THE OPPORTUNITY

The Wofford College Board of Trustees and Wofford College community seek in their 12th president a visionary, highly engaged, student-focused and deeply committed servant leader. The next president of Wofford College will bring a significant record of success in executive leadership, a strong affinity for the liberal arts educational experience, a focus on Wofford’s mission and core values, and the desire to be a valued and visible member of the community.

THE COLLEGE

Mission

Wofford’s mission is to provide a superior liberal arts education that prepares students for extraordinary and positive contributions to a global society. The focus of Wofford’s mission is upon fostering commitment to excellence in character, performance, leadership, service to others and lifelong learning. Wofford strives for sustainability in all aspects of college life through respect for the environment and through our core values.

Core values

Wofford College is committed to these core values, which reflect both the United Methodist tradition of the college and values common to faith-based and secular philosophies:

  • Collaborative teaching and learning
  • Freedom of inquiry
  • Academic excellence
  • Intellectual curiosity
  • Critical thinking
  • Integrity
  • Community and global engagement
  • Diversity and inclusiveness
  • Sustainability

Overview and history

Wofford College, established in 1854, is a four-year, residential liberal arts college located in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The college is nationally known for its outstanding faculty, study abroad participation, successful and supportive graduates, and commitment to making college affordable and accessible; 99% of students receive some form of financial assistance. The college’s 195-acre campus, located within walking distance of Spartanburg’s thriving downtown, is home to about 1,800 undergraduates. In addition to a rigorous academic program and experiential learning opportunities (study abroad, career preparation, research and community-based learning), Wofford students enjoy NCAA Division I athletics, fraternity and sorority life and a creative visual and performing arts scene.

Eleven presidents have led the college over the past 171 years. What started as a small, regional campus with Main Building, five original faculty homes (most of which are still in use today) and seven students has grown to encompass faculty and students from across the globe, an expanded original campus footprint and satellite learning and research hubs in Spartanburg’s Northside and Glendale.

Wofford College held its first classes in Main Building in 1854. The Rev. Benjamin Wofford left a $100,000 bequest in his will to “establish a college of literary, classical and scientific education” to be located in Spartanburg County under the control and management of the Methodist Church. At the time, it was one of the largest financial contributions made to American higher education. Wofford’s generosity was made possible by his first and second wives, Anna Todd Wofford and Maria Barron Wofford; both were women of means who valued education.

Throughout war, the Great Depression, a pandemic and periods of societal unrest, Wofford College and the greater community of students, faculty, staff, trustees, alumni and friends have been resilient and committed to the college’s mission and core values. Phi Beta Kappa, the country’s oldest academic honor society, established a charter at Wofford College in 1940, recognizing the college’s emphasis on academic excellence. Wofford began admitting Black students in the mid 1960s, becoming the first private college in the state to do so, and women joined the community as residential students in the mid 1970s.

Other highlights of the college’s history include the development of Interim (an experiential-learning January term), the move to NCAA Division I athletics, the successful application for a technology and capital grant from the Franklin W. Olin Foundation, the construction of the senior village apartments and the infrastructure expansion and enhancements of the past decade, including the construction of the Rosalind Sallenger Richardson Center for the Arts, the Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium, the Stewart H. Johnson Greek Village, Jerome Johnson Richardson Hall and the Chandler Center for Environmental Studies. In 2021, the late Jerry Richardson, a 1959 Wofford graduate and founder of the NFL’s Carolina Panthers, gave the college $150 million, boosting the endowment, increasing the minimum wage on campus, providing a maintenance fund for Richardson-named buildings and funding need-based aid for experiential learning and scholarships.

For more information about the college’s history by era or to follow the student-led walking tour, visit wofford.edu/about/wofford-history.

