other teachers opened school on October 15, 1906. In January 1909, the school was chartered as Wesleyan Methodist College. It was understood that the teaching force would be increased and the standards raised as fast as possible.

On April 4, 1928, the Local Board of Managers met with special representatives of the denominational board to reorganize the work of the school. The college department was reduced to a junior college, except that four years of theological work leading to the Th.B. degree was continued.

In 1928 the high school department was approved by the State Department of Education. In 1931 the junior college was approved by the State Department of Education for teacher education. The University of South Carolina extended provisional transfer credit to the junior college. In 1953 both the high school and junior college were accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

In 1958 the process of discontinuing the high school was begun, and it was completed in 1963. In 1959 the college was reorganized into a senior liberal arts institution and renamed Central Wesleyan College.

Central Wesleyan College was first accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, Georgia 30033-4097: Telephone number 404-679-4501) to award bachelor's degrees in 1973. This accreditation was reaffirmed in 1978, 1989, and again in 1999. The Teacher Training Program of the college was first approved by NASDTEC in 1974 and reaffirmed in 1984, 1989, and again in 1998.

In 1986 Leadership Education for Adult Professionals (LEAP), now called Adult and Graduate Studies (AGS), a nontraditional program for working adults, was added to offer a bachelor's degree program in management. An associates degree program in business began in 1988. Masters programs in Christian Ministries and Management began in 1990.  Masters program in Businss Adminstration and Education began in 2002.

In 1995 the institution was renamed Southern Wesleyan University and is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, Georgia 30033-4097: Telephone number 404-679-4501) to award associate, bachelor's, and master's degrees. Although the college has changed structure and experienced three name changes over the past ninety-eight years, the mission of the college has remained a Christian community of learners that recognizes God as the source of all truth and wisdom.

SWU Vision Statement Back To Top

Southern Wesleyan University aspires to be a Christ-centered institution of such character that it will be recognized regionally, nationally and internationally for the quality and value of our educational programs.

SWU Mission Statement Back To Top

To help men and women become all God intends them to be through an excellent learning experience that promotes intellectual inquiry, fosters spiritual growth maturity, equips for service, and mobilizes leaders whose lives transform their world through faith, knowledge, love and hope as they serve Jesus Christ and others.

The success of the mission of the university will be measured ultimately in the lives of the alumni who grow in faith, knowledge, love and hope as they serve God and others.

SWU Statement of Purpose Back to Top

Since its founding by The Wesleyan Church in 1906, Southern Wesleyan University has been a Christian community of learners that recognizes God as the source of all truth and wisdom.  The university seeks to create an atmosphere in which members of the community work together toward wholeness through integration of faith, learning, and living.

Located in Central, South Carolina, the university is a halfway point between Charlotte, North Carolina, and Atlanta, Georgia.  It is thirty minutes from the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and ten minutes from Clemson University, with whom it shares some cooperative programs.  Southern Wesleyan University welcomes persons with a wide variety of backgrounds and abilities.   Younger and older, undergraduate and graduate, residential and commuting, and traditional and non-traditional students work and interact with a faculty guided by a Christian understanding of the liberal arts.

The university evolved from a small Bible institute and its first charter as Wesleyan Methodist College in 1909 into a four-year, private, liberal arts college. regionally accredited in 1973.  Historically, the founders of the college understood linguistic, quantitative, and analytical skills to be the foundation of a liberal arts education.  Further, they believed that the cultivation of this curriculum within the context of faith, worship, studies in religion, and service to others created a fertile soil for intellectual and spiritual growth.  Thus, the college ensures that every student would be well grounded in these areas by developing a general education curriculum of liberal arts studies.  That tradition is alive today.   All undergraduate programs - traditional and non-traditional - contain a core curriculum in the liberal arts.

Building on this tradition, Southern Wesleyan prepares students for graduate study and leadership in such fields as religion, education, music, business, medicine, law, and a variety of civic and social service professions.   Graduate programs are offered in fields in which the university has demonstrated particular strengths.  Although the university serves the Southeast, the student population is a wholesome blending of cultural, ethnic and regional diversity drawn from the entire United States and the international community.  Such diversity encourages broader development of values.

Ideal graduates of Southern Welseyan have a healthy respect for themselves and others as bearers of God's image.  The respect encourages care for personal, mental, physical, and spiritual health.  They seek a biblical social awareness that cares for people and their environment.  Through the completion of courses in world history, culture, and the arts (in traditional and non-traditional classes and in international settings), they are prepared to serve society with respect of the past and a vision for the future.  Southern Wesleyan graduates are prepared to confront a rapidly changing world with skills in communication, information processing, analysis, synthesis, and problem solving.

In summary, the success of the mission of the university will be measured ultimately in the lives of the alumni who grow in faith, knowledge, love and hope as they serve God and others.