Illini 411: Did an Illinois student pay his tuition with pennies?

(Photo-illustration by Dana Smith, images courtesy of Illini Media)

A: Yes! Sort of. In the summer of 1987, incoming freshman Mike Hayes worried about how to pay for his education, until he got an oddball idea. He asked the popular Chicago Tribune columnist Bob Greene if readers could mail him pennies to help cover expenses. On Sept. 6, 1987, Greene wrote a column about it, and by the end of the week, Hayes had received more than 3,000 letters. Ultimately, he received 90,000 letters and more than $28,000 in donations—enough to pay for all four years at the U. of I. Hayes graduated from Illinois in 1991 with a food science degree, and for the past three decades has enjoyed a career in the food safety industry.

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