FMU ranked among USN&WR’s top colleges
Francis Marion University was once again ranked among U.S. News & World Report magazine’s top Regional Universities in the South.
The university was recognized as one of the Best Ethnically Diverse Universities in the South for 2018 by U.S. News & World Report.
The magazine carries one of the nation’s oldest college rankings and FMU has been a regular in its category.
Dr. Fred Carter, president of Francis Marion, says the ranking confirms FMU’s commitment to providing a quality education for its students.
“This ranking highlights our continued commitment to scholarship and teaching and is a tribute to the dedication and professionalism of our wonderful faculty,” says Carter.
FMU’s Health Sciences receives federal grants worth $2.8 million
Francis Marion University’s School of Health Sciences has won two federal grants to help enhance and grow programs in the School.
The largest grant, a $1.8 million four-year award to promote workforce diversity, will provide tuition support for 100 students and will also fund a variety of initiatives by the FMU Department of Nursing designed to support those students on their path to a BSN degree from the university.
The second award is designed to improve access to healthcare in medically disadvantaged areas — mostly rural areas — by sending students in FMU’s Family Nurse Practitioner program to such areas for the clinical work. This is a two-year grant worth more than $1 million. It will pay for faculty to oversee the clinical work as well as some equipment and student stipends.
FMU School of Ed selected for pioneering grant
Francis Marion University’s School of Education is one of just four teacher education programs in the country selected to participate in a groundbreaking, new instructional program for teachers, funded by a $724,159 grant from the ECMC Foundation through the prestigious Buck Institute for Education (BIE).
The project is called “Out of the Gate” because it is intended to give brand new teachers the ability to use Project-Based Learning (PBL), a high-level teaching skill, right from the beginning of their career – that is, right out of the gate.
The program will train School of Education faculty members, K-12 cooperating teachers and pre-service (student) teachers to implement PBL in their classrooms, and eventually, to teach their colleagues how to implement PBL.
FMU trustees ratify program additions
Francis Marion University’s Board of Trustees ratified new academic programs for Biology Secondary Education Option, and a Masters of Science degree in Applied Psychology with an emphasis in Applied Behavior Analysis. The new Psychology masters is driven by the university’s ongoing mission to provide the appropriate educational and clinical experiences needed to produce graduates who can serve the diverse needs of the Pee Dee region.
Francis Marion’s Phi Alpha Theta chapter named country’s best
One of Francis Marion University’s most decorated honor societies, the Phi Alpha Theta History honors society, has won yet another national award.
The FMU chapter of Phi Alpha Theta – Alpha Theta Zeta – has become the honor society’s most lauded chapter in in recent years and it recently added two more awards: the Nels Claven Founders Award for best overall chapter in the nation and the National Best Chapter Award for its enrollment division.
It’s the second year in a row FMU’s Phi Alpha Theta chapter has won the Founders Award and the eighth year in the row it’s won the Best Chapter award for its enrollment in a division of 622 other colleges and universities.
