as The Villas. Francis Marion is also home to a two-story observatory, equipped with a 14-inch (360 mm) reflecting telescope, and a planetarium.
== Athletics ==
The Francis Marion athletics program is a member of the NCAA Division II Conference Carolinas (CC), which consists of 13 member schools in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. FMU joined CC after 31 years in the Peach Belt Conference. The school sponsors 15 intercollegiate varsity sports; men's sports are baseball, basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, tennis, and indoor track and field), and women's sports are basketball, cross-country, soccer, softball, tennis, indoor and outdoor track and field (counted by the NCAA as separate sports), and volleyball. The Patriot men's golf team competes in NCAA Division I as a single-sport member of the Southland Conference.
== Student life ==
Francis Marion University fields numerous fraternities and sororities, as well as other clubs and organizations on campus.
== University presidents …
