The Citadel Military College of South Carolina (simply known as the Citadel) is a public senior military college in Charleston, South Carolina, United States. Established in 1842, it is the third oldest of the six senior military colleges in the United States. The Citadel was initially established as two schools to educate young men from around the state, while simultaneously protecting the South Carolina State Arsenals in both Columbia and Charleston.
Academics at the Citadel are divided into six schools: Business, Education, Engineering, Humanities and Social Sciences, Science, and Mathematics. Bachelor's degrees are offered in 38 major programs of study with 55 minors. The military program is made up of cadets pursuing bachelor's degrees who live on campus. For traditional students, the Citadel offers non-military programs including 12 undergraduate degrees, 26 graduate degrees, as well as evening and online programs with seven online graduate degrees, three online undergraduate degrees, and three certificate programs. Approximately 1,495 non-cadet students are enrolled in Citadel Graduate College pursuing undergraduate and graduate degrees.
The South Carolina Corps of Cadets makes up half the student body of the school and numbers 2,226. Cadet life is devised into a "class system" which focuses on the development of Cadets as both students and leaders. The Corps contains its own unique traditions, lexicon, and rank structures. One-third of graduates each year go into the armed services. All members of the Corps are required to participate in ROTC, with all branches' (Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard) training programs being represented. The Citadel Bulldogs field 9 men's teams, 7 women's teams, and 1 mixed team (rifle) at the NCAA Division I level.
Graduates of the Citadel's Corps of Cadets are known as "the Long Gray Line", modeled after the United States Military Academy tradition. Graduates of the Citadel Graduate College are considered part of the alumni organization, but with a distinct variant of the Citadel's class ring. Alumni of the Citadel include numerous generals, senators, athletes and writers. Two Medal of Honor and two Navy Cross recipients have attended the Citadel, and six alumni have risen to become state governors.
History
+Presidents of The CitadelCaptain William F. Graham, USA1843–1844Major Richard W. Colcock, USA1844–1852Major Francis W. Capers, CSA1852–1859Major Peter F. Stevens, SCM1859–1861Major James B. White, SCM1861–1865Colonel John P. Thomas, CSA1882–1885BrigGen George D. Johnston, CSA1885–1890Colonel Asbury Coward, CSA1890–1908Colonel Oliver J. Bond, SCM1908–1931General Charles P. Summerall, USA1931–1953Colonel Louis S. LeTellier, SCM1953–1954 (Interim)General Mark W. Clark, USA1954–1965General Hugh P. Harris, USA1965–1970MajGen James A. Duckett, SCM '321970–1974LtGen George M. Seignious, USA '421974–1979MajGen Wallace Anderson, SCM1979 (Interim)VADM James B. Stockdale, USN1979–1980MajGen James Grimsley, Jr., USA '421980–1989LtGen Cladius E. Watts, USAF '581989–1996BrigGen Roger C. Poole, USAR '591996–1997 (Interim)MajGen John S. Grinalds, USMC1997–2005BrigGen Roger C. Poole, USAR '592005–2006 (Interim)LtGen John W. Rosa, Jr., USAF '732006–2018LtGen John B. Sams, USAF '672018 (Interim)Gen Glenn M. Walters, USMC '792018–2026 Gen Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., USMC '792026-present
The Citadel traces its origins to an arsenal constructed by state authorities in South Carolina to defend white residents of Charleston, South Carolina against possible slave rebellions following Denmark Vesey's thwarted uprising of 1822. The school was founded by an act of the state legislature in 1842 as the South Carolina Military Academy and classes began at the Arsenal (Columbia) in 1843. It originally consisted of the Citadel Academy in Charleston and the Arsenal Academy in Columbia. The Arsenal was burned by General Sherman's forces during the American Civil War and never reopened. The Citadel Academy was occupied by Union troops in 1865 and reopened as an educational institution in 1882. During the Civil War, the SCMA Corps of Cadets was organized into a military unit known as the Battalion of State Cadets which took part in nine engagements. In January 1861, Citadel Academy cadets manning a battery on Morris Island fired the first shots of the conflict when they shelled the Union steamship Star of the West which was attempting to resupply Fort Sumter. In December 1864, the cadet battalion made up more than a third of a Confederate force that defended a strategic rail line during the Battle of Tulifinny. The Citadel was awarded nine battle streamers for service in the Civil War and is one of only five American colleges to receive a battle streamer for the participation of its student body in wartime service. The four other institutes are: VMI for the Battle of New Market, Florida State for the Battle of Natural Bridge, William and Mary for the Siege of Yorktown, and the University of Hawaii for the Hawaiian Islands Campaign.
