Federal CARES Grant Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF I) Report Data.
The 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act allocated Higher Education Emergency Relief Funds (HEERF I) to TU for CARES HEERF I grants to students. These funds helped eligible TU students with expenses related to housing, food, health care, child care, course materials, additional technology requirements, unanticipated travel, or other expenses related to coronavirus disruptions.
(The reporting requirements for the HEERF II funds from the CRRSAA act haven't been defined yet.)
TU completed the U.S. Department of Education Certification and Agreement forms for both the student portion (50%) and the Institutional portion (50%) of the 2020 CARES Act funds in April 2020. We estimate that the following number of TU students met all of the minimum federal requirements to qualify for these grants as defined by the U.S. Department of Education, Section 484 of the Higher Education Act, and Section 18004 of the CARES Act:
As of February 12, 2021, TU has used all of the funds received from the student portion of the CARES HEERF I Funds ($8,667,926) to provide CARES Grants to 7,317 students.
Towson University’s federal CARES HEERF I Grant distribution formula was based on the U.S. Department of Education’s recommendation to distribute funds to our most needy students first. We also recognized that other students and their families were also facing challenges because of the COVID-19 pandemic. We awarded 16% ($1,390,159.97) of our CARES funds through the TU Student Emergency Grant application process to 1,868 students from the Spring 2020 through Fall 2020 terms. We awarded 77% ($6,656,143) of our CARES student grant funds to 5,676 spring 2020 Pell Grant students, 3% ($263,004) of automatic CARES Grants awards to 158 students from the two additional groups of Fall 2020 students defined below, and the remaining 4% ($358,619.03) to the 255 Spring 2021 Pell Grant students defined below.
We awarded most of our CARES funds to spring 2020 Pell Grant students who were still enrolled in the spring 2020 semester as of 5/6/2020, and we notified all of these recipients by email. We included our Spring 2020 Pell Grant recipients and some additional Pell eligible students who didn't receive spring Pell Grant payments because of Pell Grant enrollment and aggregate payment restrictions. These Federal CARES Grants were based on the following award formula:
| TOTAL ATTEMPTED SPRING UNITS | AMOUNT |
|---|---|
| Full-time (12 or more units) | $1,226 |
| ¾ time (9-11 units) | $920 |
| ½ time (6-8 units) | $613 |
| ¼ time (1-5 units) | $307 |
During the Fall 2020 semester, we awarded $128,386 (1.5% of budget) in automatic CARES Grants to students whose MHEC Guaranteed Access Grants were reduced because they had to leave their on-campus housing assignments after the fall semester started. We also awarded $134,618 (1.6% of budget) in automatic CARES Grants to former Fall 2020 Resident Assistants who lost their fall room and dining plan benefits because they had to leave their RA positions after the Fall 2020 semester started. Both of these groups received Federal CARES Grants to help them with their fall meal expenses at home during the Fall 2020 semester. We notified these recipients by email.
The 2021 Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act (CRRSAA) allocated additional HEERF II funds to TU and authorized new award rules for any remaining HEERF I funds. We awarded all of our remaining HEERF I (CARES) funds ($358,619.03) to Spring 2021 students who met the following criteria when we selected recipients on 2/12/2021.
We included our Spring 2021 Pell Grant recipients and some additional Pell eligible students who didn't receive spring Pell Grant payments because of Pell Grant enrollment and aggregate payment restrictions. We didn't include students with SAP suspension status; incomplete FAFSA Verification statuses; students whose financial need was already fully met by other grants, scholarships, or tuition waivers; or students who already received their standard HEERF Grant limit from a spring 2021 Emergency Grant. These HEERF Grants ranged from $1,600 to $400 based on recipients spring enrollment levels (full-time, 3/4, 1/2, or 1/4 time).
These additional CARES (HEERF I) Grant payments fully expended all our remaining 2020 CARES Grant funds, but we will still have additional 2021 HEERF II funds available to support additional HEERF Emergency Grants.
All TU students who are experiencing financial disruptions because of the coronavirus can also submit a TU Student Emergency Grant application to apply for Federal HEERF funds and non-federal funds from the TU Foundation and other non-federal sources. To receive federal CARES (HEERF I) funds, students had to meet all of the following requirements:
Students who were only enrolled in the following online graduate programs were not eligible for HEERF Grants during the Spring 2020, Summer 2020 and Fall 2020 semesters: