The university hopes to grow its campus size, enrollment and academic profile in the coming years, with initiatives such as a Fort Mill campus and an aviation degree.
By Evi Houston
Managing Editor
News
Under President Edward Serna’s leadership, Winthrop University has undertaken a multitude of projects to improve academics, student success, enrollment growth and more, as a part of the university’s larger strategic plan: “Winthrop: United in Excellence”.
In a press release from the president this August, Serna explained that the plan will “enact changes that will place this university in a strong and resilient position.”
The summer of 2026 marked the conclusion of the second year of the first “three year sprint” of the university’s current strategic plan. Many initiatives were accomplished in the 2025-26 school year, and many more have been planned for year three.
Winthrop University Provost Dr. Sebastian van Delden is responsible for overseeing multiple aspects of the strategic plan and was happy to share with The Johnsonian the specifics of these completed and soon-to-come goals.
“It’s always good for an organization to have a strategic plan,” said the provost.
New Academic Programs
One of van Delden’s primary responsibilities within the strategic plan is the development of new degree programs, especially programs which might fill gaps in the university’s robust academic portfolio. Last year, three undergraduate degree programs were targeted, all of which progressed towards enrollment: health sciences, aviation and business management and advanced manufacturing engineering.
A soft launch of the bachelor’s in health sciences degree began this fall with about three students. The degree will have “broad market appeal”, according to a university press release, and attract the many South Carolina high schoolers who list health sciences as their top career choice.
Since the program was not fully approved until this July, it is quite small, but is expected to multiply in the coming years. This program will not only help grow university enrollment, but is relatively cheap to implement, said the provost.
Van Delden said he has also enjoyed working on the first-in-state aviation and business management degree, which will ideally launch in fall 2027. The program has been fully approved by the state of South Carolina, but is awaiting credentials from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which were delayed during the historically-long government shutdown last year.
“This will be a signature program for Winthrop because, first of all, we’re the only public university in South Carolina have it, but the proximity to Charlotte Airport, one busiest in the world, and the number of people in this region who are in the aviation industry or adjacent to it is wild,” van Delden said.
The university is prepared to pursue a few more aviation-related programs once they are granted FAA approval. They intend to enroll up to 100 students by year five of the program.
Lastly, the university has secured funds to begin an advanced manufacturing engineering program in Fall 2027. Engineering is the second-most-popular area of study among high schoolers (behind Health Sciences) and has yet to be introduced in South Carolina.
Van Delden described the future advanced manufacturing degree as a “really meaty, robust program.”
The provost also said that Winthrop University “is just so uniquely positioned to do this because we have cybersecurity and we have AI,” unlike other universities in the state with similar engineering programs.
Advanced manufacturing engineering has been approved by the Department of Computer Science and is set to progress through approvals within the university and state government. The city of Rock Hill will be donating funds to the program this month, contributing to an overall goal of $5 million in the next five years.
Beyond these programs in current development, van Delden also hinted at a future nursing program at the university, with the potential to largely grow the university. This will take multiple years to roll out, but the provost confirmed that they are “actively exploring it.”
Fort Mill Campus
Another major undertaking of the provost this academic year is the expansion of Winthrop into a brand-new Fort Mill instructional site. This will consist of three distinct programs outside of undergraduate studies.
The university intends to create a lab school environment for young children, similar to the Macfeat Laboratory School in Rock Hill. There will also be classroom programming for middle and high school students in Fort Mill so that more students can participate in dual enrollment.
“We just signed an exciting partnership with Fort Mill on dual enrollment,” van Delden said.
The final program is designed for non-traditional students and working adults, which includes pop up classes and micro certification programs. These will be short, low-cost and convenient for this demographic.
The provost also mentioned he is exploring transplanting a graduate program to Fort Mill without complications, but this will take multiple years to accomplish.
“We’re not trying to replicate the Rock Hill Winthrop experience. If you are a student who wants to come have a traditional high-impact experience with cultural events, in-person classes with the faculty, student clubs and organizations and a residential experience [ . . .] that happens in Rock Hill,” van Delden said.
The university does not want students taking classes at both locations, and faculty will not be shared between Fort Mill and Rock Hill unless they have an interest in hosting a pop-up class.
