[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 64 (Monday, May 22, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Page S4232]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                S. 2581

 Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, I am pleased to cosponsor 
legislation introduced by Senator Sessions, S. 2581, the Historically 
Women's Public Colleges or Universities Historic Building Restoration 
and Preservation Act.
  There were seven historic women's public colleges or universities 
founded in the United States between 1884 and 1908 to provide 
industrial and vocational education for women who at the time, could 
not attend other public academic institutions. These schools are now 
coeducational but retain some of the significant historical and 
academic features of those pioneering efforts to educate women.
  Let me take this time to tell you about one of these schools, 
Winthrop University, located in South Carolina. Winthrop's history 
dates back to 1886 when 21 students gathered in a borrowed one-room 
building in Columbia, S.C. David Bancroft Johnson, a dedicated and 
gifted superintendent of schools, headed up the fledgling institution 
whose mission was the education of teachers. Winthrop has changed 
considerably since moving to its permanent Rock Hill, S.C. home in 
1895, growing from a single classroom to a comprehensive university of 
distinction. The institution became coeducational in 1974 and assumed 
university designation in 1992.
  Like similar institutions founded as historically women's colleges 
and universities, the Winthrop University campus hosts numerous 
historic buildings--buildings that are expensive to adapt and/or 
maintain for modern-day uses essential to public higher education in 
the 21st century. Also, like similar institutions, many of Winthrop's 
alumni were women of modest means who were unable to make the kind of 
substantial private donations that would have enabled the University to 
build a strong endowment throughout its history. Nonetheless, this 
campus is significant and is worthy of federal support to assure that 
its distinctive role in U.S. history is not lost.

                          ____________________