Pictured Above: According to Mark Walsh, USF’s assistant vice president of government relations, the Department of Education calculates funding allocation based on student population and the university’s amount of Pell Grant recipients.
Courtesy of Cassidy Schuck
A $900 billion COVID-19 relief package which included $23 billion in aid for higher education was passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump at the end of 2020.
This was the second federal aid package passed for higher education institutions since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. USF received $17.4 million in April through the CARES Act.
As of now, it is unclear how much USF will receive from this new round of federal aid.
Mark Walsh, USF’s assistant vice president of government relations, explained that the allocation of the federal aid has not been calculated yet.
“We don’t yet know the exact amount that will be provided to USF,” Walsh said in an email to The Crow’s Nest. “That will be determined by the (U.S. Department of Education) using the formula in the bill.”
According to Walsh, the Department of Education calculates funding allocation based on student population and the university’s amount of Pell Grant recipients.
Since USF has a large student and Pell-recipient population, Walsh believes USF’s award will be “quite substantial.”
Walsh also explained that the bill provides a general outline for how the funds should be utilized.
This outline includes directing aid towards “defraying expenses associated with coronavirus…. student support activities that address needs related to coronavirus… (and) financial aid grants to students.”
Since the precise allocation of the funds has not been announced yet, the USF administration has not made any plans for its distribution.
Walsh said the allocation will be announced by the end of the month.
“The bill instructs the (U.S. Department of Education) to distribute the funds within 30 days of enactment of the bill, so we should know soon what our share is and any additional guidance from the agency on how the funds
