Modesto Junior College to distribute $4.8 million in CARES Act Grant money to students
Modesto Junior College reported last week it has been awarded $4.8 million as the first part of the federal CARES Act Grant to be delivered directly to students suffering hardships as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. It is to assist with food, housing and technology expenses, for example, the college said.
On May 11, California Community Colleges filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education for excluding from the CARES Act Grant hundreds of thousands of community college students, including veterans, students with DACA status and students with no high school diploma or GED, a news release from MJC notes.
Responding to a constant flow of information from the U.S. Department of Education “has limited our ability to distribute funds since their guidelines have excluded students, like DACA and those without a high school diploma or GED,” MJC Interim Director of Student Financial Services Aurelia Gonzalez says in the news release. “We took our data of Pell recipients and compared it with the data of students in our special programs and disproportionately impacted groups (DSPS, EOP&S, CalWorks, Foster Youth, Veterans, TRIO, Umoja, The Collaborative, Re-Entry Success Network, Nursing, and Athletes) to arrive at the first list of students to receive financial assistance.”
Gonzalez said MJC’s plan will meet the current federal guidelines and allow the college to provide direct financial assistance to the largest number of students in attendance during the spring 2020 semester. It will be distributed in this order:
- Pell recipients and special programs/DI groups
- All other Pell recipients
- If funds still are available, MJC will reach out to other Title IV eligible students.
The MJC Student Financial Services team is building an electronic form to expedite the process, the news release says. The team is working collaboratively with Columbia College because many students take courses at both sister colleges.
For more information, email Gonzalez at gonzaleza@yosemite.edu.
This story was originally published May 17, 2020 at 1:47 PM.
