The growth of the University in the 1960s and 70s also brought with it the social activism and disorder of the time . Due to the massive influx of so many students in a short time period , the administration lost control of student life . Drug and alcohol use became so rampant at the University that it became known as a party school . Black students protested the assassination of Martin Luther King , Jr. in 1968 by setting fire to Hamilton College and the USC Field House . On May 7 , 1970 , approximately 400 students seized the Russell House as a symbolic gesture towards honoring those killed in the Kent State shootings and four days later on May 11 , they attempted to meet with the members of the board of trustees , but were rebuffed . Columbia police were called in to quell the student protest but were ineffective . State troopers were also unable to disperse the students . National Guard troops were ordered to the campus by Gov. Bob McNair , and soon dispersed most of the protestors with tear gas . The inability of the administration to control such student outbursts led to President Jones ' resignation in 1974 . But he had succeeded in turning a sleepy southern college into a full-fledged research institution
Kent State shootings
Kent State shootings
History of the University of South Carolina