Syracuse University will provide students with at least $4.9 million in emergency financial aid grants as part of a $9.9 million federal stimulus package the university received due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

The $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, passed last month, earmarked $12.5 billion for the federal government to disperse among more than 5,000 colleges and universities using a formula based on student enrollment. 

SU will receive $9,920,122 from the act. At least half of the money must be reserved for providing students with emergency grants to help cover expenses related to “the disruption of campus operations due to coronavirus.” 

The coronavirus causes COVID-19, a respiratory disease that has infected 263,513 people in New York state and killed 19,439. SU has suspended on-campus classes and transitioned to virtual learning for the remainder of the semester. 

The CARES Act provides institutions with “significant discretion” on awarding emergency assistance to students, only requiring that the funds be used to cover expenses such as food, housing, technology, course materials and health care. Schools can develop their own process for allocating the funds, opting to distribute aid to all students or only those who demonstrate need. 

The university has not provided any information about whether it will distribute the money uniformly among its students or implement a needs-based system. 

In many cases, spreading the act’s relief funding among the entire student body of a large college or university would mean each student would receive just hundreds of relief dollars. If SU were to distribute its CARES Act funds evenly to its 22,850 students, each student would receive about $217. 

SU has lost an estimated $35 million as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, a figure that includes lost revenue and unplanned expenses related to the outbreak, university officials announced Monday.

The university will enact several measures to limit the virus’ financial impact on the 2020-21 academic year, including freezing salaries and hiring for faculty and staff and reducing university-wide costs. SU plans to resume on-campus instruction in the fall as long as health officials deem it safe to do so. 

Guidance about CARES Act funds for colleges and universities came April 9 in the form of a two-page letter from Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. 

Students can receive up to $6,195 in relief — the maximum award the Federal Pell Grant Program currently offers, according to the letter. DeVos asked college and university leaders to prioritize students with the greatest financial need and to consider donating portions of their relief package to other universities if they find there is not a “significant financial need at this time.” 

The University of Southern California, one of SU’s peer institutions, received $9.6 million through the CARES Act. The private research university must allocate half of the funds directly to its students. 

Students at USC can apply for up to $3,000 in federal stimulus cash. Capping the potential award at $3,000 will allow the university to provide assistance to as many students as possible while ensuring awards are large enough to be meaningful to students, officials said. 

SU is awaiting guidance from the Department of Education on how to utilize the funding not allocated for direct student relief, said Sarah Scalese, senior associate vice president for university communications, in a statement. 

DeVos’ letter said the DOE is “working expeditiously to allocate the remaining funding that is reserved for institutional use.” The department will provide details in the coming days about how schools can utilize the remaining 50% of CARES Act funding, as well as options for other emergency funding, DeVos said. 

Published on April 23, 2020 at 1:55 am

Contact Michael: msessa@syr.edu | @MichaelSessa3