Academics

As a premier liberal arts college, Wofford remains dedicated to providing students with an education that is both comprehensive and deeply rooted in the traditions linking a Wofford education with the curricula of the great universities that proliferated in Europe during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. The general education program continues to offer a wide range of subjects while also focusing on the fundamental skills of close reading, clear writing and critical reasoning — skills that are highly valued in the job market. At the same time, the curriculum equips students for the pluralistic society they will encounter upon graduation. Wofford’s over 80 academic majors, minors, programs and concentrations offer students the chance to explore topics in depth while gaining a breadth of knowledge that allows students to make connections across disciplines. Increasingly, students, their families, prospective employers and graduate school admissions officers expect graduates from top colleges like Wofford to have engaged in a variety of important co-curricular activities, including:

RESEARCH WITH FACULTY MENTORS

Wofford’s Student-Faculty Collaborative Summer Research program supports the work of student-faculty teams across dozens of disciplines. Students also conduct summer research across the globe.

STUDY AWAY

At a time when the national trend for long-term study abroad has shifted in favor of shorter-term experiences, Wofford has seen an increase in both semester-long and short-term study abroad with partner organizations during the January Interim. Short-term facultyled programs remain popular as well. In the most recent Open Doors Report, Wofford ranked No. 6 nationally for the percentage of students who study abroad for academic credit.

THE CAREER CENTER

The Career Center focuses on helping students translate their classroom experiences into descriptions of resume-worthy skills and opportunities for further career exploration. Increasingly, the Career Center engages Wofford alumni to provide greater internship and networking opportunities. In collaboration with the Rev. Dr. Ron Robinson ’78, Perkins-Prothro Chaplain and Professor of Religion, and faculty members, Wofford applied for and received a three-year Vocation Across the Academy Grant from the Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education, which focuses on integrating vocational discernment into undergraduate education.

COMMUNITY-BASED LEARNING

Wofford has developed partnerships with more than 25 local community organizations. Students prepare tax returns for low-income local families; offer programming for older adults through the Intergenerational Fellows program; teach local elementary-age children to grow, harvest and prepare food; and volunteer with St. Luke’s Free Medical Clinic, to name a few. Wofford is also a Bonner Scholar campus, providing a cohort of students who serve and learn in exchange for scholarship assistance. Central to community-based learning initiatives is the Milliken Sustainability Initiative, a $4.25 million grant that created a sustainability living learning community in the Northside area of Spartanburg and provided funding for two faculty members who work with students using the college’s connections with the Northside and Glendale communities to explore, teach and promote environmental and human sustainability.

Fast facts

1,781 undergraduates, representing 42 states and 18 countries. 11:1 student-to-faculty ratio; average class size of 17 students.

  • 52% women; 48% men.
  • 13% first-generation students; 19% Pell-eligible.
  • Affiliation with the United Methodist Church means the college welcomes students from more than 20 faith perspectives. Wofford is a leader in interfaith initiatives.
  • 20 NCAA Division I athletics teams.
  • About 55% of students participate in one of the college’s 13 fraternities or sororities.
  • Nearly 100 chartered student organizations and clubs, including an active Campus Union student government. + 195-acre campus within walking distance of downtown Spartanburg.
  • 99% of students receive some form of financial aid; the average financial aid package exceeds $49,000.
  • 98% of graduates report positive career outcomes (employment, graduate school, military service, internships, volunteer placement) within six months of graduation. More than 35% continue their education; popular graduate paths include healthcare, science, law and business.
  • Retention rate (first year to second year) is 91%.
  • The four-year graduation rate is almost 81%.
  • Student-athletes make up about 23% of the student body.
  • 10 residence halls and six dining locations on campus.
  • 90% of students live on campus all four years.

Student success

When first-year students arrive on campus, they are met at their cars by a cheering Orientation team that within minutes has new students celebrated and moved into their rooms. Wofford does the heavy lifting. The support continues as each student meets a success team that includes a faculty academic advisor, staff guide, personal librarian and student peer leader. The first several months of the semester include opportunities to find community with interest fairs, block parties, events such as Blessing of the Books and an inspiring Opening Convocation. A robust Campus Life and Student Development team leads these efforts.

Because student success is foundational to the academic program as well, the college has intentionally developed an array of academic support services. The Sandor Teszler Library, the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, Academic Advising, the Office of the Registrar, Information Technology Services, Academic Grants, Institutional Research, the co-curricular partners in the Mungo Exchange (the Office of International Programs, Undergraduate Research and Post-graduate Fellowships, the Career Center and the Center for Community-Based Learning) and the Office of Student Success are all staffed with individuals who support teachers and learners.

