A coalition of students, Students Against Cuts in Higher Education, was forced to change the date of its Nashville protest rally after learning that the group would first have to secure funding for a $500,000 insurance policy and pay a $65 rental fee. The group raised the approximately $550 for the policy and rental fee and held the rally on April 21, 1997, at 4:00 p.m. at the Legislative Plaza. The Student Government Association endorsed the rally. Buses went from Knoxville, and UT Knoxville students were joined in Nashville by students from other universities. Approximately two hundred students carried signs and used microphones to protest the cuts. Senator Steve Cohen spoke to the group about what state government could do to increase funding for higher education, suggesting a state income tax and a lottery. The students, chanting “S.O.S.” (Save our Schools), also sold brownies to bystanders to raise money for higher education, satirizing the “bake sale” approach of the legislature.