Denmark Technical College, the only historically Black technical college in South Carolina, has faced significant financial and leadership challenges over the past few decades. Following significant declines in enrollment and financial stability throughout the 2010s, the state of South Carolina placed the HBCU under direct control of the state’s Technical College System in 2017. Just two years later, enrollment dropped to 400 students – down from 2,300 in 2009. As a result, the technical college was almost converted into a career center, but the plan was ultimately dropped. That same year, the school was also placed on probation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.
In 2020, Denmark Technical College appointed Willie Todd, Jr. as the institution’s next president. Within the first year of his presidency, the college’s probationary status was lifted. Dr. Todd also helped to increase the HBCU’s fundraising and revenue and improve enrollment, retention, and graduation rates. However, Dr. Todd recently stepped down from his role to assume the presidency of Talladega College, an HBCU in Alabama.
Now, as Denmark Technical College works to build on its recent improvements, the college has encountered another roadblock in funding. According to a report from the South Carolina Daily Gazette, Denmark Technical College has been denied state funding to put toward a new $35 million cybersecurity, energy, and healthcare building.
In the state’s initial budget proposal, the South Carolina House of Representatives outlined plans to provide Denmark Technical College with $2.3 million for the project. However, the final version of the budget, effective July 1, allocated zero dollars.
“If the state won’t fund it, how are you going to grow the program,” South Carolina Representative Justin Bamberg told the SC Daily Gazette. “No one is going to pay money to go to a tech school that has old technology. In today’s day and age, nobody wants to go to a run-down college.”
