COLUMBIA, S.C. — Culminating a four-month statewide “Thanks for my Tuition Grant!” letter-writing campaign, SCICU students rallied at the S.C. Statehouse April 9 to show their appreciation for the General Assembly’s continued strong funding support of the S.C. Tuition Grants need-based financial aid program.
Boots-on-the-ground advocacy at the Statehouse was the finishing touch to the coordinated efforts of SCICU campus legislative liaisons, financial aid directors, student affairs staff, and other campus leaders who motivated and mobilized Tuition Grants recipients to write more than 6,800 heartfelt thank-you letters to their respective state senators and representatives.
“We know the positive effect of the Tuition Grants letter-writing campaign when legislators tell us they look forward to receiving the hand-written thank-you notes from our students,” said Jeff Perez, SCICU president and CEO. “Rep. Nathan Ballentine (R-Richland), chair of the House Higher Education Budget Subcommittee, independently cited the impact of receiving thousands of Tuition Grants thank-you letters in a January budget hearing. That kind of acknowledgment and affirmation makes it clear that every thank-you letter written by Tuition Grants recipients at SCICU member institutions is clearly worth the effort.”
During the April 9 Higher Education Day at the Statehouse, SCICU students joined forces with students from the public sector institutions — the S.C. Technical School System and the state’s public four-and two-year colleges and universities — to meet with state senators, representatives, and Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette and give thanks for their combined support of need-based aid that makes earning a college degree possible for thousands of South Carolinians.
Leading up to Higher Education Day, SCICU combined forces with campus public information officers and social media coordinators to extend the “Thanks for my Tuition Grant!” message through posts on Facebook and X/Twitter. Legislators with social media pages were tagged in the messages to focus the messages. Our Facebook posts (posts with #SCICU and #TuitionGrants hashtags and other posts) and X/Twitter posts (posts mentioning @SCTuitionGrants and other posts) capture the spirit of the SCICU students’ appreciation of the support of the SC Tuition Grants Program.
Please click here to view photos from HIgher Education Day at the Statehouse and the student letter-writing campaign.
Photo highlights from the 2024 Higher Education Statehouse Day and the Tuition Grants letter-writing campaign