President Jeffrey Docking has helped cut the academic budget by 13% without a layoff, all while launching 38 new academic programs in five years.

AI's cultural integration across offices and classrooms may lead more students and faculty to demand "emotionally aware tech."

Shrinking state funding in the 1970s forced colleges to shift costs to students, ending the era of widespread tuition-free higher education. Expanded federal student loans then helped drive tuition sharply higher, according to History.

An unmanned underwater research vehicle, an event center to train hospitality students and an institute centered around federal defense research are among items on South Carolina colleges' budget wish list for the coming year.