As the first stimulus checks hit Americans’ bank accounts, San Antonio colleges and universities have been allocated emergency funding — more than $70 million in all — from the same federal law, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

At least half the money must be passed on to students who need aid — including expenses for food, housing, class materials, technology, health care and child care — due to the coronavirus emergency. The U.S. Department of Education divided almost $12.6 billion to colleges and universities nationwide based on enrollment, giving extra weight to the number of students with low enough incomes to qualify for federal Pell grants.

“We’ll take as much as we can get and give it out as quickly as we get it,” said Lynn Barnes, senior vice provost for strategic enrollment at the University of Texas at San Antonio, which stands to receive more than $14.8 million for emergency student grants and a total of nearly $29.7 million..

Universities started signing agreements last week to draw their emergency assistance funds.

“Each institution may develop its own system and process for determining how to allocate these funds, which may include distributing the funds to all students or only to students who demonstrate significant need,” Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said last week in a letter to college and university presidents, urging them to “prioritize your students with the greatest need” and distribute the money “as widely as possible.”

About 44 percent of the more than 30,000 students UTSA enrolled this spring receive Pell grants. Many have lost part-time jobs in the service industry or in offices that shut down, Dean of Students LT Robinson said.

The university already had an emergency fund, managed in part by the Roadrunner Student Alumni Association, for students facing financial difficulties due to unforeseen circumstances such as natural disasters or medical bills. The university opened it to students who lost jobs due to the pandemic and more than 60 requested grants, Robinson said. They’ve described struggles paying bills, repairing cars and buying food. The current per-student maximum is $500.

UTSA will use another existing emergency aid application, through the One Stop enrollment office, to distribute the federal assistance money. The university has yet to determine the per-student maximum from the federal funds, Barnes said.

“I think there’s a greater need,” he said. “It’s going to depend on how many students come forward ... That amount of money could go pretty quickly. We don’t know yet what the magnitude of the requests will be.”

More Information Emergency aid to higher ed UTSA: $29.6 million (Minimum for student grants: $14.8 million.) San Antonio College: $7.6 million (Student grants: $3.8 million.) Northwest Vista College: $6.9 million (Student grants: $3.4 million.) Texas A&M San Antonio: $5.6 million (Student grants: $2.8 million.) University of the Incarnate Word: $5.2 million (Student grants: $2.6 million.) Saint Philip’s College: $3.4 million (Student grants: $1.7 million) Palo Alto College: $3.2 million (Student grants: $1.6 million.) St. Mary’s University: $3.2 million (Student grants: $1.6 million.) Our Lady of the Lake University: $2 million (Student grants: $1 million.) Trinity University: $1.6 million (Student grants: $830,000.) Northeast Lakeview College: $1.3 million (Student grants: $670,000.)

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Some students suddenly needed laptops or better internet connections when the university switched to online learning last month. To date, 158 laptops have been loaned to students who could come to campus, and the university’s Student Tech Fund opened applications this week for students who live farther away and need money to buy their own, Robinson said.

Demand for the Roadrunner Pantry, which provides food and personal care items, has skyrocketed since March 9, when students left for spring break and never physically came back. More than 460 students and 62 faculty and staff members have visited the pantry since then, a 65 percent increase compared to this time last year, Robinson said. The university is now limiting visits to once a week but giving seven days’ worth of food at a time.

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UTSA has another fund for students who lack financial support systems because they grew up in foster care. In February, one student requested assistance from that fund — but in March, it was 10, Robinson said.

The emergency fund, tech fund, pantry and foster-care student fund are all still raising money online.

The Alamo Colleges District received about $22.6 million total for its five community colleges. San Antonio College, where 30 percent of students are Pell eligible, received the most, at $7.6 million. Pell eligibility ranges from 7 percent at Northeast Lakeview College to 32 percent at Palo Alto College on the South Side, according to 2018 figures from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

College leaders are still determining how the funds will be distributed under rules that are “not concrete yet,” district spokeswoman Kristi Wyatt said, adding, “We’ve been on daily calls with our partners in higher education and government relations to get a better understanding of that.”

The colleges do have existing student advocacy centers that administer emergency grants to students, and the district already has established a COVID-19 Student Impact Fund, supported by the Alamo Colleges Foundation, to help students with groceries, bills, lost wages or other disruptions caused by the pandemic.

Colleges and universities can use the other half of their federal relief funding for “institutional costs” of the coronavirus crisis, such as distance learning technology or simply to make up for lost revenue.

UTSA hadn’t yet decided how to spend that part. Barnes said he was hoping for more specific rules about it in the next few weeks from the federal and state governments and the UT System.

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The university has refunded campus housing, meal plan and parking charges, prorated to March 16. Colleges and universities across the country have lost money to student refunds and cancelled events, including sports. And they don’t know what the fall will bring. Many students could decide not to enroll if distance learning continues, or if they’re still facing financial pressures.

“We’re doing our level best to recruit as many students as possible to come here in the fall and boost our enrollment,” Barnes said. “All of us are waiting to see what actually happens, but we’re pretty hopeful that we’ll have a good class this coming year and we hope to help them financially as much as possible.”

The CARES Act also provided $1 billion for minority-serving institutions across the country, a designation that includes the Alamo Colleges and most San Antonio universities, owing to their high percentages of Hispanic student enrollment. Those allocations have not been announced.

Alia Malik covers several school districts and the University of Texas at San Antonio. To read more from Alia, become a subscriber. amalik@express-news.net | Twitter: @AliaAtSAEN