BT- February Final

2 | SOUTH CAROLINA CAMPUS COMPACT | W INTER 2013

W H A T ’ S I N S I D E 3 EXECUTIVE D IRECTOR’S WELCOME

4 A DREAM REALIZED

6 MARTIN LUTHER K ING DAY OF SERVICE

8 DOWN AND OUT IN THE SOUTH

9 HUNGER AND HOMELESSNESS AWARENESS WEEK 2012

10 SOUTH CAROLINA’S HUNGER GAMES | SNAP

12 RALLYING AGAINST SANDY | SOUTH CAROLINA, MEET THE

VISTAS

13 VITA | NSLVE STUDENT VOTER RESEARCH INITIATIVE

SOUTH CAROLINA CAMPUS COMPACT | W INTER 2013 | 3

S O U T H C A R O L I N A C A M P U S C O M P A C T M E M B E R I N S T I T U T I O N S

Benedict College

President Dr. David Holmes Swinton

Ms. Tondeleya Jackson

Charleston Southern University

President Dr. Jairy C. Hunter Jr.

Dr. Rick Brewer &Dr. Hester Young

Claflin University

President Dr. Henry N. Tisdale

Ms. Carolyn Snell & Ms. Jennifer Holliday

Clemson University

President James F. Barker

Ms. Jennifer Shurley & Ms. Jennifer Goree

Coastal Carolina University

President Dr. David A. DeCenzo

Ms. Whitney Comer

College of Charleston

President Dr. P. George Benson

Ms. Stephanie Visser

Columbia College

President Elizabeth A. Dinndorf

Ms. Mary Carlisle and Dr. Ned Laff

Converse College

President Dr. Elizabeth A. Flemming

Rev. Jason Loscuito

Greenville Technical College

President Dr. Keith Miller

Ms. Susan Gasque & Ms. Sandra Hartsell

Midlands Technical College

President Dr. Marshall White, Jr.

Dr. Diane Carr & Ms. Mary Rawls

Newberry College

President Dr. Maurice William Sherrens

Dr. Joseph McDonald

The Citadel

Lt Gen John W. Rosa

Dr. Conway Saylor

The University of South Carolina

President Dr. Harris Pastides

Dr. Susan Alexander, Dr. Jimmie Gahagan,

Ms. Theresa Harrison & Dr. Dottie Weigel

The University of South Carolina–

Beaufort

Chancellor Dr. Jane T. Upshaw

Dr. James Glasson & Ms. Kate Torborg Vermilyea

The University of South Carolina– Upstate

Chancellor Dr. Thomas F. Moore

Ms. Kara Ferguson

Winthrop University

President Dr. Anthony DiGiorgio, Chairman

Ms. Laura Foster and Ms. Ellin McDonough

Wofford College

President Dr. Benjamin Bernard Dunlap

Ms. Jessalyn Story

W E L C O M E We have just crossed the halfway mark for this academic year and the efforts of South Carolina Campus Compact members to civically engage students and positively impact community challenges have been remarka-ble. During the past six months, August through January, our member institutions have reported the recruitment of 7, 393 campus volunteers and 420 community volunteers. These volunteers served 20,790 individu-als, 267 of whom were reported as veterans, through various projects and events for a total of 42,145 hours of service.

A major portion of the recruited volunteers and service hours reflected in our mid- year report were in direct response to nationally and internation-ally recognized days of service. Each year volunteers join together in the call to action in November and January to serve others during Hunger and Homelessness Aware-ness Week and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service, respectively.

SCCC could not be more impressed with the dedication to service and student development demonstrated by the staff and faculty of our member institutions. Throughout this issue of Better Together we highlight these inspiring and impactful events.

Thank you for your continued support of South Carolina Campus Compact and our mission to im-prove “the ability of higher education institutions to partner with their communities to collectively impact community needs and provide real world learning for college students.”

