Yale University is pleased that Congress is providing support for higher education in the face of COVID-19, including its establishment of the $14 billion Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund, which is being allocated largely on the basis of enrollment of students who qualify for Pell Grants.

Yale is eligible for an allocation of $6.9 million from this fund toward support for students and university operations. Though Yale is experiencing great budgetary pressure as a result of the pandemic, the university has decided not to seek these emergency funds. Instead, we hope that the Department of Education will use Yale’s portion of the funding to support colleges and universities in Connecticut whose continued existence is threatened by the current crisis.

We wish to reassure Yale students that this decision will in no way diminish our financial support for them at this critical time.

Yale considers affordability and access to be core values. Due to our significant investments in financial aid, there are more than 1,000 Pell Grant recipients enrolled in Yale College — nearly 300 more than were enrolled just three years ago. Over half of Yale’s undergraduates receive financial aid, and the university remains committed to supporting them through this crisis. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, Yale has provided emergency funds to travel home for undergraduates on financial aid and emergency assistance for those who were studying abroad and had an interruption of their program. The university has continued to pay student employees for expected work schedules through the end of the term.

Yale is fully engaged in responding to COVID-19, while remaining committed to its mission of research and education. Yale faculty physicians and clinical staff are working on the front lines to care for COVID-19 patients in Connecticut as well as guiding state and local officials on public health measures. Yale has prepared hundreds of beds for local first responders, health care providers, and funeral home staff, and has established a field hospital on campus to serve the local community.

Yale faculty, staff, and students are advancing research to find vaccines, treatments, and better diagnostics for COVID-19, and the university appreciates the continuation of the vital partnership between America’s research universities and the federal government, as exemplified by the CARES Act.

