Gene Upright> Doctor M. Maceo Nance Junior has been president of South Carolina State College in Orangeburg since 1968.

His leadership has helped forge State College's present progress and recognition.

Dr.

Nance is our guest tonight on Profile .

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Good evening, I'm Gene Upright.

Our guest tonight on Profile has earned respect and recognition in South Carolina and nationwide.

He's earned that respect through his dynamic leadership of South Carolina State College in Orangeburg.

Maceo Nance, now is president of the college he once attended.

Having served in the top post now, six years.

We'll talk with Dr.

Nance in just a few minutes.

With me in the studio is Profile producer Tom Fowler, who now has an in-depth look at Dr.

Nance and South Carolina State College.

Tom> M. Maceo Nance Jr.

has been president of South Carolina State College since June 1968, and many observers believe his leadership has carried the institution much farther than six years as president might indicate.

One sign being, 15 million dollars in capital improvements, since Dr.

Nance assumed office.

Maceo Nance himself graduated from state in 1949, after interrupting his education for service in the war.

He was awarded the Master of Science degree by New York University in 1953.

And Morris Brown College of Atlanta conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws six years ago.

Doctor Nance held several positions at his alma mater beginning in 1949, and was serving as vice president for business and finance when he was appointed acting president, June 1967.

Maceo Nance's name has seen prominence both in the state and nation through work as President of the South Carolina Association of Colleges and Universities, the President's Advisory Council on Higher Education, and co-chairmanship of the National Life Membership Committee of the NAACP.

He's in Who's Who in America and Personalities of the South.

Dr.

Nance was the first Black to deliver the commissioning address of a nuclear attack submarine, the USS Sea Devil, commissioned in 1969 at Newport News, Virginia.

And participated in the 18th National Strategy Seminar at the Army War College two years ago, serving as guest lecturer at the Distinguished War College in September 1972.

The Board of Trustees recently commissioned an oil portrait of Dr.

Nance, who, through his work as president of South Carolina State College, earned statewide respect and recognition.

> South Carolina State College since it was established in 1896, still provides the role that it was established to provide, and that was to provide, in a large measure, an opportunity for Blacks of the state of South Carolina to pursue higher education.

Now, I hasten to say that we now are an open institution, open to any student who wishes to pursue, a degree here and who meets the qualifications of the institution.

But we are still in the process of serving, a predominantly Black populace, because the needs still exist.

If it were not for this institution, thousands of young Blacks- And now we can also say Whites would not have had an opportunity to pursue a degree in higher education if it were not for South Carolina State College.

That is, at a state related institution.

Now, it has been recommended in this state that, a state the size of South Carolina, that two universities were sufficient as far as the state was concerned.

And, we'd have sort of a pyramid with tech, community colleges, primarily... making up the base.

It would narrow a bit further when you got the four year colleges and the universities eventually would concern themselves solely with graduate and professional work, very little or no undergraduate work.

So, in order to relate to the business of the university doing this or doing that, there is need for distinctive branches, areas of high education.

Tom> Four generations of students have graduated from South Carolina State College in Orangeburg since it was founded in 1896 as a land grant college.

That first campus had eight buildings, a small dairy herd, and a few farm animals.

Students sat on logs harvested from woods on campus.

A few years later, students cut the logs into lumber for the first dorm and classroom building to be built after State College's founding.

Now, the physical plant consists of over 250 acres of land, 41 modern buildings, and several others under construction, serving a student body of 2,600 undergraduate and 300 graduate students.

South Carolina State College was created by the General Assembly of 1896 and called at that time the Normal Industrial, Agricultural and Mechanical College of South Carolina.

With the name shortened and changed 20 years ago to South Carolina State College.

140 faculty members teach 19 different subject areas, along with graduate programs in education, science education and education rehabilitation counseling.

South Carolina State has an elementary school on campus called Felton.

It's a lab school providing teaching experience for undergraduate and graduate students.

Education graduate students can take minors too in 12 subject areas such as biology, English or mathematics.

Along with traditional alumni support from State College's 10,000 graduates.

The students, through the Student Government Association, donated 10,000 dollars recently to a college development fund for scholarships.

Dr.

Nance> The institution itself, under the leadership that I attempted to provide, has made tremendous strides.

I always hasten to say that such would not have been accomplished without the aid of a tremendous number of people, and in particular, the entire South Carolina State College family.

We've always been concerned about the development of the institution, and we've always had a fine institution in our, in our opinion.

Perhaps I shouldn't be the one to say that in that I'm a graduate of the institution.

But nevertheless, I think it has done a fine job, and we've had a quality program.

But in the last six years we have made some strides that some, had considered to be unbelievable.

