TIME OF NEED
New grants keep students on track during emergencies
When Lauren Kubosch started college, her mom helped pay her bills.
Then her mom died of breast cancer during her fourth year as a student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She couldn’t turn to her dad. He died when she was 2.
A part-time childcare worker, Kubosch was thrown into a financial crisis that could have forced her to drop out. But an anonymous donor stepped up so the Mequon native could stay in school until insurance money became available.
The situation helped inspire UWM interim Dean of Students Rebecca Freer to establish an emergency grant program that, beginning this fall, will assist eligible students with small, one-time expenses.
The UWM program joins similar newly launched efforts at UW-Green Bay and a handful of other colleges and universities in Wisconsin to establish emergency funds for students.
The programs are not intended to replace long-term planning to cover tuition and fees. Rather, they acknowledge that low-income students and those without parents are already walking a financial tightrope. Expenses of several hundred dollars can be enough to knock them down — and maybe out, changing their entire life trajectory.
“There has been research that small, unexpected expenses like a medical bill, or repair to a car they depend on to get to school or to work, can lead someone to drop out,” said Karen McCarthy, director of policy
“There’s a growing volume of research showing students today face more financial challenges than 30 years ago. We have more lower-income students trying to access and complete college.” DENISE BARTELL UW-GREEN BAY ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
analysis for the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.
“There’s a higher emphasis today on student retention, and this is one of those areas where institutions can do something,” she said.
The gap between what federal financial aid covers and the total cost to attend college, including living expenses, has grown exponentially since the federal Pell Grant program to help low-income students started in the 1970s. The maximum Pell Grant in the 1970s covered twothirds (67%) of the total cost to attend college. Today, the maximum covers about one-fourth (27%), as tuition and fees have more than doubled in constant dollars, leaving no money for student’s basic needs.
Add to that equation an increase in the number of low-income and first-generation students entering college. If they’ve already maxed out available financial aid, and are already working as many hours as they can handle as students, it doesn’t take much to throw them out of school.
At UWM, undergrads with an expected family contribution of less than $7,000 on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid can now apply for a one-time grant of up to $1,000, distributed through the dean of students office.
Freer said her office expects to award 600 emergency grants to undergrads during the 2017-’18 academic year. Between 8,000 and 9,000 students — roughly 40% of UWM’s total undergrad enrollment — fit the income requirement.
The one-time UWM Emergency Grant will be paid directly to vendors, rather than students, to cover expenses such as rent, medical treatments or car repairs during the 2017-’18 academic year. The grants cannot be used for education-related expenses like books and tuition.
The new emergency fund programs at Wisconsin campuses will shore up a patchwork of stop-gap efforts and be publicized to students so they know help is available.
At UW-Green Bay, for example, a 2015 survey of first-year students found that 32.7% reported financial difficulties had been “challenging” or “very challenging.” Perhaps more telling, only 64% of those reporting “challenging” or “very challenging” difficulties were still enrolled at UW-Green Bay by the end of year two, compared with 84% of students who reported financial difficulties were “not at all challenging.”
UW-Green Bay associate professor Denise Bartell said students may not attend classes for a couple of weeks if they need a car to get to campus, it breaks down, and they have to work more hours to pay for repairs. They fall behind in class and may drop out of college if they aren’t succeeding, she said.
A major benefactor stepped up to seed the efforts.
The philanthropic arm of Madison-based Great Lakes Higher Education Corp., which services student loans, awarded $7.2 million in so-called Dash Emergency Grants to 32 four-year colleges in six states for the 2017-’18 and 2018-’19 academic years, building on a small-grant program it launched in 2012 for two-year colleges.
UWM got the largest grant among the fouryear schools: $630,000, including $30,000 for administrative costs such as publicizing the program and training staff.
Three other four-year UW campuses received Dash Emergency Grant funding: UW-Platteville, $420,000; UW-Whitewater, $315,000; and UWGreen Bay, $105,000. So did four private Wisconsin schools: Alverno College, $210,000; Edgewood College, $131,250; Mount Mary University, $84,000; and Cardinal Stritch University, $67,200.
“There’s a growing volume of research showing students today face more financial challenges than 30 years ago,” said Bartell, who also is director of student success and engagement. “We have more lower-income students trying to access and complete college.”
UW-Green Bay didn’t have a sustained pool of emergency funds for students until the Great Lakes grant came through, Bartell said. She’s determined that the program will last beyond the two-year grant, which requires universities to contribute a 10% match the first year, and a 15% match the second year.
“I was very clear, if we’re going to get this grant, we want this to be a program that’s sustainable,” Bartell said, adding that the university’s office of development is actively seeking donors for the emergency grant program. UW-Green Bay has the same eligibility requirements for the grants as UWM.
Like UWM and several other UW campuses, UW-Green Bay has a campus food pantry. UWGreen Bay also is creating a meal donation program for students, faculty and staff to donate meals from their campus meal plans to students who run short of money for food.
For Kubosch, the UWM student, the emergency lifeline that allowed her to stay on track and earn her bachelor’s degree in classical civilizations last spring.
She already was working more than 25 hours a week at the UWM Children’s Center when her mom died during her fourth year of college. She knew her mom would want her to keep going to school.
The anonymous donor who stepped up to help her “totally kept my life going in the right direction,” said Kubosch, who finished her degree in six years. “It enabled me to finish my education and get a degree. I otherwise would have had to drop out of school, and I wouldn’t have come back.”