STATE’S SHARE of federal aid for colleges is $130M.
Half of aid to go to help students
Arkansas’ institutions of higher learning will receive $130 million in federal stimulus aid to help them and their students cope with the covid-19 pandemic.
At least half of those funds must go toward student aid. That could be anything related to disruptions caused by the pandemic.
The U.S. Department of Education is distributing $12.6 billion to more than 5,000 schools nationwide, including 77 colleges, universities and career colleges in Arkansas. Nearly $6.3 billion will be distributed to students. Schools will use the other half or less to pay for expenses related to covid-19, such as purchasing or upgrading technology for more remote learning.
The funds are in the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund, allocated by the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act.
Three-quarters of the distribution is based on a school’s proportion of
full-time equivalent Pell Grant recipients who previously weren’t exclusively distance-education students, compared with the national share of those students.
The other quarter is based on a school’s proportion of fulltime equivalent non-Pell recipients who previously weren’t exclusively distance-education students, compared with the national share of those students. That’s based on the latest available year of federal data, the 2018-19 academic year.
In Arkansas, the largest amount of money goes to the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, $15.5 million. The smallest will go to River Valley School of Massage, $11,895.
Just how and when that money will be spent is unknown, several schools told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Schools can establish their own process for determining how to use the funds, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos wrote Thursday in a letter to institutions.
“The only statutory requirement is that the funds be used to cover expenses related to the disruption of campus operations due to coronavirus (including eligible expenses under a student’s cost of attendance, such as food, housing, course materials, technology, health care, and child care),” DeVos wrote. “With that said, I would like to encourage the leadership of each institution to prioritize your students with the greatest need, but at the same time consider establishing a maximum funding threshold for each student to ensure that these funds are distributed as widely as possible.”
Mark Rushing, a UA spokesman, said Friday that the university had not yet communicated to students details about how they will be able to access the new source of federal emergency grant funding. But officials are working on it.
“Our goal is to get help to students who need it as quickly as possible,” Rushing said.
Colleges expect more guidance this week from the Arkansas Division of Higher Education, said Andrea Henderson, executive director of Arkansas Community Colleges, an association of the state’s two-year schools.
The association also has convened student affairs officials to determine the best way to use the funds for students.
“It’s something we’re really excited about to help our students,” Henderson said.
Officials in Arkansas say they are seeing an increase in student requests for urgent help — and seeking out donors to boost existing campus funds that provide the aid — while also working out details on how to give out the incoming federal money.
AT THE CAMPUSES
On a single day in March after the covid-19 outbreak emerged in Arkansas, 16 students requested emergency financial grant aid from UA, a university spokeswoman said.
“The most common request they receive is for rent assistance,” UA spokeswoman Jennifer Holland said in an email, describing student requests made through the school’s student affairs office.
“Some requests have also been for travel assistance to move back home, utility costs, and car and insurance payments. Almost all stem from job loss or a severe cut in hours due to COVID-19,” Holland said.
Applications for emergency grants “increased in response” to the UA announcement last month that some aid was available, Holland said.
To help more students, the UA Cares Student Emergency Fund, the school’s primary emergency fund, has lowered its maximum award amount to $300 from $500, Holland said.
The student affairs office had as of Wednesday “processed 23 applications to move to the next step in the approval chain, which is similar to how scholarships are processed,” Holland said. Separately, nine grant awards had been given out through other UA funds in response to requests for aid from graduate and international students, Holland said.
The University of Central Arkansas has approved 12 emergency scholarships since March 11, the date of the first identified coronavirus case in Arkansas, spokeswoman Amanda Hoelzeman said Friday.
The grants are made through the University of Central Arkansas Foundation’s Foundation Emergency Scholarship, which provides one-time-only awards of up to $500 to students in a financial crisis or emergency, Hoelzeman said.
“Requests for assistance have related to the cost of traveling home, needed technology, remaining tuition (due to parents no longer being able to assist), and general loss of income,” Hoelzeman said in a statement.
The University of Arkansas at Fort Smith has had 28 students request emergency aid since March 11, spokeswoman Rachel Putman said Friday.
Putman said “$6,381.02 has been paid thus far, with several of the applications still currently in process,” with the UAFS Foundation getting in contact with students about the grants.
“The most common reason given by the students is that they, or their partner, have been laid off or had hours cut due to COVID-19. The most common requests are assistance to pay utility bills and to purchase gas for their vehicles and groceries for their family,” Putman said in an email.
Several other colleges and universities in the state have similar emergency grant funds to assist students.
Some private universities moved quickly to close residence halls in response to covid-19, including Hendrix College, which closed its residences on its Conway campus March 16, with some extensions granted.
The college’s Jon Guthrie Fund provided students help “from gas cards to plane tickets to arranging for storage units to finding long-term temporary housing,” Hendrix College spokeswoman Amy Forbus said in an email.
She declined to provide the number of students who received aid.
FEDERAL FUNDS
The emergency grants for students are part of a larger coronavirus support effort for colleges and universities through the federal measure, said Craig Lindwarm, vice president for governmental affairs with the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. The association is a Washington, D.C., research, policy and advocacy organization of public research universities, land-grant institutions, state university systems, and higher education organizations.
For the emergency financial aid to students, “per the department, it seems those funds could be available to schools as early as [this] week,” he said.
A university will need time to develop a process for disbursing the federal emergency aid to students, Lindwarm said.
But the federal grants “cannot be used to reimburse institutions for prior expenses,” Lindwarm added.
National Park College President John Hogan said that although the rule-making process isn’t complete, he expects students will be able to access funds similarly to how other federal financial aid is accessed.
He said that, as far as he knows, whether the funding is first-come, first-served hasn’t been determined but added “there is a finite amount of money.” The college will determine eligibility requirements once rules are in place.
Putman at UAFS said the money won’t be first-come, first-served because of the recommendation that students most in need be prioritized. UAFS will receive $5.5 million.
“University administration will continue discussions Monday, and the university intends to be strategic about use of the funds, (as has been guided,) with larger awards going to individuals who typically have less income and who have suffered losses as a result of COVID-19,” Putman wrote in an email.
Already, students have asked the university for food assistance, and the school has provided 226 sacks or boxes of groceries to students since the early spring break.
Lindwarm, with the Association of Public and LandGrant Universities, said more federal dollars supporting higher education are needed as colleges face a “combination of massive expenses and precipitous decline in revenue.”
He said the group is pushing for more federal aid in an amount “commensurate with the emergency situation” faced by public universities.
“The funding provided under the CARES Act is helpful, but it doesn’t come anywhere close to meeting the significant challenges faced by public universities right now,” Lindwarm said.