In 1922, the school moved from its original location on Marion Square in downtown Charleston to a new campus on the banks of the Ashley River on the northwest side of the city. The Citadel has grown steadily from an enrollment of 460 to its present 3,500. During World War II, the Citadel had the highest percentage of any American college student body serving in the military and all but 346 of its living graduates were members of the armed forces. Alumni served as members of the Flying Tigers and Doolittle Raiders; 280 died in the service of their country. The first black cadet enrolled in 1966. The first woman to graduate from the Citadel, Maxine Hudson, received her degree from the graduate program in 1969. Maxine was a distinguished and beloved teacher in Charleston for over 50 years. In 1971 the first Native American (Oglala and Comanche), Kim Winkelman, graduated. The first woman admitted to the Corps of Cadets program was Shannon Faulkner. After a two-and-a-half-year court battle, she matriculated into the otherwise all-male Corps of Cadets on August 15, 1995, but soon withdrew after she said she and her family received dozens of death threats and her parents' home was vandalized.Kuersten, Ashlyn K. (2003). Women and the law: leaders, cases, and documents. ABC-CLIO. pp. 72–73. .Bobrick, Elizabeth (June 2000). "Arms and the Woman". Women's Review of Books. 17 (9): 8 – via EBSCOhost. (Subscription required) In 1999, Nancy Mace, daughter of the Citadel's Commandant of Cadets, became the first woman to graduate from the Corps of Cadets program, receiving a degree in business administration. In 2018, the Citadel appointed Sarah Zorn the first woman to lead the South Carolina Corps of Cadets as Regimental Commander.
A graduate program was started in 1968. A major capital improvement campaign started in 1989 saw the replacement or extensive renovation of a majority of the buildings on campus, and academic offerings have been continuously expanded to offer in demand courses and degrees in fields such as Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Criminal Justice and Nursing. Citadel cadets and alumni have served in every United States military action from the Mexican War to the current global war on terrorism.
Academics Schools During the 2002–03 academic year, the Citadel reorganized its existing departments into five schools, each headed by a dean. The schools comprise Business; Education; Engineering; Humanities and Social Sciences; and Science and Mathematics.
Business
The Baker School of Business consists of three departments: Accounting and Finance; Management and Entrepreneurship; and Marketing, Supply Chain Management, and Economics. The school offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in Business Administration. Accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business since 1996, more cadets major in Business Administration than any other major. The MBA program is also the largest of the Citadel's graduate programs. On February 22, 2017, the Citadel announced that Tommy Baker, who attended as a veteran student after serving in the Marine Corps, and his wife, Victoria, had made a gift to endow business programs, and that the school would be named in their honor. In January 2021, the school relocated from Bond Hall to Bastin Hall, a newly constructed academic building named for Rick and Mary Lee Bastin. Bastin Hall is the first new academic building added to the campus since 1974.
Education
The Zucker Family School of Education houses undergraduate and graduate education programs in several specialties. On November 11, 2014, the Citadel named its School of Education for the Zucker Family, after Anita Zucker made a $4 million (equivalent to $ in ) donation to the school for its education programs. The school is currently located in Capers Hall, but will relocate to Bond Hall upon the completion of Bastin Hall.
Engineering
The School of Engineering consists of four departments: Civil and Environmental Engineering; Electrical and Computer Engineering; Engineering Leadership and Program Management; and Mechanical Engineering. The school, which claims to be the fifth oldest such program in the nation, has long offered undergraduate degrees in both Civil and Electrical Engineering. In 2014, the school added a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering program and, in 2015, added 13 additional degree and certificate programs, including master's degrees in Civil, Electrical, and Mechanical Engineering. In 2018, the school added a Bachelor of Science in Construction Engineering program. The school is located in Letellier Hall (Civil and Mechanical Engineering) and Grimsley Hall (Electrical Engineering). In 2016, U.S. News & World Report ranked the Citadel's School of Engineering 13th among all undergraduate engineering programs without doctoral degrees in the United States making it the sixth straight year that the school has been in the Top 25.
Humanities and Social Sciences The School of Humanities and Social Sciences consists of seven departments: Criminal Justice; English; History; Intelligence and Security Studies; Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures; Political Science; and Psychology. The school offers seven majors (with multiple concentrations) and 19 minors, and awards more than 50% of the credit hours earned at the Citadel. For graduate work, the school offers five degree programs and three certificates, including cybersecurity and intelligence analysis. These programs resulted in the school being named a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense by the National Security Agency. The school is located in Capers Hall, which was recently rebuilt and modernized.
David L. Preston, Westvaco Professor of National Security Studies in the History Department, in 2015 won the Guggenheim-Lehrman Prize in Military History and the 2016 Distinguished Book Award from the Society for Military History for his book, Braddock's Defeat: The Battle of the Monongahela and the Road to Revolution.
Science and Mathematics
The Swain Family School of Science and Mathematics consists of seven departments: Biology; Chemistry; Cyber and Computer Sciences; Health and Human Performance; Mathematical Sciences; Physics; and the Swain Department of Nursing. The school, along with the Zucker Family School of Education and the School of Engineering, sponsor the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) Center of Excellence, which hosts a variety of events throughout the year, including the annual Storm the Citadel week featuring a trebuchet competition. On June 1, 2018, the Citadel announced the naming of the school for the Swain Family, in recognition of major gifts provided by brothers David C. Swain, Jr., Class of 1980, and his wife, Mary, as well as Dr. Christopher C. Swain, Class of 1981, and his, wife Debora.
Academic programs