Author: Author Listing Page

podcast artwork

Remembering the Days -- The campus during wartime

May 11, 2023, Chris Horn

Since its founding in 1801, the University of South Carolina, its students and alumni have been profoundly affected by wars, most notably the Civil War, WWI, WWII and the Vietnam War. As Memorial Day draws near, it is a fitting time to remember.

podcast artwork

Remembering the Days -- 'Believe It or Not!'

May 01, 2023, Chris Horn

Decades ago, an illustrator named Robert L. Ripley presented tales of the strange, the bizarre and the unexpected — and challenged the public to 'believe it or not!' In that spirit, here are three such tales from the University of South Carolina's past.

podcast artwork

Remembering the Days -- Remembering the pioneers

April 17, 2023, Chris Horn

Sixty years ago, the University of South Carolina opened its doors to all students, regardless of race, when it enrolled three Black students — Henrie Monteith, Robert Anderson and James Solomon. But what was campus life like for the Black students who immediately followed in their footsteps in 1964 and beyond?

podcast artwork

Remembering the Days -- Message in a bottle

February 16, 2023, Chris Horn

USC students in 1977 buried an eclectic assortment of items for a time capsule that was unearthed in 2001 as part of the university's bicentennial celebration. That same year, another time capsule was buried on the Horseshoe — with its own treasure trove of items — with an opening scheduled for 2051.

The library named after Peden McLeod, at the USC Salkehatchie campus in Walterboro.

Family and community support fuels building renovation at USC Salkehatchie

February 09, 2023, Chris Horn

Peden McLeod, a 1967 graduate of the University of South Carolina School of Law believed in public service. Founder, chairman and CEO of the Bank of Walterboro as well as a state legislator, McLeod worked tirelessly to establish and support the USC Salkehatchie campus. It’s fitting, then, that the only building named for an individual on the campus in Walterboro honors McLeod: the Peden McLeod Library, which was dedicated in 1998.

Remembering the Days podcast art

Remembering the Days -- The Duel of 1833

November 14, 2022, Chris Horn

Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton engaged in an infamous duel in 1804, and a number of South Carolina College students nearly got tangled up in duels in the years before the Civil War. History records only one duel  involving South Carolina College students that ended in fatality — and this is the strange story of that tragedy. 

Remembering the Days podcast art

Remembering the Days -- Palmetto Ivy: How the Honors College came to be

October 31, 2022, Chris Horn

USC's Honors College was established in the 1970s around the time that several other of the nation's first honors colleges came into being. But the South Carolina Honors College would eventually emerge as one of the nation's best, boasting hundreds of honors courses and attracting some of the best students from the Palmetto State and beyond. 

Remembering the Days podcast art

Remembering the Days -- First things first

October 17, 2022, Chris Horn

Curtis Frye, head coach of field and track head at USC, knows a thing or two about coming in first place and being the first to do something. He's done all of those in his time at Carolina, including bringing home the university's first-ever national championship trophy. Perhaps most importantly, Coach Frye understands the importance of putting first things first. 

Remembering the Days podcast art

Remembering the Days -- The not-so-secret gardens

September 26, 2022, Chris Horn

“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world … is a garden.” When Frances Hodgson Burnett penned those words more than a century ago in her classic children’s book The Secret Garden, there probably were very few, perhaps not any flower gardens on the University of South Carolina campus. But we’ve made up for it in the past 50 years or so. On this short tour, you'll learn the history of several not-so-secret gardens on campus and what's planted in each one. 

Remembering the Days podcast art

Remembering the Days -- The Myth of Commodore Capstone

August 25, 2022, Chris Horn

What building on the University of South Carolina campus was named for a Confederate navy commodore and commemorated on a picture postcard? It's a trick question! A high-rise residence hall was featured on a postcard in the late 1960s, and the caption on the postcard said the building was named in honor of alumnus Epaminondas J. Capstone, a Confederate commodore. But separate fact from fiction is the real story.

Remembering the Days podcast art

Remembering the Days -- Sink or Swim: the freshman lifesaver course

August 22, 2022, Chris Horn

Fifty years ago, it wasn't uncommon to hear professors give the "look to your left, look to your right — one of you will have failed by the end of the semester" speech. But exactly 50 years ago, Carolina tried something different: a course designed to help freshmen feel like they belonged along with the academic tools they needed to succeed. It was called University 101, and it became model for hundreds of colleges across the country.