Jessica Lynn

Executive Director

JESSICA’S PHOTO


MARTIN LUTHER K ING DAY OF SERVICE SERVES AS A DAY ON , NOT OFF ,

AND AIMS TO STRENGTHEN COMMUNIT IES , EMPOWER INDIVIDUALS ,

BRIDGE BARRIERS , AND CREATE SOLUT IONS ACROSS SOUTH CAROLINA .

5,201

DREAM A WAKING

"This is not a black holiday; it is a people's holiday," said

Coretta Scott King after President Ronald Reagan signed the

King Holiday Bill into law on Nov. 2, 1983. But in the compli-

cated history of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, it has only recent-

ly been a holiday for all the people, all the time.

Fifteen years earlier, on April 4, 1968, Mrs. King had lost her

husband, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to an assassin's bullet.

In the months after the death of the civil rights icon, Congress-

man John Conyers Jr. of Michigan introduced the first legisla-

tion seeking to make King's birthday, Jan. 15, a federal holiday.

The King Memorial Center in Atlanta was founded around the

same time, and it sponsored the first annual observance of

King's birthday, in January 1969, almost a decade and a half

before it became an official government-sanctioned holiday.

Before then, individual states including Illinois, Massachusetts

and Connecticut had passed their own bills celebrating the oc-

casion.

The origins of the holiday are mired in racism, politics and con-

spiracy. Three years after Conyers introduced preliminary leg-

islation in 1968, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference

— which King headed from its inception until his death — pre-

sented Congress with a petition signed by more than 3 million

people supporting a King holiday. The bill languished in Con-

gress for eight years, unable to gain enough support until Presi-

dent Jimmy Carter, former governor of Georgia and the first

Democratic President since Lyndon Johnson, vowed to support

a King holiday.

The bill faced a somewhat tougher fight in the Senate, however.

In an opposition campaign led primarily by Republican Sena-

tors John P. East and Jesse Helms of North Carolina, some at-

tempted to emphasize King's associations with communists and

his alleged dalliances as reasons not to honor him with a federal

holiday.

President Reagan signed the bill into law in November 1983

and the first official holiday was observed on the third Monday

of January 1986. In 1994, Congress designated the Martin Lu-

ther King Jr. Federal Holiday as a national day of service and

charged the Corporation for National and Community Ser-

vice with leading this effort. Taking place each year on the

third Monday in January, the MLK Day of Service is the only

federal holiday observed as a national day of service – a "day

on, not a day off."

In 2000, 17 years after the law's official passage and the same

year it pulled the Confederate flag down from its statehouse

dome, South Carolina became the last state to sign a bill recog-

nizing Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a paid holiday.


104 COMMUNITY

PARTNER SITES

1,059 VOLUNTEERS

$35,965 PEOPLE SERVED

5,201 IN DONATIONS


MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY OF SERVICE 2012

Top: USC Upstate,

Wofford College and

Converse College stu-

dents participate with

Operation Christmas

Child; Newberry Col-

lege and members of

the community march

across Newberry to

Bethlehem Baptist

Church.

Right: Columbia

College students do-

nate a pint of blood to

help save a life. Above: Winthrop University

partner with York Tech-

nical College and Clinton

Junior College for a high-

way clean up.

Far left: Benedict College

and Midlands Technical

College presented a Health

and Safety Fair, including

Zumba lessons.

Left: College of Charleston

and Charleston Southern

University teamed up with

The Citadel to prepare food

for Crisis Ministries.


Above: Claflin University participates in a Serve and

Watch Inauguration viewing. Top left: University of

South Carolina students clean up yards in the community.

Left: Greenville Technical College makes cards for sick

children and deployed service members. Coastal Carolina

University sorts clothing. Bottom left: The cadets at The

Citadel work on a Habitat for Humanity build. Below:

Clemson University students build stairs and ramps for

local homes.

