During the month of April, $750 dollars will be given to students here at KSC. This is all a part of HEERF (Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund), a section of the ARP or American Rescue Plan passed in March 2021 for the 2021-2022 school year. This gave financial aid to colleges and universities to give to their students.
Cathy Mullins, Director of Financial Aid and Scholarships said, “We still had quite a bit of money which we decided as a group that we would just give it out [$750] to every student that was currently registered this semester.” This money is to provide help to all the students that may have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The money will be sent to each student throughout the month of April due to the time it will take to process each payment and the number of students receiving the aid.
An email sent out by financial aid and Mullins on March 25 let students know they should be expecting this money to be sent to them either as an e-refund or a check.
A few days later, on March 29, another email was sent out by financial aid and Mullins reassuring all students that this was not a scam.
Jennifer Ferrell, Associate VP for Student Engagement said, “What happens, unfortunately, people receive messages like this, and they think it is too good to be true or I’m not going to click on that link or it might be spam or a phishing attempt or something.”
Ferrell added, “Any opportunity that we have to get support for students that is outside of Keene State, why would we not go for it?”
The school is currently in the process of applying for more grant money. “We’re in the process of applying for another round of the HEERF dollars,” said Farrell.
The school has received a total of three grants over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic starting with the CARES act signed into law in March of 2020 under HEERF i.
“Keene has received three grants since [the summer of 2020]. First two were just under 1.5 million and the last one was almost 3.9 million,” Mullins said.
Mullins added, “We actually received double all those figures… Half was the institutional portion and then the other half was for students.”
Also, note that this is not considered financial aid and won’t be going towards college tuition. The money will be sent to student accounts or to houses in check form for students to use as they see fit.
Sophomore Elise Lowe said she appreciates the money. “I think that it is very helpful for a lot of people, especially with COVID, people are still in a lot of trouble financially, so I think that it really helps,” Lowe said.
Lowe added, “It’s going to help me because next semester is going to be really busy, so I’m not going to have time for my on-campus job, so I’m hoping that I can put that money aside and use it for when it’s necessary.”
Junior Kyle Trombley also mentioned how helpful the money will be for students. “I think for a lot of people it’s beneficial in allowing them to either recuperate costs that they’ve lost during COVID or to budget and be more flexible in a future schedule,” said Trombley.
Trombley mentioned that being a double major meant having to take summer courses to make graduating on time possible. Trombley said, “It helps me afford my summer classes.”
A link in the email sent to students allows students to set up their e-refund. This will have the money sent directly to the students’ accounts and the bank account linked. Otherwise, a check will be sent to their houses and not the mailboxes on campus, according to the email.
Timothy Bruns can be contacted at
tbruns@kscequinox.com