Ultimately, the hope is that a Fort Mill campus will strengthen Winthrop’s reputation and presence in the region, be revenue positive and not take away from the main Rock Hill campus and experience.
Career Development and Improved Advising
“Winthrop: United in Excellence” not only includes the creation of new academic degrees and a Fort Mill campus, but will work to improve advising and career development services for students. This will increase retention and set students up for success.
Van Delden helped lead the creation of a streamlined, centralized advising model which will be a “major shift in how we do advising,” he said.
The new model will roll out this fall, and was created after months of research and planning.
In the new method, Winthrop students will be advised by a professional, non-faculty advisor, who is physically located within their academic college, for their first three semesters. After the first three semesters, they will be assigned a faculty member.
“Up until this point, the way students get advised at Winthrop was somewhat uneven and not aligned with national best practices. We are very lucky though to already have extremely talented student services directors and advisors capable of managing this transition,” van Delden said.
There are many benefits to this model, as it takes some of the burden of advising off of already busy faculty, utilizes experts trained in full-time advising and will hopefully increase the first-year freshman retention rate by 3.5% by Fall 2030.
This method will also engage in “proactive advising”.
“These professional advisors, they’re responsible not only to plan your schedule for next year, but to proactively be taking a look at how you’re doing, your midterm grades and the like, and anything else that’s going on. Proactively reaching out to you to help get your resources and making sure you’re staying on track,” the provost said.
The Division of Student Affairs, under the leadership of Vice President Shelia Higgs-Burkhalter, is set to receive a brand new career center office this semester.
The new office is described as “a new physical location for the Center for Career Development and Internships is under construction in the DiGiorgio Campus Center,” according to a university press release.
The center will be largely complete in November 2026 and is set to begin operations early January 2027.
“It’s going to be an awesome, beautiful facility central to campus right there in Diggs,” “but we don’t want to have this beautiful space and not good programming around it,” van Delden said.
The strategic plan includes creation of a new “career ecosystem”: a robust set of resources and staff which can help students with the planning and decision making process, provide mentors, allow students to articulate their career goals and take classes which align with these goals.
Enrollment Growth
A key priority of the strategic plan is enrollment growth, which will help to increase funding and long term stability for the university.
While a final head-count for the class of 2030 is not yet determined, it is estimated that enrollment will again increase by 7 percent this year.
“That [7%] equates to approximately 350 additional students and 3,000 additional credit hours compared to this time last year. We also welcomed approximately 1,350 new freshmen and transfer students to campus this month,” detailed a university press release.
These numbers outpace 2018 and 2019 freshman class sizes, which the provost said is “pretty amazing.”
“Four years in a row that Winthrop is growing compared to the previous decade before that, which was not so much,” van Delden said.
When asked if increased enrollment has placed a strain on Winthrop’s resources and faculty, van Delden disagreed. Professors have been flexible with class sizes and sections, and seem to be positive about the growing student body.
“As far as I can tell, every student who wanted a bed in our current residence hall inventory was able to get it. Classes seem full, but not overly full,” the provost said.
Van Delden added that the university does not have a clear cap or target goal for enrollment numbers. His personal goal is to see Winthrop grow to ten thousand students, a significant increase.
“Just me personally, I think this region needs a bigger university, so I think growth is good. I think growth though is tricky because you need to manage it well,” he said.
York County is one of the fastest growing areas in the state and the nation, and will require a large educational institution to fuel economic growth and provide qualified employees. The city of Rock Hill is actively recruiting numerous companies to take root around Winthrop, such as a $1.5 billion Octapharma plant.
Managing growth well includes maintaining the personal touch of Winthrop University.
“Students choose Winthrop because you get to develop real relationships with your faculty members. It’s a more supportive environment, smaller class sizes and a broad-based high-impact Liberal Arts education. We don’t want to lose those important aspects of why students choose Winthrop, and just as a broad stroke, once you get well past 10,000 students, you can start to lose that,” van Delden said.
Final Thoughts
“It’s been remarkable the number of new programs and initiatives we’ve rolled out in the last few years,” van Delden said. He credits this to the openness and proactive stance of Winthrop faculty, always willing to try something new.
The provost concluded, “It’s just been a breath of fresh air to work at a place where we’ve been able to make so much progress so quick.”
