March 22, 2022
In the Fall 2021 Semester, Ursuline College announced the award of an additional $1,129,891 in Higher Education Emergency Relief Funds III (HEERF III) from the U.S. Department of Education, created under the American Rescue Plan (ARP). These funds are to assist students impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic to continue their education.
The college awarded the bulk of this money in October 2021 to 1029 students, with additional awards for appeals throughout the few months following. We currently have $110,246 left to award for this Spring 2022 Semester.
Institutions must prioritize HEERF III emergency grants to students with exceptional financial need (such as those that receive Pell Grants). In the first round of awards in Fall, we also considered students who did not file FAFSA’s – however, with such a small amount left to award, we will not be able to do that this spring. The grants are available to cover costs such as tuition and fees, food assistance, housing assistance, health care (including mental health care) emergencies, childcare emergencies, and other educational-related expenses that arose due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Eligibility
Since we have such a small amount left to award, we will be automatically awarding students based on need, using the FAFSA applications results. There will be no application process for this last round as we thought we might have. Eligibility will be determined as follows:
- Enrolled for the Spring 2022 Semester as of March 16, 2022
- Are a US citizen or resident alien
- Are degree-seeking students in the Spring 2022 semester
Priority for awarding
- To students with exceptional financial need, prioritized by the FAFSA Expected Family Contribution
Awards
The committee will review all 918 students enrolled as of March 16th based on the criteria listed above. Automatic block grants will be determined the week of March 21st and students will be notified via their Ursuline email account by Monday, March 28th if awarded. We expect the grants to range from $500 - $600. The email will indicate when checks will be mailed to students.
This will be the last round of HEERF awards since all the funds will be expended with this Spring 2022 round of awards.