The faculty

The college has 151 full-time and 30 part-time faculty members for a total of 181 teachers, mentors and scholars. At Wofford, faculty teach all classes; there are no graduate assistants. The faculty is led by the Willimon Family Provost and Professor and three associate provosts who manage the curriculum and co-curriculum, administration and faculty development.

The faculty of Wofford College are first and foremost effective teachers, which assumes active engagement in scholarship. According to the college’s faculty handbook, “Teaching is more than the transfer of information or knowledge; it includes the development of abilities to create, to question appropriately, to learn and discover independently, to integrate and to apply information, to think and communicate clearly and precisely, to know excellence in human achievement and to enjoy learning. Faculty are expected to attend to all these objectives.”

As stakeholders, the faculty determine the curriculum and help govern the college. They also provide service to the college in the form of committee work and academic advising. The faculty’s commitment to Wofford students and this institution provides the backbone of Wofford College, and alumni unfailingly list the faculty as a primary reason for their affinity for the college.

Athletics

In the early 1900s, Wofford College athletics teams chose the Boston Terrier as their mascot. The small but tenacious and fierce dog is full of intelligence and energy, making it an ideal mascot for one of the smallest colleges to compete in NCAA Division I athletics.

Wofford College supports 20 teams and is a member of the Southern Conference.

  • Men’s sports: baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, indoor track and field, outdoor track and field, soccer and tennis
  • Women’s sports: basketball, cross country, golf, indoor track and field, lacrosse, outdoor track and field, soccer, softball, tennis and volleyball
  • Co-educational sport: Rifle

The college boasts one of the highest student-athlete graduation rates in the country and is competitive across the board, with recent SoCon team championships in volleyball, women’s basketball, men’s basketball and baseball and individual championships in track and field and cross country. The men’s basketball team has made three trips to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament in the past decade.

OTHER RECENT SUCCESSES INCLUDE:

SOUTHERN CONFERENCE SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD
For the 10th time, Wofford was honored with the 2024- 25 D.S. McAlister Award, presented to the Southern Conference school that is judged to have exhibited the highest degree of sportsmanship in the conduct of its athletics program.

ACADEMIC SUCCESS
In 2024-25, Wofford had 314 student-athletes named to the Southern Conference Academic Honor Roll and 83 student-athletes named to the Academic All-Conference team, both of which were records for the college. There were 29 Terriers with a perfect 4.0 GPA this academic year, also a record.

NCAA APR SCORES
The NCAA released the latest Academic Progress Rate (APR) results in August, and 13 of the 20 teams at the college were above the Division I institutional average of 984. The Wofford men’s cross country, women’s basketball, men’s tennis, women’s tennis, women’s soccer, softball, volleyball and rifle teams earned scores of 1,000, the most of any SoCon institution.

THE PRESIDENCY OF WOFFORD COLLEGE

Wofford College is seeking an innovative visionary leader to become the 12th president of this extraordinary institution of higher learning. The next president will bring a passionate commitment to the value and importance of the liberal arts and have a proven record of success in senior leadership in higher education and/or a complex organization. A terminal degree is preferred but not required.

Strategic opportunities

Key strategic opportunities for the next president of Wofford College include:

  • Articulate clearly and passionately Wofford’s momentum and many successes, as well as its mission, core values, community strength and value proposition, to increase brand visibility and meet enrollment goals.
  • Build upon Wofford’s positive trajectory of endowment growth, financial sustainability and budget surpluses, strategic enrollment growth, and fundraising success.
  • Prepare for the public phase of a comprehensive fundraising campaign to boost endowment growth and support of the people, places and programs that will establish Wofford College among top-tier national liberal arts colleges. That work will involve a focus on:
    • Overall external resource development.
    • Major gift cultivation and solicitation.
    • Corporate and foundation partnerships.
    • Community engagement, particularly with all alumni, parents, friends and other potential supporters of the college.
  • Invest strategically and thoughtfully in academic programmatic offerings that benefit students, yield market value now and in the future, and align with Wofford’s mission and core values.
  • Partner with a talented and deeply committed board of trustees to innovate, envision and prepare for the future while also celebrating Wofford’s rich history and traditions.
  • Navigate the increasingly complex and unpredictable landscape of NCAA Division I athletics, supporting studentathletes, coaches and athletics staff while managing the challenges of resource allocation.
  • Continue to model the college’s culture as a highly visible, student-centered leader who is an engaged and active member of the Wofford, Spartanburg and South Carolina communities.
  • Continue to build scholarship support for students, professional development opportunities for faculty and staff, and a fully diverse and accessible community of learning — with opportunities for all both inside and outside the classroom — that will lead to the transformative experiences, lifelong bonds and postgraduate outcomes for which Wofford is known.
  • Celebrate and promote the enhancement of the full student experience, including academic rigor in the classroom, co-curricular experiential learning (study abroad, career exploration, research and community-based learning), sorority and fraternity life, student-led clubs and activities, health and wellness services, creative outlets, and athletics participation.
  • Engage and leverage a dedicated and loyal alumni base to advance the Wofford brand, attract students and increase community support.

Qualifications and attributes

Following are additional expectations for the successful candidate:

  • Dedication to academic quality and intellectual rigor that will strengthen Wofford’s already distinctive reputation and ensure graduates are prepared for life, learning and work in a global society.
  • Familiarity with artificial intelligence and other technological changes that will alter the learning process and the way colleges operate.
  • An unwavering commitment to academic freedom and the free expression of ideas.
  • Evidence of a highly functional partnership with a governing board.
  • A track record of successful leadership in strategic planning and implementation.
  • A record of successful major gift/endowment fundraising or the aptitude for this vital area.
  • Strong business and financial acumen and a record of effective fiscal management.
  • Will “join” Wofford and embrace the unusually strong culture and affinity that members of the Wofford family experience.
  • A commitment to be active in the Spartanburg area and to form partnerships that benefit the college and city.
  • An appreciation for the importance of competitive athletics and its role in Wofford’s co-curricular program, with an understanding of the changes sweeping NCAA Division I athletics.
  • A commitment to collaborate with colleagues to expand Wofford’s recruiting footprint and increase the percentage of students underrepresented in higher education.
  • An energetic, approachable style that relates well to students, faculty, staff, trustees, alumni, parents and families, donors, elected officials, and community members from a wide set of backgrounds.
  • A relationship and “bridge builder,” someone who is trustworthy and authentic, who can consider a variety of generational and constituent group viewpoints and act with integrity, decisiveness and courage based on the college’s mission and core values.
  • A superb communicator and listener. + A highly visible presence on campus and a regular at college events.
  • Experience navigating the regulatory changes facing higher education today.

PRESIDENTIAL legacies

DR. PHILLIP STONE ’94 AND JO ANN MITCHELL BRASINGTON ’89

Today, according to the American Council on Education, the average college or university president’s tenure lasts less than six years; 20 years ago, the average was 8.5 years. Over its 171-year history, Wofford College has had 11 presidents, and the search is underway for the 12th.

Each president responded to changing times, and each — from Henry Nelson Snyder, the longest serving who led for 40 years, to Paul Hardin, who served for only four — left an imprint on the campus and culture. Their legacies live on.

William M. Wightman 1854-1859

A minister, professor, fundraiser, newspaper editor, friend of Ben Wofford and founding chairman of the Wofford College Board of Trustees, Wightman was a huge influence on Benjamin Wofford’s decision to use his estate to found a college. He also ensured that Wofford’s wishes were fulfilled.

Wightman’s legacy includes service on the trustee building committee, and with strong Charleston connections, he probably had more to do with the selection of Charleston architect Edward C. Jones as architect of Main Building than any other member of the committee. Undoubtedly the words in the Methodist Advocate editorials describing the plans for Main Building were his. Wightman gave the keynote address during the laying of the Main Building cornerstone on July 4, 1851.

He helped choose the first faculty and welcomed the first students. He raised the first scholarship funds for the college, traveling throughout South Carolina to do so. During his five years as president, Wightman signed 33 diplomas.