8 SOUTH CAROLINA CAMPUS COMPACT | W INTER 2013

In 2010, Dutch photographer Jan Banning was invited to be an artist-in-residence at the 701

Center for Contemporary Art in Columbia, South Carolina. He was asked to focus his photog-

raphy on a local subject and decided to take portraits of the area’s homeless population. The

project eventually became “Down and Out in the South.”

Initially, Banning was concerned he would not be able to add anything new to what he con-

sidered a well-covered issue. But meeting with

some homeless people raised his interest.

“The reactions they were describing, how the com-

munity would react to them, basically not see them.

Look away and look the other way, mainly. This is an

interesting matter to think about as a photographer,” he

said. “My job is to deal with visibility and to ask

questions that are related to looking and observing.”

He hopes the photographs will make people take a

look at themselves and possibly rethink their views

toward the homeless.

Banning set up a makeshift studio in one of the of-

fices of Supportive Housing Services, part of the University of South Carolina’s School of

Medicine. As a place where the homeless are offered assistance, he hoped it would make his

subjects more comfortable.

“What it boils down to is the question of labeling. Are you concentrating on what makes other

people different from you, or do you find yourself in these people, in these faces. Are they

more familiar than you might want to admit?”

SOUTH CAROLINA CAMPUS COMPACT | W INTER 2013 |9

NATIONAL

HUNGER AND

HOMELESSNESS

AWARENESS

WEEK 2012 Each year, one week before Thanksgiving, Nation-

al Coalition for the Homeless and the National Stu-

dent Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness

co-sponsor National Hunger and Homeless Aware-

ness Week. During this week, a number of schools,

communities and cities take part in a nationwide

effort to bring greater awareness to the problems of

hunger and homelessness. In November 2012,

South Carolina Campus Compact’s 17 member in-

stitutions held over 45 events dedicated to Hunger

and Homelessness Awareness Week. Take a look at

a few highlights of the week.

From Top: Coastal Carolina students spend a night outside by recreating shanty towns. Newberry College holds a candle light vigil as

part of their “Hunger Games” themed series of week-long event. Greenville Technical College and USC– Upstate team up for 60 Sec-

onds of Service by preparing sandwiches to be donated to the local soup kitchen. Right: The Citadel’s cadets show their appreciation on

Veteran’s Day by volunteering at Charleston’s Crisis Ministries.

Step 1. The Poverty Line. They told us we’d live in poverty. We must under-stand—really understand—the hurdles that those living in pov-erty must leap over in order to survive. “Brace yourself,” they told us, it’s going to be rough. I didn’t and it was. My name is Lauren Spinella and I am an Ameri-Corps VISTA. The AmeriCorps VISTA program is an initia-tive geared towards sustaining and strengthening existing anti-poverty organizations. The people served by these organiza-tions live below the poverty line; as an AmeriCorps VISTA, so do I. Coming from a middle-class family and a financially stable household, I had trouble wrapping my head around the whole idea of poverty. I had savings. I had support. I wasn’t worried. I wasn’t worried until about two weeks in to my VISTA term when I found myself holding up the check-out line at Publix, frantically digging through the bottom of my purse for pennies and nickels to pay for my Pop-Tarts and Ramen Noodles. Yes, I had savings and yes, I had support—but when my car was totaled (courtesy of a reckless driver) and my home was flooded (courtesy of Hurricane Isaac), my sav-ings were no more.

Life happened and I was broke. I could barely scrounge up enough pocket change to cover my $10 grocery

bill and after two weeks of running on sugar and hope, I could feel my body closing up shop.