Remembering the Days podcast art

Remembering the Days -- Fair play: the 50th anniversary of Title IX

June 03, 2022, Chris Horn

Women's college sports barely on the radar in the early 1970s, but Title IX changed everything by leveling the playing field for men's and women's sports at the collegiate level. Meet two of the first 18 women to receive athletics scholarships at the University of South Carolina, which is now a national leader in parity for its men's and women's sports programs.

image of brick block with 2x4

UofSC engineers develop disaster-resistant building materials

June 01, 2022, Chris Horn

For the past 10 years, Fabio Matta, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, has been engineering earthen building blocks made from local soil. Up close, the blocks don’t look like anything special, but their simplicity is the appeal — the blocks don’t require firing in energy-intensive kiln furnaces and can stand up to the worst Mother Nature can throw at them.

Remembering the Days podcast art

Remembering the Days -- A Memorial Day tribute

May 20, 2022, Chris Horn

Eighty-one graduates of the University of South Carolina have died in military service since the Spanish-American War at the close of the 19th century. In observance of Memorial Day, we remember three who died serving their country in World War I, World War II and the Vietnam War.

electric car plugged into power source

Incentivizing purchase of green vehicles is not always a straightforward proposition

May 13, 2022, Chris Horn

In an ideal world, perhaps everyone would drive electric cars or use public transportation powered by renewable energy — and that world would have cleaner air and far less greenhouse gas emissions. But in the real world many consumers remain skeptical of plug-in electric and hybrid cars or shy away from those vehicle’s higher price tags. Government-sponsored incentives have helped to some degree, but research by two faculty members in the Moore School of Business reveals those incentives sometimes come with unintended consequences.

Remembering the Days podcast art

Remembering the Days -- High-rise hijinks, life in the Towers

May 03, 2022, Chris Horn

Pranks and pratfalls are part of life in any college residence hall, but one dormitory complex at the University of South Carolina seemed to have more than its fair share. Stories about life in the Towers, also known as the Honeycombs and the Veilblocks, are now almost the stuff of legend. Here are a few anecdotes from yesteryear about those long-gone dorms. 

Ero Amiridis smiles for the camera with colorful painting in background

Ero Aggelopoulou-Amiridis is proud to be a Gamecock

May 02, 2022, Chris Horn

President-elect Michael Amiridis isn’t the only Gamecock returning to the roost this summer. His wife, Ero Aggelopoulou-Amiridis, has just as deep a Carolina connection. In addition to her bachelor’s degree in math from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the university’s new first lady holds two advanced degrees from USC — a master’s in art history, ’97, and a Ph.D. in philosophy, ’12.

Remembering the Days podcast art

Remembering the Days -- The grass whisperer, Sarge Frye

April 19, 2022, Chris Horn

Sarge Frye knew how to make grass grow, and for five decades he made sure the University of South Carolina's athletic fields were green and trimmed. But much more than that, Sarge had a heart for people and connected with everyone he met. It's why his name continues to be synonymous with Gamecock sports. 

Big Sur California coastline

UofSC-trained climate experts map a path forward for business and government

April 06, 2022, Chris Horn

Ninety-seven percent of climate scientists agree that Earth’s rising temperatures and related phenomena — more frequent and severe drought, flooding and wildfires — are a result of human-caused climate change. Scientists who earned their Ph.D.s from South Carolina are applying their expertise to help corporations adopt more eco-friendly approaches to doing business and developing more equitable policies for coastal land use.

Remembering the Days podcast art

Remembering the Days: Write me a letter

March 28, 2022, Chris Horn

Long before texting, Facetime and email were a thing, university students sat down with pen and paper to ask their parents for money, beg forgiveness when they got in trouble and invite someone special for a date. This quaint assortment of letters from University of South Carolina students of yesteryear covers all of those topics and more.

Celia Dial Saxon in plaid dress, Normal School group photo

The honor and dignity of Celia Dial Saxon

February 07, 2022, Chris Horn

A student residence hall near the Colonial Life Arena has become the first University of South Carolina building named for an African American. Formerly known as 700 Lincoln, the Celia Dial Saxon Building honors an educator and community advocate whose teaching career spanned six decades in segregated schools near the university campus.