Dr. David Duncan Wallace, an early faculty member, described Wightman as “a man of vigorous, even powerful physique, and, we may add, of vigorous, even powerful emotions.” A colleague at the Advocate said of him, “There was a volcano in his breast.”

The college was on firm footing when Wightman left in 1859 to serve as chancellor of Southern University in Greensboro, Ala.

Albert M. Shipp 1859-1875

Shipp led Wofford through the American Civil War and Reconstruction. He was a Methodist minister and historian of Methodism. He served on the college’s board of trustees and was on the faculty at the University of North Carolina before accepting the presidency.

Shipp had been president for just over a year when war began, and he found himself presiding over a rapidly shrinking student body. By the fall of 1861, there were barely a dozen students on campus. Shipp, the other professors and the trustees had to bend to changing circumstances to keep the college open, and over the next three years, only the preparatory students kept the doors from closing. At the end of the war, the college had $85,000 in Confederate bonds, $1,200 in currency and $17,000 in bank stock, all of which was worthless. The Methodist Conference made it possible for the college to pay faculty during the next few lean years, and alumni pledged to rebuild the ruined endowment.

Shipp’s administration saw the first fraternities formed, when Kappa Alpha Order, Chi Psi and Chi Phi came to campus. Religious revivalism was strong, and students organized in 1868 what would eventually become the campus YMCA. Students played the first baseball games on campus during Reconstruction, supposedly with federal soldiers stationed in Spartanburg.

In 1875, Shipp resigned the presidency and moved to Vanderbilt to teach in the theological department.

James H. Carlisle 1875-1902

Carlisle was elected professor of mathematics at Wofford in 1853 and moved into what is now the Carlisle-Wallace House, where he lived for the next 50 years, including during his tenure as president.

Carlisle made the education of his students, and particularly their moral education, his top priority. Though he was officially professor of mathematics and astronomy, he preferred to teach morals and religion. Each student at some point in his time at Wofford was invited to spend the evening at Carlisle’s home.

The college gradually moved out of a period of financial peril, though by no means did it become a prosperous institution. Student life in the Carlisle era revolved around the literary societies. The literary magazine, The Journal, was established in 1889, beginning a tradition of student publications at the college. Fraternities grew more active, with Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Kappa Sigma and Pi Kappa Alpha joining the campus before 1900. Intercollegiate athletics began in earnest around 1886.

Carlisle submitted his resignation as president to the trustees in 1901, but it was a year later before they finally accepted it and named his successor. He remained a part of the campus for seven more years, speaking in chapel and visiting with alumni who dropped by his home. When he died on Oct. 21, 1909, his funeral was attended by some 5,000 people, including students, alumni, ministers and townspeople.

Henry Nelson Snyder 1902-1942

When Snyder arrived at Wofford in the fall of 1890 to teach English, he found a campus that looked older than its 36 years. Many of the homes and buildings looked worn and neglected, and the unpaved sidewalks turned to mud with the smallest amount of rain. When he became president, he raised funds to build and refurbish buildings, including Main Building. Cleveland Science Hall, the Whitefoord Smith Library (now the Daniel Building) and Carlisle Hall were all constructed early in Snyder’s tenure.

Snyder led the college through World War I and the Great Depression and into World War II. Considered his crowning achievement, Phi Beta Kappa was chartered at the college in 1940. The student body more than doubled in size during his tenure. His legacy includes bringing academic rigor and respectability to the college. He’s considered the college’s first modern president because he was known for embracing his administrative responsibilities, raising funds and having an excellent relationship with the faculty, the state’s Methodist clergy and trustees.

Snyder was present in 1939 when the northern and southern branches of Methodism united and was involved in producing the first hymnal for the denomination, published prior to reunification.

He played a quiet but influential role in the selection of Walter K. Greene, who graduated from Wofford in 1903, as the college’s fifth president.

Walter K. Greene 1942-1951

A 1903 Wofford graduate, Greene is the only alumnus to serve as president. He was also the first president to live in the current president’s home.