My wallet and body agreed: it was time to ask Uncle Sam for food stamps. Step 2: Apply

In mid-September I started the process of applying for food stamps. The flooding had knocked out my internet access but luckily, I could look up information online at work. The application process went as follows: 1. Google.com. Google Search: “I need food stamps in South Carolina” 2. Click on: The South Carolina Department of Social Services. 3. Click on: Apply for benefits. 4. Fill out a short application asking for information on your income, rent payments, and other bills. 5. Submit. 15 minutes later, I was done and getting back to work. “This couldn’t be any easier,” I thought. I was wrong. Step 3: Phone interview I received a letter on October 4th asking me to call in to the Department of Social Services to complete my phone interview. Food stamp applicants must interview with a social worker to clarify any inconsistencies in their application and further express their need for assistance. I realized later how much this speaks to the whole process of applying for food stamps. Having to provide a detailed description of how you

are struggling to barely get by and how badly you need assis-tance to a total stranger is incredibly humiliating and frustrat-ing. I had until October 24th to call in for my phone in-terview. With our big event “Dash for Trash” coming up, I barely had time to eat lunch, let alone spend two hours on the phone with Social Services. “Dash for Trash” was on October 20th. I planned to call in immediately afterwards. However, I didn’t get that far. On October 15th, I received a letter saying I had missed my phone interview. “What? How is this possible?” I double checked the first letter. “Please call by Oc-tober 24th to complete your phone interview.” I double checked the date on the calendar-- October 15th. At the bottom of the new letter, it said “Call in by October 31st. Social Services had already taken the liberty to extend my interview deadline. The next day at work, I rushed to get the bulk of my work done in the morning. At 3:00 pm, I called in to the Department of Social Services. “Thank you for calling. Your wait time is approxi-mately 45 minutes.” I put my phone on speaker and left it on my desk while I continued working. 32 minutes into my wait, the call was disconnected. At this time, it was just after 3:30 pm. The phone lines closed at 4:30. I knew that by the time I waited for another 45 minutes and finally got through to a representative, it would be too late to conduct the interview. The next day, I finished my work by 1:30 pm, leav-ing plenty for me to call (and call back if the call was dropped) and complete the interview. After about 45 minutes of fum-bling through an automated menu and waiting on hold, I fi-nally got through to a human being and began the inter-view. At the end, my interviewer told me that she would be sending me a letter listing all of the documentation she needed me to send back in. “Can’t you just tell me what I need to send now so I don’t waste any time waiting for the letter?” I asked. She couldn’t, so I waited.

Step 4: The Letter About two weeks later, I received the letter. They asked me to send back a copy of my lease, proof of income, and a copy of my electric bill. I had to wait two more weeks waiting for a letter that listed only three things? I received the letter on Monday, October 29th and had to get the documen-tation in by Friday, November 2nd. Just one business week.

Question: How was I going to take off work to drive to North Charleston and wait on line for an hour just to hand in three papers? Answer: I wasn’t.

I printed out the three documents they asked for (thankfully, I have a printer at work), put them in a stamped envelope, and sent them off to the Department of Social Ser-vices.

Steps 5, 6, and 7: Wait. I was actually denied after sending in my

documentation. I sent the materials through certified mail and while they were signed for, indicating that they were received, I was sent a letter soon after saying that my application was denied because that documentation was never received.

After speaking with a DSS representative, I was able to sort it out—though it did push my process back a few weeks, ultimately resulting in me receiving my SNAP ben-efits in December. To clarify, I am grateful of the assistance I receive from the Department of Social Services. I recognize the challenges of applying for SNAP and how I was lucky in a lot of ways: to have familial support after the flooding in my apartment and the flexibility I have at work, for starters. How-ever, someone else in the same situation might not have been able to print out their documentation, or take time off work to go to DSS. What if you don’t have a car to drive to the DSS office? What if you’ll lose your job if you take time off of work? What if your process is pushed back and you just can’t go a few more weeks without food security? I was lucky that I

could afford to wait a few months while waiting for my ben-

efits to be processed. Not everyone can.

THE SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRITION PROGRAM

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP),

formerly called the Food Stamp program, provides benefits to

people in households with low income and few assets to help

them purchase food to be eaten at home.