Invisible No More book jacket mockup

Essay collection sheds light on the largely unknown history of Black people at UofSC

January 31, 2022, Chris Horn

The University of South Carolina desegregated in 1963, but the history of Black people on campus extends back to the university’s beginning in the early 19th century. In 10 illuminating essays edited by Robert Greene II and Tyler Parry, Invisible No More (USC Press 2021) tells that story.

Remembering the Days podcast art

Remembering the Days: #UofSCLove

January 31, 2022, Chris Horn

When we think back to our college days, some of us remember old boyfriends and girlfriends or maybe former roommates that we still stay in touch with. And for some, college is where they met that special someone — the person with whom they fell in love and then, quite possibly, lived happily ever after.

Remembering the Days podcast art

Remembering the Days: The lecture hall that never was

January 10, 2022, Chris Horn

When it was dedicated in 1855, the building we now know as Longstreet Theater was already a disappointment. The audience gathered could scarcely understand what was being said because of the poor acoustics. So how did this echo chamber eventually become the premier stage for live theater at the university? Sound engineering!

Remembering the Days podcast art

Remembering the Days: The Great Biscuit Rebellion

December 07, 2021, Chris Horn

For much of the first half of the 19th century, students at South Carolina College were not pleased with the quality of food served on campus. In 1852, the wormy biscuits and rancid meat were too much to stomach, so the students issued an ultimatum — that ultimately gave them a case of indigestion.

Ismael Delgado, graduating senior 2021

Biochemistry major, December graduate parlays lab skills into job

November 29, 2021, Chris Horn

College life has been a quite a ride for Ismael Delgado, who switched campuses, changed majors, flipped his bike, broke his collarbone, fell in love with scuba diving — and studied abroad in South Korea during the pandemic. And if all of that weren’t enough, Delgado managed to turn his passion for laboratory research into a regular job in a COVID-testing lab and developed career plans for after graduation this December.

Remembering the Days podcast art

Remembering the Days: Remembering Havilah Babcock

November 15, 2021, Chris Horn

He loved fly fishing and bird hunting and wrote numerous tales about both of those sporting passions. And when he wasn't doing those things, Havilah Babcock was in the classroom, a favorite English professor for generations of students at the University of South Carolina.

Molly O'Malley beside helicopter

Former Marine Corps pilot awarded scholarship as she pursues speech-language pathology degree

November 08, 2021, Chris Horn

During her 12 years as a Marine Corps helicopter pilot, Maj. Molly O’Malley flew in a war zone and quickly learned to make split-second decisions up in the air and deal with daily challenges on the ground. But transitioning from full-time military pilot to part-time graduate student at South Carolina hasn’t turned out to be the cakewalk you might imagine.

Nick Peng studio headshot

New faculty spotlight: Nick Peng

November 08, 2021, Chris Horn

Nick Peng is an assistant professor in the School of the Earth, Ocean and Environment in the College of Arts and Sciences who joined the university this past spring. His research focus is on the interactions of marine microorganisms, and he’s hoping to develop a new course that will enable students to learn the techniques for deciphering the identity and function of microorganisms present in any particular environment.

Remembering the Days podcast art

Remembering the Days: A natural history stroll across campus

November 02, 2021, Chris Horn

Were there always so many squirrels on the Horseshoe? And how else has campus changed in the past 200 years in regards to insects, birds, snakes and such? Take a stroll with naturalist-in-residence Rudy Mancke to learn what's changed and still changing in the natural world of campus. 

Remembering the Days podcast art

Remembering the Days: South by southwest, the university's expansion into Ward One and Wheeler Hill

October 14, 2021, Chris Horn

Like other universities across the nation, the University of South Carolina needed more land in the 1960s to keep up with skyrocketing student enrollment brought on by the Baby Boom. In a previous episode, we talked about the campus migration that created the east campus in the middle of the University Hill neighborhood. This episode explores the underpinnings of the campus expansion into Ward One and Wheeler Hill, which were largely obliterated by 'urban renewal' efforts that acquired more land for the university.

Remembering the Days podcast art

Remembering the Days: Harry Walker, the underdog who won

October 03, 2021, Chris Horn

When students at the University of South Carolina elected a new Student Government president in 1971, the event made national news. That's because, just eight years after the university was desegregated, an African American student won the election, riding a wave of support from white and Black students who were tired of the "establishment" and "the system."

