UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
VOL. 110, NO. 06 ● SINCE 1908
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2018
#UofSCImpact Carolina Day shifts university advocacy efforts to social media Larissa Johnson @LALARISSAJ
For the fi rst time, the annual USC effort to lobby the legislature wasn’t actually held in the Statehouse. It wasn’t even held in a building at all — instead, thousands of tweets, Facebook posts and Instagram pictures were shared with #UofSCImpact. “Last year, I was following groups around, just seeing their story,” said Ore Oluwole, My Carolina director of alumni relations. “But this year, I’m not following any group around; I’m following everyone on Twitter.” The university called for students, alumni and Sout h Carolinians to share stories about t he impact of USC. While Carolina Day in 2017 focused on advocating a bond bill for a new medical school campus and saw around 100 advocates at booths in the Statehouse, the message this year was much broader. “It’s t ime for higher educat ion refor m i n S out h Ca rol i n a ,” My Carolina execut ive director Jack Claypoole said. Oluwole, a 2016 public relations g r adu at e of USC , r u n s t he My Carol i na A lu m n i A ssociat ion s o c i a l me d i a ac c ou nt s . A r ou nd 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, the hashtag #UofSCImpact was trending No. 1 in the region on Twitter. “My mentions were blowing up,” he said.
Alumni like 2015 graduate Ashley Pullen embraced the new social media effort. “I was able to stay at work and still participate and also come down [to the Alumni Center] and participate as opposed to just having to just go to the Statehouse to participate,” Pullen said. Pullen’s Tw it ter feed ment ions Carolina Day or #UofSCImpact over 20 times, with tweets ranging from personal anecdotes about her experience at USC to memes celebrat ing t he university’s economic cont r ibut ions. A Nort h Carolina transplant, she now work s a s d i rec tor of m a rket i ng a nd development for the South Carolina Bar Foundation. “Being here and loving everything about the state of South Carolina, I chose to stay ... giving back my talents and my money to the state of South Carolina,” she said. “And so I think it is really important that the state provides more money and funding for the university.” The growing percentage of outof-state students has been a concern for some in the legislature, who take issue with a freshman class now more
than half from beyond the Palmetto State and large scholarships from USC to draw top national talent. The Advocacy Briefing Book created by the university for this year’s Carolina Day has four full pages on out-of-state students, with graphs of growing nonresident tuition revenue and declining state appropriations. According to Claypoole, the outo f- s t a t e s t u d e nt s are necessar y to subsidize low in-state tuition. “ W i t h o u t [ leg islators’] help, we can’t keep tuition low,” Claypoole said. “They have offloaded the weight of tuition onto t he t u it ion payer.” T he leg i s l at u re hasn’t passed a higher education bond bill since before most current USC students were born. But according to Student Body President Ross Lordo, that will be changing soon. “This year establishes I think a new era in our state advocacy,” he said. With the bond bill more of a “when than an if” and the proposal to add a student vote at the university board of trustees past the reading stage in the legislature, he said, student involvement is on an up-swing. With
“It’s time for higher education reform in South Carolina.” — Jack Claypoole, My Carolina Executive Director
almost 35,000 students, USC is just about the size of the average house district in South Carolina. “This year, for really the first time, we have had a pretty robust dialogue with members of the legislature both in the house and senate on a variety of different issues,” Student Government secretary of governmental affairs Nick Santamaria said. For example, Santamaria worked with USC-Lancaster alumnus Rep. Brandon Newton to get the trustee bill onto the house floor. Administrators want to encourage that kind of involvement and direct advocacy to legislators. Strong social media campaigns like Carolina Day’s #UofSCImpact can be more effective than in-person efforts, according to university social media strategist CJ Lake. #UofSCImpact has received almost 7 m illion impressions on Twitter alone, according to a Tweet Binder analysis of the hashtag. “More importantly, we’re hoping legislators will hop into the hashtag later and just kind of see the story,” she said. University President Harris Pastides was introduced in both the House and Senate chambers during Wednesday morning and spoke individually with several legislators, but said he was more pleased with the response online. Social med ia is “not simply fashionable,” he said. “I think it’s actually more effective that way.”
— information courtesy of USC
Legislators hear advocates for SG Board of Trustees vote Hannah Dear @THEGAMECOCK
Student Government officials testified at the South Carolina Statehouse on Tuesday to advocate for a student vote on the USC Board of Trustees. Fourth-year public health student and Student Body President Ross Lordo spoke before the Higher Education Subcommittee of the South Carolina House Education and Public Works Committee along with his Secretary of Government Relations, fourth-year political science student Nick Santamaria. “The reasoning behind this bill is to give the 50,000 students that are in the USC system a vote at the table. So, right now the student body president can go and sit at board meetings, they can give their input, but when they … make motions, they don’t have a say,” Santamaria said. “They have to rely that all of the board members are going to present their interests in their entirety, and I don’t think that’s probably always the case.” This push has been a priorit y for St udent Government since Lordo began his term as student body president. Santamaria has been instrumental in finding all of the minute details to strengthen their case and persuade state legislatures to pass the bill. “I think data’s the most powerful tool that we can have,” Lordo said when discussing the next steps for this bill after the hearing. “I think we need to go back and talk to more universities and continue to try to put facts in front of the narrative.” Passing this bill through state legislature has been a complex process from the beginning. Nevertheless, Lordo is encouraging current and future Student Government members to remain persistent. “Never give up on an idea,” Lordo said. “You face a lot of red tape, not just in the institution, but across the state. You’re empowered in your position to really be a voice for everyone.” A big part of the hearing revolved around Lordo SEEBOTPAGE2
Sara Yang / THE DAILY GAMECOCK
USCDM finance director Alex St. Pierre charting donations on DonorDrive in the hype room.
USCDM leads 24-hour fundraiser Larissa Johnson @LALARISSAJ
Starting at 10 a.m. Wednesday, USC Dance Marathon led a 24-hour fundraising push. The organization aims to raise $100,000, one tenth of its total goal, by 10 a.m. Thursday with Forever to Thee Kids Day. “It’s really exciting to see people hit their goals and get super excited about it, because then I can see how they’re sharing the passion for the kids,” USCDM vice president of fi nance Sarah Maples said. Miracle kids played on Greene Street, with games and merchandise for students. Online,
Dance Marathon members ask for donations on social media and through platforms like Venmo and DonorDrive. The $1 million goal, announced Oct. 4, is the largest ever set by USCDM — last year, $703,289 was raised. At the March 3 main event, more than 1,500 students and alumni will dance from 10 a.m. to midnight. All proceeds raised by USCDM go to Palmetto Health Children’s Hospital, first to fund the Child Life program for more accommodating hospital visits and then to support the construction of a playground on hospital grounds. — Senior news writer Hannah Dear contributed to this report