In 2011, 14% of Americans— about 1 in 7— received SNAP

benefits. On average, SNAP’s 45 million participants re-

ceived $134 per month.

KEY SNAP LEGISLATION

1996 Welfare reform produces

major cutbacks to the Food

Stamp program

2002 Farm bill offered states

opportunities to streamline the

application process

2008 Farm bill increased benefits

and changed the name of

the program to SNAP

1960

560,000

participants

1964- Formally

established federal Food

Stamp program


SOUTH CAROLINA’ S HUNGER GAMES In South Carolina over 100,000 households depend on SNAP (Supplemental Nutri-

tion Assistance Program) each month to get the food they need for good health.

College of Charleston VISTA Lauren Spinella explains her trials and tribulations of

receiving SNAP benefits in South Carolina. Her experience was covered in conjunc-

tion with College of Charleston’s 2012 Food Stamp Challenge.

Step 1. The Poverty Line. They told us we’d live in poverty. We must under-stand—really understand—the hurdles that those living in pov-erty must leap over in order to survive. “Brace yourself,” they told us, it’s going to be rough. I didn’t and it was. My name is Lauren Spinella and I am an Ameri-Corps VISTA. The AmeriCorps VISTA program is an initia-tive geared towards sustaining and strengthening existing anti-poverty organizations. The people served by these organiza-tions live below the poverty line; as an AmeriCorps VISTA, so do I. Coming from a middle-class family and a financially stable household, I had trouble wrapping my head around the whole idea of poverty. I had savings. I had support. I wasn’t worried. I wasn’t worried until about two weeks in to my VISTA term when I found myself holding up the check-out line at Publix, frantically digging through the bottom of my purse for pennies and nickels to pay for my Pop-Tarts and Ramen Noodles. Yes, I had savings and yes, I had support—but when my car was totaled (courtesy of a reckless driver) and my home was flooded (courtesy of Hurricane Isaac), my sav-ings were no more.

Life happened and I was broke. I could barely scrounge up enough pocket change to cover my $10 grocery

bill and after two weeks of running on sugar and hope, I could feel my body closing up shop.

My wallet and body agreed: it was time to ask Uncle Sam for food stamps. Step 2: Apply

In mid-September I started the process of applying for food stamps. The flooding had knocked out my internet access but luckily, I could look up information online at work. The application process went as follows: 1. Google.com. Google Search: “I need food stamps in South Carolina” 2. Click on: The South Carolina Department of Social Services. 3. Click on: Apply for benefits. 4. Fill out a short application asking for information on your income, rent payments, and other bills. 5. Submit. 15 minutes later, I was done and getting back to work. “This couldn’t be any easier,” I thought. I was wrong. Step 3: Phone interview I received a letter on October 4th asking me to call in to the Department of Social Services to complete my phone interview. Food stamp applicants must interview with a social worker to clarify any inconsistencies in their application and further express their need for assistance. I realized later how much this speaks to the whole process of applying for food stamps. Having to provide a detailed description of how you

are struggling to barely get by and how badly you need assis-tance to a total stranger is incredibly humiliating and frustrat-ing. I had until October 24th to call in for my phone in-terview. With our big event “Dash for Trash” coming up, I barely had time to eat lunch, let alone spend two hours on the phone with Social Services. “Dash for Trash” was on October 20th. I planned to call in immediately afterwards. However, I didn’t get that far. On October 15th, I received a letter saying I had missed my phone interview. “What? How is this possible?” I double checked the first letter. “Please call by Oc-tober 24th to complete your phone interview.” I double checked the date on the calendar-- October 15th. At the bottom of the new letter, it said “Call in by October 31st. Social Services had already taken the liberty to extend my interview deadline. The next day at work, I rushed to get the bulk of my work done in the morning. At 3:00 pm, I called in to the Department of Social Services. “Thank you for calling. Your wait time is approxi-mately 45 minutes.” I put my phone on speaker and left it on my desk while I continued working. 32 minutes into my wait, the call was disconnected. At this time, it was just after 3:30 pm. The phone lines closed at 4:30. I knew that by the time I waited for another 45 minutes and finally got through to a representative, it would be too late to conduct the interview. The next day, I finished my work by 1:30 pm, leav-ing plenty for me to call (and call back if the call was dropped) and complete the interview. After about 45 minutes of fum-bling through an automated menu and waiting on hold, I fi-nally got through to a human being and began the inter-view. At the end, my interviewer told me that she would be sending me a letter listing all of the documentation she needed me to send back in. “Can’t you just tell me what I need to send now so I don’t waste any time waiting for the letter?” I asked. She couldn’t, so I waited.

Step 4: The Letter About two weeks later, I received the letter. They asked me to send back a copy of my lease, proof of income, and a copy of my electric bill. I had to wait two more weeks waiting for a letter that listed only three things? I received the letter on Monday, October 29th and had to get the documen-tation in by Friday, November 2nd. Just one business week.

Question: How was I going to take off work to drive to North Charleston and wait on line for an hour just to hand in three papers? Answer: I wasn’t.

I printed out the three documents they asked for (thankfully, I have a printer at work), put them in a stamped envelope, and sent them off to the Department of Social Ser-vices.

Steps 5, 6, and 7: Wait. I was actually denied after sending in my

documentation. I sent the materials through certified mail and while they were signed for, indicating that they were received, I was sent a letter soon after saying that my application was denied because that documentation was never received.

After speaking with a DSS representative, I was able to sort it out—though it did push my process back a few weeks, ultimately resulting in me receiving my SNAP ben-efits in December. To clarify, I am grateful of the assistance I receive from the Department of Social Services. I recognize the challenges of applying for SNAP and how I was lucky in a lot of ways: to have familial support after the flooding in my apartment and the flexibility I have at work, for starters. How-ever, someone else in the same situation might not have been able to print out their documentation, or take time off work to go to DSS. What if you don’t have a car to drive to the DSS office? What if you’ll lose your job if you take time off of work? What if your process is pushed back and you just can’t go a few more weeks without food security? I was lucky that I

could afford to wait a few months while waiting for my ben-

efits to be processed. Not everyone can.

1970

4,300,000

participants

1980

21,000,000

participants

1990

20,000,000

participants

2000

17,200,000

participants

2010

40,300,000

participants

1971- Established uniform

national standards of eligibility

and work requirements

1996- Major

changes: eliminated

eligibility for many

legal immigrants;

placed time limit on

food stamp receipt

for certain groups;

and reduced the

growth of the maxi-

mum benefit

1977- Established income

eligibility guidelines;

formalized income exclusions

and deductions

2009– Temporarily

increased the current

maximum benefit by

14 percent

1982– Added the

gross income test and

allowed states to

require participants to

look for work

1989, 1990-

Established

Electronic Benefit

Transfer Card as an

official alternative

to issuing benefits

2008– Increased benefits by

raising the minimum standard deduc-

tion and increased minimum benefits

for one– and two-person households

Under subsequent

amendments, the

maximum benefit will fall

back to its unadjusted

amount in November

2013

2002– Offered

states opportunities to

streamline the appli-

cation and reporting

processes and reinstat-

ed eligibility for certain

groups denied bene-

fits under the 1996

legislation


“What does South Carolina have in store for me?”

The 2012-2013 cohort of AmeriCorps VISTAs features mem-

bers from twelve different states found themselves asking this

question in July 2012. Six months later, the VISTAs are experi-

encing a side of South Carolina that often can not be described

through guide books and tourism websites during their mid-

service retreats.

During Fall 2012, the VISTAs gathered in their respective re-

gions to catch a glimpse of things to do in their areas while tak-

ing a moment to enjoy being twenty-something's in a new state.

