ASSOCIATION OF INDEPENDENT CALIFORNIA COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES
(AICCU)

Context:

Mozaic served as the agency of record providing public relations and university relations support for this statewide association consisting of 85 member institutions.

AICCU approached our team when California’s state government was facing a budget crisis and several programs—including the Cal Grants program, which provides support for underprivileged high-achieving students in the state—were facing the threat of being cut altogether. AICCU, the unified statewide voice of California’s 84 private, non-profit colleges and universities, selected our team through a competitive bid process to develop a timely legislative strategy and implement an outreach plan geared towards aggressively educating lawmakers and the public through targeted media relations and coalition building, to save the Cal Grant program.

Approach:

Our team created an enterprising student-centered campaign to push the legislature to publicly reject the Governor’s proposed budget cut. Part of our strategic efforts included a coordinated Lobby Day of Action in Sacramento securing nearly 15,000 petition signers.

Outcome:

The campaign succeeded in securing over 150 unique statewide online media mentions

and broadcast news stories, including notable news pieces in the San Francisco Chronicle,

Los Angeles Times and the San Diego Union Tribune. Our collective efforts helped solidify

a unified call to action against the proposed cuts to the Cal Grant program.

Eventually, our efforts paid off, as the end result was the legislature rejecting the proposal, reaching a fair compromise, and keeping the program intact.