And of course, to others, not enough even yet.

Going tremendously, I do get a tremendous sense of self pride.

As I walk around the campus now and I look, no one has to tell me- I've been fortunate enough to, to have played a very meaningful role in the development of much of what I see and I get a tremendous amount of satisfaction from that.

In addition to seeing the facilities grow.

I've seen the student body grow.

I've seen the faculty grow.

I've seen the prestige of the institution rise.

I've seen everything good about the institution.

I've been associated with it.

And its bright days, and it's dark days.

And we are no exception.

Every institution has those.

That's a part of life.

And, I've been with it, in each of these instances.

And it's also good in that I see even a brighter future for it and even more growth.

Traditionally... Orangeburg had been considered and in the minds of some, even now, perhaps one of the most conservative communities in race relations in our state.

But I think as those of us here in the city of Orangeburg, both White and Black- Those of us who have been in leadership roles and felt the responsibility to improve the life of community for all of us, have worked very quietly and been able to accomplish much.

I think we can point to quite a few things that the small community of Orangeburg- small in terms of some of the other metropolitan communities, we have been able to accomplish much more than even some of them.

And personally, I no longer think that the city of Orangeburg could be considered one of the so-called conservative communities as it relates to race.

The institution is a very vibrant part of the community.

I can remember as a student here and later as a member of the staff, when the White community would refer to State College as the college up there.

As if it were an island unto itself and was not a true part of the community, at least as far as they were concerned.

You won't hear these kinds of expressions now.

The institution is referred to as our institution, and this is the way it ought be.

The institution has opened its doors to the community.

It has made its facilities available to the community to the extent that it doesn't interrupt the educational process.

I suspect the most recent project and, the one that, I can appreciate more than anything else, was the development of the recent, recreational complex.

We know of no other community this size, and we know of no other instance where town and gown have been able to work together to develop a project of that nature.

And certainly of that magnitude.

And it was accomplished here in this community with little or no problems whatsoever.

And it's... successful.

Tom> One recent example of how South Carolina State College and the city of Orangeburg have deepened their cooperation was their joint venture to build Hillcrest, a community recreation complex.

Over 100 acres of land belonging to State College is now leased to Orangeburg for a dollar a year, and land once used as the college's experimental farm, now, is an 18 hole championship golf course.

The only public course in the Orangeburg area designed, developed and run by veteran John Watson.

The course now is open and takes annual memberships.

Hillcrest also features a driving range and four tennis courts.

Now, the State College golf team, college family, and the general public have a golf course in Orangeburg instead of commuting to links in Columbia.

Two legislative leaders gave Profile their assessment of what Maceo Nance has meant to our state.

Sen.

Gressette> I want to thank all of you at ETV in giving me this opportunity to comment on a man for whom I have such a high regard and esteem.

I think that Dr.

Nance has probably done as much as any other person in this state as president of State College.

He is just a natural born leader.

What he's done down there, very few people know about unless they've had an opportunity to visit the college.

He has brought, around him, very capable people as administrators and as members of his faculty and that sort of thing.

And, they all believe in him, and they have a very strong feeling for the institution.

I can say this, truthfully, that, under his leadership, that college is second to none in higher institutions of learning in the state of South Carolina.

Dr.

Nance is not only, wrapped up to a large extent in the college, but he's also civic minded, and, he's a good businessman.

The state of South Carolina is extremely fortunate to have him where he is.

Now, when any man, rises up to the position where he is today, you can always look around and find that he had a very capable wife.

And I think that Mrs.

Nance, who is a lovely and attractive person, has had a lot to do with his career and what he's doing.

I look forward to many, many fruitful years from this man at State College and to see it grow and prosper.

I had occasion to ride around the campus with him not too many months ago, and to hear him talk, you can just feel it.

That here's a man who, has visions of, really great accomplishments and that sort of thing.

And I believe that, to some extent, is responsible today for the position that he holds in South Carolina.

He's very ambitious, for the school and, he will, I'm sure, continue to make it one of the best in the United States.

Rep.

Yarborough> Some men probably achieve prominence because they are, thrust into a position of prominence, and other people really deserve it.

And I think that Dr.

Nance, who I know as my friend, Maceo, was thrust into a position of prominence, and he was a man who had the qualities and the abilities to accept that position and to occupy it with grace and dignity and courage.

He's brought South Carolina State College, I believe, a greater distance in the short time that he's been president than it had come in its whole period of existence before his term of office began.

His has been a voice of moderation and goodwill and progressive, relations between the races in our community and in our county.

He's made... literally tens of thousands of friends, both in the Black people and the White people.