Low-Country VISTAs showed their artistic flare with pottery,

while our Upstate VISTAs spent some time with furry friends

at the Greenville Zoo. Meanwhile the Midlands VISTAs

learned more about South Carolina history by visiting the State

Museum.

SOUTH CAROLINA ,

MEET THE AMERICORPS VISTAS

RALLY ING AGAINST SANDY

Late October 2012, Hurricane Sandy devastated portions of

the Caribbean and the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States.

Preliminary estimates of losses due to damage and business inter-

ruption are estimated at $74 billion, which would make it

the second-costliest Atlantic hurricane, behind only Hurricane

Katrina. Months later, 1,660 AmeriCorps members have since

been deployed to the Northeast to help with Sandy relief. Here in

South Carolina, efforts have been underway to assist in a variety of

ways in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

Coastal Carolina University collected money and personal items

such as toiletries and clothing, resulting in over $1,600 in dona-

tions. Clemson University VISTAs Emily Nuss and Kate Cum-

mings (top left), along with twenty students, partnered with the

American Red Cross to collect over $6,800 in two hours during

Clemson’s homecoming football game. While The University of

South Carolina is in the early planning stages for an Alternative

Spring Break trip to New York or New Jersey, College of Charles-

ton VISTA Lauren Spinella (bottom left), supervised students dur-

ing an Alternative Winter Break trip to Atlantic City, New Jersey.


SCCC RESOURCE : V I TA (VOLUNTEER I NCOME TAX ASS ISTANCE)

CAMPUS COMPACT PARTNERS WITH CIRCLE IN AN

EXCITING STUDENT-VOTING INITIATIVE

Campus Compact has partnered with The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) in a

new initiative to study student-voting rates from the recent 2012 elections correlated with data from educational programs across

the country. Designed to increase student civic learning and engagement in a democracy, the National Study of Learning, Voting,

and Engagement (NSLVE) will offer participating institutions the opportunity to receive information in aggregate form that can be

utilized to assess engagement on their campuses as well as make comparisons to similar institutions, who have also chosen to par-

ticipate.

Winthrop University, SCCC’s host site, has moved quickly to obtain approval to take part in this initiative, which will be guided

by their Department of Accreditation, Accountability and Academic Services. Many departments, from Political Science to Career

and Civic Engagement, have joined together to show their support and to begin looking at ways this information can be used to

evaluate current programs and to gauge the overall civic engagement of students.

SCCC is encouraging all of our members to participate so that we might also compile statistics from an organizational standpoint.

Our member campuses are truly dedicated to civic engagement and democratic participation and this could offer data to support

that fact. Please share this information with your counterparts at other universities and colleges throughout the state and nationally

as any accredited educational institution can join the initiative.

January through April is traditionally known as tax time,

and the VITA Program is in full swing. Originally found-

ed 1971 by Gary Iskowitz at California State University

Northridge, the concept was to provide local taxpayers

with free tax return preparation by accounting students, in

effort to provide both a valuable community service and a

powerful hands-on learning experience for the accounting

students. The program grew from a small group of dedicat-

ed accounting students to what is now a nation wide pro-

gram that serves thousands of taxpayers and provides a

valuable learning experience for accounting students.

The VITA Program generally offers free tax help to people who make $51,000 or less and need assistance in preparing their

own tax returns. IRS-certified volunteers provide free basic income tax return preparation with electronic filing to qualified

individuals in local communities. They can inform taxpayers about special tax credits for which they may qualify such as

Earned Income Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, and Credit for the Elderly or the Disabled. VITA sites are generally located at

community and neighborhood centers, libraries, schools, shopping malls, and other convenient locations.

There are thousands of VITA sites located across the country. To locate a site near you between January and April by calling 1

-800-906-9887.

BT- February Final

Documents

sandy south carolina

t s i n s i d e

s o u t h c

campus volunteers

p u s c o

hours of service

service hours

year volunteers