Voorhees plans announcement involving president

Voorhees College President Cleveland Sellers said a news conference scheduled for Thursday at the school involves him, but the South Carolina civil rights leader would not say if he plans to announce his retirement.

Sellers, 70, a civil rights activist who was jailed after the 1968 Orangeburg Massacre, has run the 118-year-old historically black college in Denmark since 2008. He directed the University of South Carolina’s African-American Studies program before joining the college in his hometown, 50 miles south of Columbia.

Thursday’s news conference also involves the “state of the institution,” a news release said.

Voorhees is the third-smallest private S.C. college, according to state data.

Like many other historically black colleges, Voorhees has seen fewer students on campus in recent years. Over the past decade, enrollment has dropped by a third to about 470 last fall.

This story was originally published September 16, 2015 at 5:55 PM with the headline "Voorhees plans announcement involving president."