On March 17, President Donald Trump signed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security, or CARES, Act. The aid is available for all students who were displaced because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Office of Financial Aid urges students to apply to qualify for their relief package.
The purpose of this bill as described by the United States Department of the Treasury on their website is to provide “fast and direct economic assistance for American workers and families, small businesses, and preserves jobs for American industries.”
As a part of this bill, Geneseo received $2.2 million in assistance, “to [be used] in the form of emergency grants for students,” according to Susan Romano, the director of Financial Aid.
The Geneseo CARES website explains what kind of expenses qualify for the aid, including additional costs incurred for items such as “food, housing, healthcare, moving or storage expenses, technology, childcare.”
“Say you had to leave you had to leave abruptly and you had to make a couple trips back to Geneseo to pick up all your belongings,” Romano said. “Maybe you rented a storage unit to store your things. Maybe you had to buy a new computer because now … you're all online … Maybe your family experienced … more food costs cause now you were home and they weren't planning on that. You were going to eat from your meal plan here, those types of things”
There is still aid available to students on the campus to take advantage of, according to Romano.
According to the Geneseo webpage created to manage the CARES Act, as of Sept. 14, Geneseo has disbursed $705,957 under the CARES Act. This translates to about 800 students who have applied. As Romano wants to make clear, “we have a lot more students on campus” and many do qualify to receive this aid.
The base grant available to students is $500. Students who have filled out their 2020-2021 Free Application for Student Aid (FASFA) and qualify for financial aid are eligible to receive the base grant.
Romano said that the FASFA is required to demonstrate that the student is eligible for financial aid. Even if a student does not actually utilize the aid thata they qualify for through their FASFA, they are still eligible to receive the base grant amount.
According to the Office of Financial Aid, there is an enhanced application for students who are in need of more funding as a result of displacement. An additional $300 is available for students if the former isn’t enough to cover the cost of displacement. This extra money above the base grant amount is available to students who were abroad during the Spring 2020 semester or those who utilize the New York State Tuition Program.
“The application is still open. We still have funding … Just go right in apply. [It's] simple; the application for the base grant will take a minute,” Romano said.
For more information on how to apply to receive your grant you can visit https://www.geneseo.edu/financial_aid/cares-act-emergency-grant. The direct link to the Google Form to be filled out by students is https://forms.gle/EK1R5oJuz1ubcaXy6.