And in to my way of thinking, he's... brought as much to South Carolina during his term of office as president of South Carolina State College, as any man has contributed to this state.

Not only in an educational way, but in a time of stress, he's been able to bring about a tremendous amount of improvement in the government of our whole state through the example that he set and the leadership that he has shown.

And we just need more men like him in our state.

Dr.

Nance> I would venture to say there isn't another chief administrative, in institution in the country that has greater rapport than I had with the students here at this institution.

I would also say that, I would like perhaps greater cooperation, but I would be a fool to expect it.

Nothing is 100 percent but, we believe in an open door policy.

And, though this office is always open to students and others- I move about the campus regularly.

I walk most of the time.

I am approachable.

And they do approach me.

And it so happens that the president's residence is on campus, and they are constantly ringing the doorbell there and they're in and out.

And of course, to some this would be an interrupting factor even in your private life.

But I happen to be one of those who feels that this is one of the aspects of the job, and one tires of it to that extent, to try and stop it, then that's the time for him to step aside.

Before moving to the president's residence, we had our own home.

We considered to be one of the fortunate couples we moved in our own home and built in 1955.

What we had was certainly, nothing like what we're living in now but, we still liked that better.

There was one period that I was considering very strongly about moving back home and using the president's residence for something else.

I mentioned it to my wife, and she... asked me if I was serious, and I said "yes."

Well, she said, "That's all right with me if you wish to move, but if we were to move, this would put me out of everything."

And my wife has been of tremendous help to me in my work here.

She's been of tremendous help, period.

But certainly in the role that I play now.

And, although she does not work out of the home, she has been a, resource, source for me and communicating with the kids.

They're very much interested in her, she's established a very fine relationship with them.

And what she really meant was this, if I go back home, then I'm moved out of the mainstream of what's going on.

I think a part of the success that we've had here- If I could, be so bold as to say that we've been relatively successful, a great deal of credit is due her for the input that she's provided and the manner in which she's been able to relate with the State College family period, and certainly with the students here at this institution.

We have two sons, one young man, our oldest son, Irwin Maceo, who finished Morehouse College in Atlanta this past May.

And he's presently involved in a junior executive training program, First National Bank of, Atlanta.

We have a young son, Robert, who's 13, at home.

And of course, we, live the usual life, I guess, of a family of three.

We miss Maceo.

Robert is there, he keeps all of us active with other kids in and out of the, in and out of the house.

> That's our film profile of Dr.

M. Maceo Nance.

Dr.

Nance, of course, is with us in the studio.

Dr.

Nance, looking at that film profile, the progress you've made at South Carolina State is certainly evident to all our viewers.

And producer Tom Fowler told me that in filming that profile that you on occasion referred to yourself as kind of a renegade president.

What did you mean by that, sir?

Dr.

Nance> Really what I meant was that my mode of operation is perhaps a bit different from some of my colleagues.

I think perhaps, I like to consider myself as being perhaps more accessible than any of the colleagues, any of my colleagues that I know.

I'm not... above still attempting to do some of the kinds of things that students still wish to do.

I like to go down and shoot pool occasionally, and I play a little table tennis.

I like to wear some of the kinds of clothes that they're wearing.

I can't go to the extreme.

And perhaps some of them think I do, but I like to give it a whirl.

My whole mode of operation is perhaps a little different.

I don't see the presidents as a big deal.

Perhaps 20 or 30 years ago, yes.

But, I see the role that I play as being important, but no more important than any other entity, including students, to the institution.

And, we look upon it as being as having an opportunity to provide service.

And anytime any of us, feel that we are there for anything other than that, then we are in trouble.

Gene> You had a very pleasant year, with your intercollegiate athletics program, particularly football.

You turned your season around from, one-nine to, what, seven-three and one.

Dr.

Nance> Seven-three and one.

Yes.

Tom Fowler has a few questions for you, Dr.

Nance.

> Dr.

Nance, you've been involved and worked at State since you graduated in 1949, I'm sure you've had other offers to leave.

But why have you stayed all those years?

Made it your entire life, a full career?

Dr.

Nance> Well, it's an interesting story, to be perfectly frank with you, initially, I didn't wish to go to State, and, my father indicated to me, you go for a year, and then we'll see about sending you to Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.

And I had identified Lincoln solely because I had, a couple of friends who were going to Lincoln.

But after having stayed there a year, I don't think bulldozers could carry me any place else.

I fell in love with the place and eventually fell in love with one of the young ladies of the community.

And, it's been good to me, and, I just haven't had any desire to go anyplace else.

I've been one of the more fortunate ones.

It's been indicated earlier that I made some progress there in respect to the positions which I have held.