Elise Lewis, faculty principal of Capstone Scholars Program

Capstone Scholars faculty principal uses lessons from her own experience to guide living, learning community

September 01, 2021, Chris Horn

When she was a college freshman, Elise Lewis learned firsthand what happens when a student gets lost in the shuffle of a big university. Now, as faculty principal of the Capstone Scholars Program, one of the University of South Carolina’s best-known living and learning communities, Lewis is keen on getting students connected with one another and the university resources that can help them to thrive.

Lizzie Gandy, 1992 mechanical engineering alumna

From Hilton Head to Thunder Horse

August 31, 2021, Chris Horn

Lizzie Gandy one day will regale her grandchildren with stories about the years she strapped on a hard hat and rode a helicopter to her job on the biggest moored oil platform in the world, anchored deep in the Gulf of Mexico. In her latest position, Gandy doesn’t have to endure the same grind as before when she was supervising hundreds of oil platform workers in the open water. But she continues to find satisfaction in the work that a mechanical engineering degree from South Carolina in 1992 made possible.

Remembering the Days podcast art

Remembering the Days: If it ain't swaying, we ain't playing

August 23, 2021, Chris Horn

When the Gamecocks take to the football field every fall, Williams-Brice Stadium roars with the full-throated spirit of 80,000-plus diehard fans, a battalion of marching band members, cheerleaders, baton twirlers and dancers and a hyperkinetic mascot, Cocky. It’s a far cry from the first football game played on the University of South Carolina campus in 1898 when a few hundred fans huddled on simple wooden bleachers beside a field situated where the Russell House Student Union now stands.

Jason Caskey, president/CEO of University Foundations

University Foundations president/CEO Jason Caskey talks about role in supporting UofSC

August 23, 2021, Chris Horn

Jason Caskey was named president and CEO of University Foundations in 2018 after a 28-year career in public accounting. The 1990 Darla Moore School of Business graduate oversees the university’s Educational Foundation and Development Foundation, which include the university’s investments from donors and real estate holdings, respectively.

Remembering the Days podcast art

Remembering the Days: What's in a name?

August 09, 2021, Chris Horn

Since its inception more than 200 years ago, the University of South Carolina has had three different names and several nicknames. But Juliet was right — that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

Rohit Talwani at his desk

Gamecock alumnus, physician reflects on how COVID-19 changed how he practices medicine

August 03, 2021, Chris Horn

COVID has offered the health care sector some valuable lessons, says University of South Carolina School of Medicine alumnus Rohit Talwani. A Baltimore-based physician and University of Maryland School of Medicine associate professor of infectious diseases, Dr. Talwani is one of 10 Gamecocks Carolinian magazine spoke to about how the pandemic has changed the way we work.

Hudsonian Godwit

Biologist searches for environmental tipping points in marathon migratory species

July 26, 2021, Chris Horn

As a population biologist at the University of South Carolina, Nate Senner studies migratory bird species whose feats of endurance make his own look almost puny by comparison. What interests him most is not just the extremes that different bird species can endure but the many environmental variables to which they must adapt — with the long-term survival of their species population hanging in the balance.

xiaoming li

Breakthrough Leader: Xiaoming Li

July 13, 2021, Chris Horn

If Xiaoming Li was a professional athlete instead of a public health professor, he would make the All-Star team every year. Since joining the university in 2015 as director of the South Carolina SmartState Center for Health Care Quality, Li has authored or co-authored 179 scholarly publications and instituted an interdisciplinary campuswide Junior Scholar program that has successfully trained 41 doctoral students from different disciplines.

Michelle Dhunjishah and William Hubbard at Children's Law Center

Children's Law Center moves into renovated facility that's ideal for training

June 29, 2021, Chris Horn

It’s been a long time coming, but the Children’s Law Center finally has a permanent home, complete with a mock court room and a mock crime scene apartment for forensic training purposes. Those two assets are vital to the center’s mission of providing training to more than 10,000 professionals in justice, law enforcement and child welfare in South Carolina.

graphic depicting eyeball

SmartSight project unleashes power of AI to assist blind, visually impaired

June 18, 2021, Chris Horn

Pooyan Jamshidi, an assistant professor of computer science and engineering, is a principal investigator on a three-year $500,000 NSF collaborative grant to develop the intelligence and computing capabilities for a smart device dubbed SmartSight. The platform will enable on-device artificial intelligence to improve real-time perception for blind and visually-impaired users.

