Priorities & Goals

1. Modernizing Facilities

New Classroom Building

Our current classroom building, Capers Hall, opened its doors in 1951. It serves as the home of both the School of Humanities and Social Sciences and the School of Education. It is the place where approximately two-thirds of all the credit hours generated by The Citadel are taught. The cumulative effects of age and extraordinarily heavy usage have made it increasingly ill-suited to current needs. Raising the funds necessary to construct a modern facility for the students of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences is an urgent need and a top priority.

Leadership Center

We hope to incorporate into the new classroom building additional office, meeting, and archival space to house a "Leadership Center." The center would provide a naming opportunity for a potential donor. It would coordinate all of the School's initiatives in the training of ethical leaders. These activities include the work of its interdisciplinary minors in Leadership, International, African American, Southern and East Asian Studies; its public conferences and lectures; its study abroad programs; its service learning and community service projects in concert with the South Carolina Campus Compact; and its oral history leadership archive. The meeting facilities would be made available to public and private groups who wished to rent them for the purpose of holding seminars devoted to the training of ethical leaders. The new classroom and leadership center complex would be ideally located on that portion of The Citadel's campus which rests along the banks of the Ashley River directly across from Charles Town Landing - the side where the first English settlers landed in Carolina in the year 1670.

2. Dean's Excellence Fund

Contributions to this pool of unrestricted moneys provides the dean with the maximum flexibility to address the needs and opportunities that arise within the school during a particular academic year. Including among them are many of the types of student and faculty development and academic enrichment activities that are outlined below.

3. Recruiting Talented and Diverse Students

Undergraduate Scholarships

The School of Humanities and Social Sciences is committed to making higher education more affordable to talented students of modest or underprivileged means. High levels of indebtedness from private or government loans may prevent them from furthering their education in graduate and professional schools and discourage them from pursuing less lucrative but critically important careers in public service.

The SHSS is also committed to diversifying its student body. Diversity encourages learning both inside and outside the classroom. The enthusiasm and perspective that students from diverse backgrounds bring to the college adds a priceless dimension to an education in the liberal arts.

We hope to lower levels of student indebtedness and to increase diversity by raising support for need-based scholarships. These scholarships will help to attract bright and hard-working students, regardless of their economic background, and to make the full-range of career options more available to them.

Graduate Fellowships

The School of Humanities and Social Sciences is working to achieve greater national recognition for its master's programs in English, History, Psychology (Clinical Counseling), School Psychology, and Social Studies. These programs have successfully groomed students to pursue doctoral studies at Yale, the University of Chicago, the University of North Carolina, and other major universities. They have also trained a large number of students for positions of leadership in health-care, public education, and other fields. At the moment only a small number of partial fellowships are available to assist these students.

The SHSS hopes to raise support for a minimum of one full fellowship in each of its graduate programs. These fellowships will enable us to attract more full-time students from around the nation with the potential for distinguished post-graduate careers. Those students will further advance the School's position in graduate education and help it to attract and retain ever more talented faculty members.

4. Recruiting and Retaining Top Faculty

Endowed Chairs

An endowed professorship represents the pinnacle of achievement and recognition in the academic world. The School of Humanities and Social Sciences currently has two of these fully funded professorships: The John C. West Chair in the Department of Political Science & Criminal Justice and The Mark W. Clark Chair in the Department of History. It also has two partially funded chairs: the Arland D. Williams Professor of Heroism in the Department of Psychology and the Westvaco Professor of National Security Studies in the Department of Political Science & Criminal Justice or the Department of History.

Raising the funds needed for the creation of additional endowed chairs, especially in those departments that currently lack one, is a major goal of the school. This type of professorship is one of the best ways for The Citadel to recruit and to retain distinguished senior scholars who have significantly advanced the boundaries of human knowledge through their research, teaching and service. The presence of such scholars within the School helps it to attract outstanding students and faculty members, raises its national profile, and helps it to acquire external funding resources.

Faculty Enhancement Fund

The Citadel's School of Humanities and Social Sciences wishes to establish this fund to finance one-course reductions in standard teaching loads for a limited number of faculty members each semester. The released time would be granted to encourage the undertaking, or accelerate the completion, of major projects of special importance to the professional development of the faculty member, the college and its students. Examples include finishing a book, organizing a major academic conference, leading a study abroad program, developing courses in new areas of study, and writing a major grant proposal.

5. Enriching the Academic Environment

Public Programs

The School of Humanities and Social Sciences hosts academic conferences on southern politics, civil rights, and other subjects of community interest. It also sponsors public lectures on topics in Literature, International Relations, East Asian Affairs, and African American and Leadership Studies. There is one fully funded program, the Fulghum Series, devoted to the examination of the American South. Donations make it possible to expand and improve these forums that are designed to promote the type of dialogue between students, faculty and members of the community that leads to a better understanding of major issues.

Oral History Leadership Archive

In the fall of 2008, the School of Humanities and Social Sciences will launch a Citadel Oral History project under the direction of Professor Kerry Taylor, formerly the Associate Director of the Southern Oral History Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Its initial mission is to interview and record the memories of Citadel alumni who served in significant capacities as members of the U.S. armed forces during World War II. The noted historian and political scientist, Jack Bass, is spearheading that effort as a Citadel Fellow during the 2008-2009 academic year. Donations are needed to continue this project beyond one year and to expand the program into other areas of investigation. With proper funding, the School hopes to turn this initiative into a major archive that records the experiences of people who exercised leadership not only in the armed forces but also in politics, civil rights, diplomacy, the arts and other areas of local, state and national affairs. This archive will serve as a major resource for scholars and a laboratory for our students to study the various dimensions, and challenges, of principled leadership.

Study Abroad

The School of Humanities and Social Sciences sponsors summer programs that provide students with opportunities to study in England, China, France, Germany, Spain, Mexico and other countries. It also sponsors a program in England during the fall semester.

Study abroad is an invaluable supplement to a liberal arts education. Students who undertake it often find that it results in one of the most profound experiences of their college years and contributes significantly to their overall intellectual development and social maturation. There is no better way to enrich one's understanding of the diversity of the human experience or the position that the United States of America occupies within it.

The SHSS hopes to raise funds to provide the stipends that are needed to make these programs more affordable for deserving students of modest economic means.

Service Learning and Community Service Activities

Many students engage in these activities through initiatives such as the "Buddy Program" for young people with disabilities that has recently been recognized with a service learning award from the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education. The School of Humanities and Social Sciences wishes to expand the number of these opportunities for students to work with, and to learn from, persons within the community. This work will be part of the broader statewide efforts of the South Carolina Campus Compact.

Contacting the Dean

Advisory Board

Giving to the SHSS