And once you become involved in an institution, you like to... you have dreams and you if you have an opportunity to provide some meaningful input and to contribute something, then, you wish to stay associated with it, then, this is what I wish to do.

I get a funny feeling when, I'm offered, jobs at other places, having been there all of my adult life and hopefully, I will remain there until I retire.

Tom> How much has changed at South Carolina State since you were a student in 1949, till today?

Dr.

Nance> Well, a considerable amount has changed, as is the case with any, institution of higher learning.

Every aspect of the college has changed as it relates to the guidelines which students themselves operate under, as it relates to the curriculum.

It's been strengthened.

It's been broadened.

We have, almost a different approach to most everything that, we do is, you know, we've gone through a period of change.

Some of the changes I think have been good and some of the changes I think have been bad.

And frankly, I think the time will come very shortly when, we will go back to some of the things that we've changed, and not just South Carolina State College, I think all institutions of higher learning.

We made some changes too fast, trying to accommodate ourselves and trying to accommodate our students.

But I think eventually some of the things that we're doing, we've already determined were in the best interest of the institution and it's family.

And I think we'll go back to doing some of those old things.

Gene> Dr.

Nance, in talking about changes at South Carolina State and in higher education in general- I know for many years, public relations, projects at the college had convinced parents and students that almost everyone should attend college to get a degree.

And I think we're seeing a change now.

What are your feelings on that?

On... getting youngsters, not ill-placed in college, but into programs that they're perhaps more suited for and perhaps will, do better in life.

> Well, this is a position that, anyone involved in education, as I am involved, could not take exception to necessarily.

But, when I relate to South Carolina State College and the majority of its students, I have to go back a little further.

Historically, students that we were exposed to at South Carolina State College, it had been ingrained in us that in order for us to be successful, it was necessary to get a college degree, by virtue of the structures in our society.

Anything less than that, we would not be prepared or not be in position to gain meaningful employment in anything.

Now, to, some degree, this is still the case among Blacks in particular.

And I think to change that, it's going to take a considerable amount of counseling, perhaps starting back as far as a junior high school or even further.

It's true, there are some students who would be better placed in some other kinds of post-high school education work.

But, there's still some vestiges in our society, where some of our students, namely the Black students, have to be doubly qualified to get jobs that other members of our society can get with less education.

Gene> Dr.

Nance, as a parent, with, three daughters, two of them soon to be in college, I'm concerned about the high cost of higher education.

What are your feelings on, ways to... either cut costs of higher education and ways to get more support and more financial support to students who want to and should go to college?

Dr.

Nance> It's a very interesting question, and if I knew the exact answers to that, I would be very pleased.

But I would, I won't hesitate to comment on it.

All of us as parents have experienced the same kind of difficulty in terms of meeting the high cost of college for our kids.

Certainly, we think that the state, our states, as it relates to our institution, has a responsibility as long as the philosophy of education in terms of who ought be educated remains the same in our country.

We are a country that believes that everyone should have this opportunity.

This isn't true throughout the world.

I think it's good.

As long as we maintain that philosophy, then I think it's incumbent upon those as it relates to a state related institution and even a private, where citizens have some responsibility for the support of them, that whatever the cost may be, that these institutions ought be maintained and as many, individuals in our society who meet minimum qualifications ought to have that exposure.

Because we definitely believe that the greatness of this country, has been brought about by the education of its people.

You know, the old common saying "People need education like bread."

Now, the institutions themselves have no more control over the increased cost than you or I, have any more control over the other things in our society, that are increasing in cost.

And, I think it important that the general public accept that.

It's just not the institutions themselves, but the cost increasing in our society and certainly I think if you were to make a comparison, the cost in our institutions have not increased as fast as other things in our society have increased, including food.

Gene> Dr.

Nance, what lies ahead for South Carolina State in the future in the way of programs or your long range plans for the school?

Gene> Dr.

Nance, we're about out of time.

We'll have to have a thirty second or so- Dr.

Nance> I think the future's bright, as I indicated earlier, I think that, the college is just beginning to take its rightful place in the higher education structure in this state.

And we are hopeful that, our programs will broaden and the quality of them will reach such a point, that South Carolina State College will be known all over this country for the kind of quality program that it has to offer to its citizens and to those who are not citizens necessarily of the state, who are desirous of attending our institution.

Gene> Dr.

Nance, very well said.

And with that, I'm afraid our time is up.

We want to thank you very much for being our guest on Profile .

Our thanks also to Tom Fowler, producer of Profile .

Our guest tonight, Dr.

M. Maceo Nance, the President of South Carolina State College.

I'm Gene Upright, reminding you to tune in next week at the same time when our guest on Profile will be Senator James Waddell of Beaufort.

Goodnight.

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