Friday, May 8, 2020 | 4:00 p.m.
| |
| Dear Red Wolves:
As I have mentioned in the past, the federal government has authorized Arkansas State to distribute $4,629,079 in CARES Act funds to help students who have been financially impacted by our transition from face-to-face classes to online classes as part of our COVID-19 response. Specifically, the “CARES Act Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund-IHE/Student Aid provides funding to institutions to provide emergency financial aid grants to students whose lives have been disrupted, many of whom are facing financial challenges and struggling to make ends meet.” My interpretation of the U.S. Department of Education guidance is that these funds must be sent directly to students and not be tied to future scholarships or to balances owed to the university. They must also not be used to pay the university.
I tasked the CARES Act Response Team (CART) to develop a rubric goal that prioritized funding for students with the greatest need while also ensuring that these funds are distributed as widely as possible. They completed this work recently. I appreciate your patience as we waited on new guidance on how the CARES Act funds could be spent. We have not learned anything new as of this writing, so I have decided to move forward with our plan.
Eligibility Students who were enrolled in the Spring 2020 semester, who have a 2019-2020 FAFSA on file, and who meet all Title IV requirements for Federal Student Aid are eligible for CARES Act grants. As a reminder, the U.S. Department of Education guidelines make international, DACA, and 100% online students ineligible for these CARES Act grants.
Rubric There are currently 5,879 A-State students who are eligible for CARES Act funding. We are allocating $4 million of the available funds immediately to these students, following the Department of Education’s guidance that we prioritize funding for students with the greatest need while distributing funds as widely as possible. We are distributing 75% of the funding to the 3,240 Pell Grant-eligible students at A-State ($925 per student) and 25% of the funding to the 2,639 non-Pell-eligible students ($378 per student). We will hold the remaining $629,079 in reserves for eligible students who are currently filing a FAFSA, and in case the federal Department of Education widens its eligibility requirements in later guidance. Any remaining CARES Act funds will be distributed to eligible students in a second distribution after June 1, 2020, using the same rubric and process.
Process There is no application form – grants will be calculated automatically for each student based on eligibility. To facilitate the payment to students as quickly as possible, we will use the same process we use earlier for distribution of refunds (but to be clear, these are not refunds). The CARES Act grants will be credited to the accounts of eligible students. Funds equal to those credits will then be issued by either check or direct deposit based on what the student has previously indicated as their preference. Importantly and consistent with the act, no portion of the grant will be applied towards any outstanding charges on any student’s account. The university will not place any restriction on how those funds will be spent.
Timeline Our Division of Finance and Administration will begin the initial distribution of the CARES Act grants next week. This is a two-step process (first a credit to a student account, then direct deposit or check issued) and we are processing almost 6,000 cases. So it may take some time to get this finalized, but getting these grants to our students will be our highest priority next week.
Emergency Assistance As a reminder to all students, regardless of CARES Act eligibility, A-State has a Student Emergency Fund. It is composed of private gifts to the university and is intended to help our students who are dealing with financial emergencies. All students are eligible to apply for these funds.
I close by thanking the members of the CARES Act Response Team, who put in a lot of work to ensure that we have the best possible plan for students.
Sincerely,
Kelly
| |
|