UVic sharpens its pencil to boost student financial aid

Wightman with one of the new "pencil" ads

UVic fundraisers are using a bright yellow pencil to make a point about their commitment to increasing financial aid to students.

A newspaper ad campaign has been created by UVic's development office using a pencil as an emotive symbol for students. The idea is to get the word out about UVic's goal to raise $50 million from the private sector over the next decade for scholarships, bursaries and fellowships.

"The heart and soul of our fundraising mission is to help UVic students succeed," says Faye Wightman, UVic's vice president external relations. "We want the people of Victoria to know what we're raising money for, and why. UVic is their university, and without the community's generous support, it would be impossible to maintain the high quality of education we offer our students."

With UVic students facing another tuition increase in 2004-05, the university is working hard to increase the amount of financial assistance available to students. The university will award $9.9 million in student financial assistance in 2004-05, up more than $2 million from the previous year.

The fundraising ad series is made possible by the Times-Colonist which provided UVic with sponsored advertising space. Five individual ad concepts were created for UVic by Malahat Group of Victoria. The text of each ad highlights the major objectives of UVic's fundraising strategy—scholarships, bursaries and fellowships, and multi-million dollar facilities such as the library learning centre and the First Peoples House.

The ads will run over the coming year, with the first three in the series appearing in the spring and early summer. A new series of ads will continue in the fall.

"We want to sustain the message about the need for student financial aid to our audience over the long-term," says Chris Thackray, the development office's marketing and communications officer who initiated the project. "This is just one element of a communications strategy over the coming year to raise awareness of our fundraising priorities."