SRCOS was founded in 1989 after a 34-year history as a Committee on Statistics of SREB. SRCOS is an organization dedicated to fostering cooperation in statistical affairs among institutions concerned with higher education.
The Southern Regional Education Board (SREB), the first interstate compact in the country, which was established in 1948, is a public agency of 15 member states cooperating to improve education. SREB works directly with state governments, academic institutions, and other agencies concerned with education. In 1952 SREB sponsored a Southern Regional Conference on Statistics. From this conference came plans to conduct a series of Southern Regional Graduate Summer Sessions and, later, the formation of the SREB Southern Regional Committee on Statistics. The Committee's purpose was ". . . to provide a means of joint planning and cooperative action by which the member institutions can coordinate and supplement their respective educational, research, and service programs in statistics to meet more effectively the present and future needs of the region and nation."
In 1987-88 SREB felt SRCOS had developed into an organization in its own right, and it was no longer appropriate to consider it as a Committee of the Southern Regional Education Board. Consequently, SRCOS ceased to be a formal committee of SREB in 1989, but continues to pursue its original purpose as an independent group under the name of the Southern Regional Council on Statistics.
SREB remains interested in the work of SRCOS and continues in an ex officio membership capacity. Throughout its many years of existence, SRCOS has sponsored a variety of cooperative programs, including a Visiting Lecturer Program, a series of 20 Regional Graduate Summer Sessions, and an annual Summer Research Conference.