As a student, Greene wrote articles for The Journal literary magazine and was a left-handed second baseman on a state-championship baseball team. He had a .300 batting average in his last three seasons. Greene earned his doctoral degree at Harvard and was on the Duke University faculty before returning to Wofford as president.

Greene guided the college through World War II and the Army’s use of the campus as a training facility. He also prepared the college for the rapid growth of the student body after the war, helping develop “The Wofford of To-Morrow” master plan that called for significant improvements to college facilities. In addition to reviving and expanding the endowment, the plan proposed construction of new academic, science and student activities buildings as well as an honor society and fraternity hall, a chapel and two new residence halls. The plan also called for an expanded library, a swimming pool, the renovation of Main Building and improvements to the campus grounds. The total campaign goal was $1.5 million, but a series of controversial events involving Methodist higher education took the college’s focus away from the strategic plan. One of those controversies involved the merger of the state’s Methodist-related colleges. For two years, from 1948 to 1950, Greene served as president of both Wofford and Columbia College.

F. Pendleton Gaines Jr. 1952-1957

The youngest man to serve as president of Wofford, Gaines grew up on college campuses. His maternal grandfather was the dean of the school of agriculture, and his father was a member of the Mississippi A&M faculty, eventually teaching at Furman University and Wake Forest College. Gaines’ father went on to become president of Wake Forest and Washington and Lee University.

After declining a foreign service appointment, Gaines, who had served in the military, earned his doctoral degree, taught, then accepted a position as dean of students at Southern Methodist University before being selected as Wofford’s president. In his memoirs, he expressed admiration for Wofford College, its academic standing, financial position and traditions, but he found the faculty to be overly conservative and resistant to change. He also found it difficult to understand or relate to the alumni and Methodist communities. He did, however, work well with students, trustees and the state’s business community. Perhaps his greatest achievement as president was cultivating Roger Milliken’s interest in the college. Milliken became a trustee in 1955 and served four terms (48 years) on the board, transforming the physical campus.

The college celebrated its centennial during Gaines’ second year as president, and he launched a centennial development campaign to increase alumni giving. The college’s original fraternity row and one new residence hall were planned and constructed during Gaines’ administration.

Charles F. Marsh 1958-1968

Marsh, an active Methodist layman, was on the economics faculty at the College of William & Mary, serving as dean of the faculty when he was called to Wofford’s presidency.

Marsh and Wofford’s trustees realized that the impending arrival of the baby boomer generation gave the college an opportunity to grow the student body to 1,000 students, and they embarked on a plan to improve academic quality and enhance the college’s buildings and grounds. They began by constructing a new science building and renovating Main Building. Shipp and DuPré halls — the first residences to have air conditioning — opened in 1962 and 1963. Planning for Marsh Hall, Burwell Building and the Sandor Teszler Library occupied the end of Marsh’s term; they opened the year after he retired.

Beginning in the fall of 1963, Marsh and trustees began to consider desegregation. Most of the college’s constituencies — the alumni, the church and donors — were divided on the issue. The faculty strongly supported integration. After several months of study and deliberation, trustees announced that the college’s admissions policy would be “applicable to all students, regardless of race or creed.” The decision led to both praise and condemnation, but the college, under Marsh’s leadership, did not retreat from or hesitate in implementing the decision.

In Marsh’s last years in office, the college developed the Interim program — at the time the most significant curricular change in decades.

Paul Hardin III 1968-1972

Hardin was an attorney and professor of law at Duke University, who also worked in U.S. Army counterintelligence, before becoming president of Wofford.

He promoted adoption of an open speaker policy that allowed an invitation to be extended to any speaker if that person agreed to answer questions from students; that policy still stands. A new Campus Union replaced the old student senate, and students wrote a new constitution and created a new student judicial system. Hardin and trustees modified the college’s alcohol policy to allow students of legal age to consume alcohol on campus. This decision generated more mail than any decision since desegregation. Hardin explained to parents and others that the decision was part of a plan to place greater responsibility in the hands of students. “Ratting” ended, and student publications such as the Old Gold and Black became more critical of the administration.

