USC Upstate students grabbing lunch between classes have a new option this fall: a Chick-fil-A that opened Tuesday in the Horace C. Smith Science Building at 160 Gramling Drive. The location held its grand opening the same week, and unlike a typical campus dining counter, it's open to the general public, not just students, faculty and staff.
The new restaurant is the seventh Chick-fil-A location in the Spartanburg area, according to the Post and Courier, joining the chain's other Spartanburg-area outposts along corridors like Asheville Highway, East Main Street in Hillcrest and Boiling Springs. USC Upstate spokesperson Emily Gillespie told the paper the restaurant runs 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and is closed Sundays. Grand-opening supervisors Caleb Poston and Trey Strickland were on hand for the debut.
A Corporate-Driven Handoff From Wofford
The new USC Upstate location arrives just months after Chick-fil-A's 30-year run at Wofford College came to an end. Wofford's Chick-fil-A at Zach's Food Court closed at the conclusion of the 2025–2026 academic year, and the decision to shut it down came from Chick-fil-A's corporate office rather than from the college itself, according to Wofford's Old Gold & Black. The location operated for three decades before the corporate-mandated closure.
The new USC Upstate location arrives after Chick-fil-A's 30-year run at Wofford College came to an end. The timing places the two developments in the same broader period. USC Upstate's campus dining operation includes the new Chick-fil-A and other dining and retail venues.
A 2025 paper in the Fordham Law Archive identifies outsourcing campus dining services and licensing university trademarks as examples of private-public partnerships.
Inside the Science Building's Food Court
The Horace C. Smith Science Building is home to the new Chick-fil-A. Available descriptions do not specify the building's construction date, renovation history, occupants, floor-by-floor layout, dining history, prior food vendors or any food-court reorganization.
The building's infrastructure history is not detailed in the available descriptions.
A Growing Campus Needs More Dining Options
The expansion comes as USC Upstate's enrollment climbs. The university welcomed 1,800 total freshman and transfer students for the Fall 2025 semester, pushing its overall student body to 5,169, according to The Carolinian. That growth occurred even as higher education nationally has faced broader demographic declines. USC Upstate offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs.
American Sign Language is the third-fastest-growing language program nationally at colleges and universities. Some of that growth is likely driven by media, including Chick-fil-A and Subaru ASL commercials, per USC Upstate Magazine. Enrollment in the university's ASL minor grew from six students to more than 40; the source does not establish that Chick-fil-A campaigns caused the increase.
The campus opening also lands a little more than a month after a separate Chick-fil-A corporate development.
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