Partner Profile: University of South Carolina
Location: Columbia, SC
Mission: The primary mission of the University of South Carolina Columbia is the education of the state’s citizens through teaching, research, creative activity, and community engagement.
Among America’s oldest and most comprehensive public universities, USC Columbia is the major research institution of the University of South Carolina system and its largest campus, enrolling approximately 25,000 undergraduate students and approximately 8,000 students in graduate and professional programs. At the heart of its mission lies the University’s responsibility to state and society to promote the dissemination of knowledge, cultural enrichment, and an enhanced quality of life.
The University serves a diverse population of students with widely varying backgrounds, career goals, and levels of aspiration. USC Columbia offers over 320 degrees at the bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral, and professional program levels, affording students the most comprehensive array of educational programs in the state. Additional opportunities for personal and career development, including an associate degree program at Fort Jackson, are provided to the citizens of South Carolina through outreach and continuing education activities.
Through the primary method of classroom and laboratory instruction, and through a secondary method of distance learning delivered via the Internet, teleconference, and electronic media, degree programs are offered in the following areas: arts and sciences; education; engineering and computing; hospitality, retail, and sport management; mass communications and information studies; music; public health; and social work; and in professional programs such as business, law, medicine, nursing, and pharmacy. The depth and breadth of its graduate programs in the arts and sciences, international business, public health, social work, and library and information science distinguishes USC Columbia from all other institutions of higher learning in South Carolina.
Accolades include:
- No. 1: Undergraduate international business major
- No. 1: International MBA program
- No. 1: Best international experience
- Nation’s Best: Public University Honors College
- No. 1: Nursing online graduate programs
- 10: Top 25 graduate programs
How Colonial Life supports USC: Through a $6.5 million naming rights agreement, Colonial Life is the naming rights sponsor of the $65 million Colonial Life Arena, the largest building ever constructed at the University of South Carolina at more than 330,000 square feet.
It’s the 10th largest on-campus basketball arena in the country and has hosted an estimated 1,500 events with 6.6 million people in attendance. In addition to serving as the home of Gamecock men’s and women’s basketball, the Colonial Life Arena also has developed into one of the Southeast’s premier entertainment venues. It was the nation’s third-highest grossing university arena last year, based on concert and event sales.
The company became the University of South Carolina’s first corporate naming rights partner in October 2003. Other partnerships with the university have included the Colonial Life Fellowship Fund with the Arnold School of Public Health, the Darla Moore School of Business capital campaign fund, placement of a major sculpture at the Moore School, the Colonial Life Scholars program, student internships and career opportunities for many graduates.
Why? “The sponsorship represents both a major ongoing commitment to this community and a significant component of our brand-building efforts,” said Tim Arnold, Colonial Life’s president and CEO. “Colonial Life is in an elite group participating in a limited number of collegiate naming rights opportunities nationwide. The growing success of the University of South Carolina’s women’s basketball program and the major talent acts the arena attracts are getting increasing national attention.”
