Susan Elkins understands the value of a college degree. She knows what it feels like to grow up in a poor community and be the first person in your family to attend college. She sees the impact a college campus can have on the economy in an underserved area.
She knows these stories because she has lived them.
And in 2013, when the University of South Carolina was looking for someone to create and launch Palmetto College — the program which encompasses USC’s two-year system campuses along with online bachelor’s degree completion programs — Elkins knew the job was meant for her.
“This has been the opportunity of a lifetime because my personal mission and the mission of Palmetto College just go hand in hand,” says Elkins, who stepped down as chancellor on May 15 after 12 years as the founding chancellor of Palmetto College.
It’s a mission with roots that were planted early in Elkins. She grew up in rural Tennessee and was the first in her family to attend college, graduating from Tennessee Tech University before spending 10 years teaching 8th grade math. She also spent three years on career development programs, working to ensure disadvantaged high school students graduated from high school and found a pathway forward. She calls that work “probably the most touching thing I’ve ever done.”
Then she went back to her alma mater, Tennessee Tech, where she started working in continuing education, managing the extended education programs in the school’s 35-county service area before launching the university’s online education efforts.
She was finishing her 25th year there, thinking about next steps, when a search firm contacted her about the USC posting for Palmetto College — a new program that would link the system’s two-year colleges along with setting up degree completion programs for people who had left college before earning their degrees.
“(The search firm) sent me the link and said, ‘Hey, don't know if you're interested or not, but this looks a lot like you,’” Elkins says. “When I saw it, I said there could never be a position that is a better fit for me than this. It's all about what I'm about — giving people opportunities for a high-quality education in accessible ways in their home communities and online.”
She was especially intrigued because the program being created was part of South Carolina’s flagship university.
“The was not just any institution,” Elkins says. “This is the brand in the state of South Carolina that everybody wants. It's the flagship, and they are willing to be out here in these rural communities, serving the underserved, serving those who can't come to Columbia.”
On top of that — what Elkins calls “the second piece of the puzzle” — was the desire to lead the development of an online program that allows students to earn their bachelor’s degree any time, any place.
“This has been the opportunity of a lifetime because my personal mission and the mission of Palmetto College just go hand in hand."
“I’m deeply grateful to the Board of Trustees, President Amiridis and President Emeritus Pastides for their deep commitment to the mission of serving the entire state with multiple locations and delivery methods,” she says. “Additionally, state and community leaders have been instrumental in funding and supporting Palmetto College efforts, and for that we are most appreciative.”
“I'm a builder,” she says. “I love to see things grow, but the bottom line is I'm about access and success. It’s hard to be successful if you don't have accessible, flexible opportunities. And then affordability is certainly a key, especially for any first-generation student.”
Fast-forward 12 years, and Palmetto College is firmly established and thriving, with enrollment growth of 54 percent at the two-year campuses since its inception, from just over 4,200 to over 6,500. The online bachelor’s degree program, which serves students who started but didn’t finish their degrees, has conferred more than 4,000 degrees, including more than 1,200 RN-BSN nursing degrees through USC Upstate.
Palmetto College programs offer a broad range of education opportunities, but have particularly focused on high-demand areas, such as nursing and education. The location of the programs around the state allows students to do their clinical training or student teaching near their homes and start careers in nearby high-need communities.
“We've really tried to focus on meeting the workforce needs in each of these areas of the state and give students the opportunity to get that bachelor's degree — not just the associate, but the bachelor's degree — at home,” she says. “When we started this, it was just a concept. The thing that I'm most proud of is that we did exactly what the concept proposed — very cohesive and very successfully — thanks to the outstanding leadership of the Palmetto College campus deans and their excellent teams at Lancaster, Salkehatchie, Sumter, Union, and Palmetto College Columbia, along with our outstanding vision and collaboration of the chancellors and their teams at Aiken, Beaufort, Columbia and Upstate. Palmetto College is truly a USC System effort, serving the entire Palmetto State.”
The walls of her office are filled with stories of Palmetto College graduates, including a student who walked across the commencement stage at age 90, military service members who were deployed and eventually earned their degrees online, former student-athletes who returned to Palmetto College after or during their professional sports careers, and a working mom whose “gap year” turned into a 23-year break from higher ed before she returned for her degree.
“There's just nothing better than working for the flagship system and knowing that the flagship cared enough to serve students other than those who come here to the Horseshoe,” she says. “We need multiple opportunities to serve all the different populations and meet the needs of students all across the state, regardless of where they're located, their age or any of these other variables. I've loved working in these communities and then developing the online options so that we truly are anywhere, any time for all South Carolinians.”
Highlights from the two-year Palmetto College campuses:
USC Lancaster: Record fall 2024 enrollment of 2,592; ranked the No. 1 two-year campus for eight consecutive years by niche.com; recently awarded a $2.8 million grant to develop the USCL Center for Health Care Workforce Development.
USC Salkehatchie: Secured about $10.5 million in grants and gifts since 2013, including a $1.9 million grant by the U.S. Department of Energy to launch a traveling STEM bus for K-12 students; opened a forensic chemistry lab to provide hands-on experience in forensics-related workforce development.
USC Sumter: Increased enrollment over the past decade with a record 1,804 students enrolled in fall 2024; completed an $11 million renovation of the Science Building; received funding to build a new $33 million facility in partnership with S.C. ETV in the downtown Sumter area to house professional and collaborative bachelor’s degree programs.
USC Union: Student enrollment has nearly tripled, increasing from 484 in 2013 to 1,353 this past fall; the campus footprint has expanded to include building renovations including the new nursing simulation lab and the science and nursing building.
Palmetto College Columbia: Launched the Palmetto Pathway Program in 2019, with 93 percent of students in the 2023-24 cohort admitted to USC Columbia; and revised a Memorandum of Understanding with Fort Jackson to offer online bachelor’s degree programs to military students on post and around the world.