Cayuga Community College to use $55K in grant funding for student-emergency fund

AUBURN, N.Y. — Cayuga Community College will use donations totaling $55,000 to help students with “unforeseen financial hardships and emergencies.”

Students can apply for grants to help cover unexpected expenses. The grants will allow the students “to return to their academics as quickly as possible, with the goal of keeping more students on track toward graduation,” the school said in a news release issued Monday.

Donations from the Gerstner Family Foundation and the Heckscher Foundation for Children, both based in New York City, support the student emergency grant program at Cayuga. It’s part of a SUNY pilot program with seven SUNY campuses, according to Cayuga’s news release.

“Many of Cayuga’s students are balancing multiple life priorities while enrolled in college,” Brian Durant, president of Cayuga Community College, said in the release. “These emergency grants will be vital to keeping our students enrolled during a time of crisis.”

The Cayuga Community College grant funding is part of $600,000 in donations from the foundations, according to a separate news release from SUNY and the SUNY Impact Foundation.

The SUNY Impact Foundation will administer the program, collect data, and study the effects of the emergency funding.

Initial grant awards, dependent upon undergraduate enrollment, range from $50,000 to $100,000 per SUNY campus with an additional 10 percent of the grant amount available to cover direct administrative expenses.

The University at Albany, University at Buffalo, SUNY Buffalo State, Dutchess Community College, SUNY Oneonta, and SUNY Orange are the other six SUNY schools that will use grant funding for the same purpose.

“SUNY recognizes that students are not impervious to crises and we want to do all we can to support students when a situation arises that will have a lasting impact on their ability to complete college,” SUNY Chancellor Kristina Johnson said in the Cayuga release.

How it works

A student-emergency fund committee will evaluate each application and will pay qualified expenses on the student’s behalf.

The fund will provide emergency aid to help students who face an “unexpected need,” such as medical emergencies, natural disasters, domestic violence, theft, loss of employment, homelessness or threat of eviction.

Examples of eligible expenses include rent, utilities, clothing, furniture, medical expenses, back-up childcare, back-up transportation, and replacement of stolen items needed for school.

“These funds will increase our resources and support students to increase the likelihood of persistence and ultimate goal completion,” said Durant.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com