Coastal Carolina University (CCU or Coastal) is a public university in Conway, South Carolina. Founded in 1954 as Coastal Carolina Junior College, and later joining the University of South Carolina System as USC Coastal Carolina, it became an independent university in 1993. The university is a national sea-grant institution and owns part of Waties Island, an Atlantic barrier island that serves as a natural laboratory for CCU's instruction and research. The campus is also the home of the Horry County Schools Scholars Academy, a high school for gifted students. History Coastal Carolina University was founded in 1954 as Coastal Carolina Junior College, a two-year community college, by the Coastal Educational Foundation, a group of citizens who wanted to establish a post-secondary institution in the region. The college originally operated under contract as an extension of the College of Charleston. Classes met at night at Conway High School and were taught by part-time faculty. After the College of Charleston contract expired in 1958, Coastal became an independent community college supported by Horry County. The Horry County Educational Commission was created in 1959 to oversee the college's county tax money. This body was responsible for contracting operations to the University of South Carolina a year later under the name Coastal Carolina Regional Campus. The deal was finalized at the Chat 'n' Chew restaurant in Turbeville, South Carolina, a town halfway between Conway and Columbia. The site of the present-day campus, by now known as USC Coastal Carolina College, was chosen in 1960, on a plot of land between U.S. 501 and S.C. 544, on land owned by Burroughs Timber Company and International Paper. The campus' first building, later named the Edward M. Singleton Building, opened in 1963. A decade of growth saw the school add a third year in 1973 and a fourth in 1974. The first residence halls (currently "The Woods" residence halls) opened in 1987. By 1991, enrollment had grown to over 4,000 students, leading the Coastal Educational Foundation and Horry County Educational Commission to seek independent status for the school. A year later, the USC system's board of trustees lent its support to independent status for Coastal. On July 1, 1993, the school officially became an autonomous state institution under the name Coastal Carolina University, in a bill signed into law by South Carolina Governor Carroll Campbell on the steps of the Singleton Building. Ronald R. Ingle, the last