BEAUFORT, S.C. — The University of South Carolina Beaufort has $305,000 from state lawmakers to start planning a marine research building on its historic Beaufort campus.
The money covers early work such as architectural design and technical planning. No construction or opening date has been set, and the university says the building still depends on future funding, approvals and formal agreements.
USCB is looking at making the facility a shared space with the S.C. Department of Natural Resources, whose director, Tom Mullikin, backs the idea. State Rep. Shannon Erickson of Beaufort and USCB Chancellor Al M. Panu also support the concept.
Demand is behind the push. Since 2020, the number of students in USCB’s marine biology program and its coastal ecology and conservation program has nearly tripled, passing 170.
University leaders want the building to help grow work already underway in two campus labs, one for water quality and one for marine sensory and neurobiology, along with barrier island research on Pritchards Island, an undeveloped island south of Fripp Island.
Pritchards was given to USC in 1980. Erosion left it unused for more than a decade, and its old lab came down in 2022. USCB now runs about a dozen research projects there, with $500,000 a year in state support.
The Beaufort campus traces its history to Beaufort College, founded in 1795. USCB’s main campus is in Bluffton, with a third campus on Hilton Head Island.
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