 It only awards associate degrees and has approximately 1,500 students.It is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.In 1965 the Sumter County Commission on Higher Education, desiring to fulfill its purpose of starting or bringing a public college to Sumter, entered into an agreement with Clemson University to establish an academic branch of Clemson in Sumter at the old Sumter Airport site on Miller Road.