Posted on
Mon, Apr. 12, 2004, The State Newspaper
Swinton to mark decade of change for Benedict
A TRANSFORMATION IS under way in Columbia, with Benedict
College at its heart.
This revitalization took another step forward last
week as the Tigers broke ground on a new football stadium.
The 10,000-seat facility is going up at the intersection
of Read Street and Two Notch Road. The 61-acre site
will be home to the LeRoy T. Walker Health and Wellness
Complex, to include fields for other sports, a swimming
pool, jogging track and playground.
Such complexes have become required offerings on college
campuses. However, the facility represents more for
Benedict, which just reinstated its football program
in the past decade. Benedict is now playing its home
games in a high school stadium, not the best option
for recruiting or for building school spirit and alumni
support.
The sports complex also does what some other Benedict
initiatives have — it breathes new life into an important
corridor into the city, and its surrounding neighborhoods.
Benedict also has bought and renovated homes around
its campus, which were then sold to faculty members
and the community.
These accomplishments are part of the vision of Benedict
President David Swinton, who will complete his 10th
year at the school’s helm later in 2004. The school
celebrated that anniversary last week with a Koger
Center gala. Entertainer Lou Rawls was there along
with some Midlands dignitaries. Proceeds from the gala
will go to a scholarship named in Dr. Swinton’s honor.
His tenure has marked an era of growth for Benedict,
which has more than quadrupled its size from 24 acres
to 110 acres in its revitalized part of town. Academic
programs have grown along with physical dimensions
of the campus. At 3,000, enrollment has more than doubled
from 1,266 in 1993. That makes Benedict one of the
largest and fastest-growing black colleges in the nation.
This fall, Benedict will begin offering its first graduate
degree in business and will institute night courses.
In an interview with The Associated Press concerning
Dr. Swinton, Columbia Mayor Bob Coble lauded the positive
effects on the capital city: “The physical changes
in the neighborhood have just been remarkable. I think
all of it can be attributed to Dr. Swinton. He has
a vision and he sticks to it.” Mayor Coble and other
city leaders say the result has been less crime in
the area and greater livability.
Dr. Swinton, 61, a Harvard-educated economist, told
the AP he never really wanted to be a college president.
The story noted his penchant for hands-on work, which
some may find a bit too direct for their taste. That
is a valid observation, but it is equally true that
a meek approach would not have provided the type of
resolve needed to help Benedict thrive.
Dr. Swinton may not have imagined it for himself,
but he is leaving a lasting legacy in our community.
At his college, a building is already named in his
honor, another tangible mark of his work thus far.
All in all, we find it hard to dispute the words of
1963 Benedict graduate Marlene McClerkin, a mathematics
learning specialist at the college. Remarking on Dr.
Swinton, she told the AP, “He’s the best thing that
ever happened to Benedict.”
