The University of South Carolina has launched Gamecock Guarantee, the first need-based scholarship program of its kind for any college or university in South Carolina.

University officials say the program will be available to qualified freshmen entering in fall 2008.

Gamecock Guarantee promises that each eligible student’s tuition and technology fee will be covered for up to four years of study.

University president Andrew Sorensen announced the program Thursday (Sept. 20).

“Somewhere tonight – in Fort Mill, in Clearwater, in Allendale, in Seneca – a student may be sitting down with a parent at the kitchen table to see how and where the family will find the money for college,” Sorensen said. “Our hope is that the Gamecock Guarantee will make a college education at Carolina possible.”

In addition to being South Carolina residents attending a college for the first time, students must be eligible to receive a federal Pell grant, come from a family with an income of no more than $25,000, and meet admission standards for the Columbia campus.

Undergraduate director of admissions Scott Verzyl said, “We don’t want finances to be a barrier to an education at the University of South Carolina for our state’s most needy students. We realize there are many low-income students who are bright and capable but who are not considering a four-year college experience because they feel the tuition costs are unaffordable for them. We want them to know that they have a place here at Carolina, where their tuition will be covered and where we will help them succeed once here.”

Verzyl said Gamecock Guarantee isn’t just about providing students with much-needed funding. He says it also is about ensuring a student’s success at the university by tailoring certain services, such as career goal planning, orientation and academic advisement and academic support.

“The program is about access and success,” Verzyl said. “We want students to become fully engaged in the Carolina experience, and we have an array of programs and services to ensure their success.”

Gamecock Guarantee is for students at the Columbia campus, although Verzyl says the university expects to expand the program in the future.

“We expect this program to grow over time and to include a larger number of students,” Verzyl said. “The need is too great, and the program is too important not to get started now.”

State Sen. John Courson, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, applauded the university for creating the need-based scholarship program.

“The Gamecock Guarantee will help make a higher-education degree affordable to more South Carolinians,” Courson said. “I am hopeful that many of these students will consider majoring in education. We are facing – and will continue to face – a shortage of public-school teachers in the Palmetto State.”

Similar scholarship programs are in place at universities, including ones in North Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Virginia.

Gamecock Guarantee is funded by institutional scholarship resources.