Yi Wang

Breakthrough Star: Yi Wang

June 15, 2021, Chris Horn

Simulation and computing is a mainstay in engineering design, a mathematical modeling process that allows engineers to predict the behavior of a machine or system in real-world conditions. But if the datasets are huge and complex, modeling can take days or even weeks to sort out. That’s why Yi Wang is using a method called reduced-order models to speed things up.

Van Kornegay with drone

High-flying photography

June 09, 2021, Chris Horn

When Van Kornegay earned his pilot’s license last year, his feet never left the ground, but he paved a runway for students in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications. Kornegay’s FAA drone license opens the door for him to teach a new visual communications course in which students will learn to fly camera-equipped drones that have become a go-to tool in documentary making, news gathering, infrastructure inspection, real estate marketing and more.

damaged beach house

Climate change, coastlands and the most vulnerable who live there

June 03, 2021, Chris Horn

A rising tide might lift all boats, but not everyone fares the same with rising seas. Monica Barra has documented that fact extensively in her studies of coastal land loss among communities of color in the bayous of Louisiana. With a focus on the ways that residents, scientific knowledge and the coastal landscape intersect, the assistant professor of race and environment is bringing a similar research perspective to the South Carolina coastline.

Remembering the Days podcast art

Remembering the Days: Heading east

May 20, 2021, Chris Horn

The University of South Carolina experienced enormous enrollment growth in the 1960s and began expanding its campus in several directions. Its move eastward into the University Hill neighborhood greatly expanded the campus footprint, but also stirred tensions with the residents when construction on the high-rise Capstone House began.

Jabari Bodrick, U101 Teacher of the Year

Forging student connections

April 22, 2021, Chris Horn

It’s a fact that students who complete University 101 at the University of South Carolina do better in their collegiate pursuits. Having Jabari Bodrick as your U101 instructor is icing on the cake. Just ask the students who nominated Bodrick for this year’s U101 Teacher of the Year award.

Remembering the Days podcast art

Remembering the Days: Tales from the President's House, part 1

April 19, 2021, Chris Horn

The President's House on the historic Horseshoe has been home to every university president since 1952. Patricia Moore-Pastides, who lived in the house as university first lady for 11 years, talked with the now-grown children of those former presidents to find out what life was like for them during their years in the President's House.

Sydney Womack, graduating senior May 2021

Class of 2021: Sydney Womack

April 15, 2021, Chris Horn

Sydney Womack’s calendar has been booked nearly solid during her four years at South Carolina and little wonder — she majored in biomedical engineering, minored in mathematics, earned a performance certificate in the School of Music, conducted undergraduate research and co-authored a scholarly article and three poster presentations. She also attended football, basketball and baseball games whenever she could, held leadership positions in two engineering student societies and regularly volunteered to pitch STEM career opportunities to high school students.

Brianna Lewis, 2021 graduating senior

Class of 2021: Brianna Lewis

April 13, 2021, Chris Horn

Brianna Lewis was voted “most likely to become a brain surgeon” in the first grade, and the Simpsonville, S.C.-native will soon begin earning the “Dr.” portion of that prediction. She’s headed to medical school this fall after wrapping up four years in the Honors College and two bachelor’s degrees — one in biology and another in experimental psychology.

Remembering the Days podcast art

Remembering the Days: Born a slave -- Matilda Pinckney's story

April 01, 2021, Chris Horn

In the long history of schoolteachers in South Carolina, Matilda Pinckney's story stands out. Born a slave on the historic Horseshoe at the University of South Carolina, Pinckney was later trained at a Normal School on the university campus and would go on to a 30-plus year career as an educator. 

Cantey Heath

A long ride draws to a close

March 25, 2021, Chris Horn

Cantey Heath’s 36-year career at the University of South Carolina began in alumni relations, pivoted to fundraising, then took another turn when he became special assistant and chief of staff to former university president Harris Pastides. Now, the university secretary and secretary of the Board of Trustees is headed for retirement.

Remembering the Days podcast art

Remembering the Days: Books before buildings

March 22, 2021, Chris Horn

From its founding in the early 19th century, the University of South Carolina was keenly interested in building a library collection to properly educate its students. Since then, the library's holdings have become a treasure trove that includes rare books and special collections that attract scholars from around the world.