YSU signed and returned the Certification and Agreement for the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) and assures that the institution has used the $5,188,231 funds received for HEERF II designated under the CRRSAA and ARP (a) (1) and (a) (4) programs to provide Emergency Financial Aid Grants to students.
The total amount of funding YSU received from the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) for Emergency Financial Aid Grants to students is $10,376,462. $5,188,231 for HEERF II and $5,188,231 for HEERF I for a total of $10,376,462.
The entire $5,188,231 allocation for HEERF II grants to students has been distributed. The actual amount YSU disbursed was slightly more than the allocation at $5,188,560.
The number of students we estimated were eligible for HEERF II grants was 3,113. We used 3,113 students as an estimate because that was the student count that received HEERF I (Penguins CARE) grant funds.
The total number of students that received HEERF II grant disbursements from YSU is 4,156. The removal of grant eligibility restrictions that occurred in May of 2021 helped us increase the total number of recipients.
YSU created one application for students to use to apply.
The HEERF II application was created by the University to prioritize release of grant funds to students with exceptional financial need as required (Pell grant recipients) and students who experienced expenses for any component of cost of attendance such as tuition, food, housing, health care (including mental health care) and childcare since the COVID-19 pandemic created financial challenges and disrupted learning.
The online application log in process validated that applicants met the conditions to apply for financial support from the HEERF II Grant. Those conditions were enrollment on or after March 13, 2020, or enrollment on the 14th day of either Summer 2020, Fall 2020, or Spring 2021 and included students enrolled in online classes.
The first group of students YSU prioritized with the release of grant funds were Pell grant recipients. 2,078 applicants were Pell eligible and received $2,597,500 in HEERF II grant fund payments to use for tuition, food, housing, healthcare (including mental health care) , or child care. This included supplementary amounts for housing expenses when requested.
Once Pell grant applicants received their HEERF II grant funds, we progressed to non-Pell eligible applicant students who requested grant aid for housing, tuition, food, healthcare, etc.
There were 462 non-Pell eligible recipients who received grant funding for housing expenses in addition to tuition, food, healthcare, etc. for a total of $1,002,950 in disbursed grant dollars.
1,616 non-Pell eligible students who did not seek assistance for housing expenses requested grant funding to cover tuition, food, healthcare, and other miscellaneous pandemic expenses and received $1,588,110. Please note that this population includes the non-degree seeking, non-credit, dual enrollment and continuing education students that were most recently determined to be eligible to receive HEERF grant funding. Because the Department of Education had not issued guidance to verify that the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996 could be ignored for HEERF II grant disbursements when the application for the HEERF II grant was launched in April, 2021, YSU allowed students without a completed FAFSA to apply in case the University received updated guidance from the Department of Education that the PRWORA could be ignored later. The updated guidance came out before all of the HEERF II grant funds had been exhausted so YSU was able to disburse grants to this population.