Hardin continued efforts begun during the Marsh administration to desegregate the student body. He hired the first African-American administrator, Bob Leach, as assistant dean of students, and the admission office began to recruit African-American students more actively. The college also scheduled its first athletics contests with historically black colleges during his tenure. While women had occasionally attended Wofford, Hardin’s administration saw the first steps toward coeducation. In 1971, the college began admitting women as day students.

Joab M. “Joe” Lesesne Jr. 1972-2000

Lesesne came to Wofford in 1964 as assistant professor of history and quickly rose through the ranks as the first coordinator of Interim, assistant dean, director of development and dean of the college before becoming president.

In October 1975, the trustees voted to approve full residential coeducation. In less than 15 years, Wofford had moved from a segregated, single-gender institution with paternalistic governance of student life to a coeducational, integrated, modern college. Some alumni and other constituents of the college found these changes unsettling, and the Lesesne administration worked during the 1970s to ease these tensions.

The Lesesne era saw the construction of the Campus Life Building (now the Mungo Student Center), the Neofytos D. Papadopoulos Building, the Franklin W. Olin Building and two new residence halls. In 1995, the college moved into NCAA Division I, joining the Southern Conference in 1997. The Richardson Physical Activities Building, Gibbs Stadium, a renovated Snyder Field and the Reeves Tennis Center were all constructed in the latter years of the Lesesne presidency. During Lesesne’s tenure, the college became the home of the NFL’s Carolina Panthers training camp.

His early years on campus saw a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, which the faculty used to devise a new humanities curriculum. Lesesne brought a new level of respect to the college within state and national legislative and higher education circles.

Benjamin B. “Bernie” Dunlap 2000-2013

Dunlap was a Rhodes Scholar, Harvard University graduate and Fulbright Senior Lecturer in Thailand. He was a member of the inaugural class of U.S.-Japan Leadership Fellows in Tokyo and was a writerproducer and on-camera talent for South Carolina public television. He performed as soloist and principal dancer for the Columbia City Ballet. Dunlap held academic appointments at Harvard and the University of South Carolina and was active in the Aspen Institute before coming to Wofford as Chapman Family Professor in the Humanities.

When he became president, he continued to write, moderate and lecture widely, expanding Wofford’s reach. Because of his many and varied interests, Dunlap empowered students to develop their interests and cultivate leadership skills. He worked with students to enhance the campus arts and culture scene.

He oversaw the construction of the Michael S. Brown Village Center and the senior village apartments, and the Liberty Fellowship moved its offices to Wofford during his tenure. He brought world-renowned speakers to campus and renovated the Roger Milliken Science Center, the Goodall Environmental Studies Center, the Montgomery Music Building and Main Building, including a restoration of college portraits and the college bell, which began ringing the hour during his presidency. The campus officially became an arboretum, and environmental sustainability and a greener campus became a priority for the first time.

Nayef H. Samhat 2013-2026

When Samhat steps down at the conclusion of the 2025-26 academic year, the college will have undergone another period of major transformation. Under Samhat’s leadership the college completed two strategic visioning processes and a $470 million comprehensive fundraising campaign that saw the construction of the Rosalind Sallenger Richardson Center for the Arts, the Stewart H. Johnson Greek Village, the Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium, the Chandler Center for Environmental Studies and Jerome Johnson Richardson Hall. More recent construction includes Hope Field (softball), the Wofford House in the Northside Station and the new Wofford College Bookstore.

Every residence hall has been renovated during Samhat’s tenure, and other major renovations include the Mungo Student Center, Sandor Teszler Library, Burwell Building dining hall, the Blackwell-Quattlebaum Center for Wellness and Counseling Services, the Richardson Physical Activities Building, the Keisler Family Building in the Reeves Tennis Center and the Kang Center. Wofford added women’s lacrosse and softball, and enrollment grew strategically from 1,600 to 1,800 students. Student applications continue to break records, the academic profile for entering classes has improved and the college is more selective.

The endowment has increased to more than $500 million, providing additional opportunities for students to experience all that Wofford offers, and the college’s net assets have grown during Samhat’s presidency from under $200 million at the start to almost $702 million in 2025.