Clayton State University is using federal funds to help several thousand students who fell behind on their account balances during the coronavirus pandemic.
The university announced Wednesday it is using American Rescue Plan funds to help nearly 6,000 students resolve current account balances, allowing them to remain enrolled for the fall semester. About $6 million of the funds allocated to Clayton State is being used to assist with the costs for students with the most financial need during fall 2021, university officials said.
Clayton State is also using $607,000 in Higher Education Emergency Relief Funds (HEERF) to waive the balances of 693 students with outstanding balances from March 2020, when the pandemic became a national public health crisis. The university received nearly $20 million in total HEERF funding, federal data shows.
“The pandemic was financially difficult for many of our students,” T. Ramon Stuart, who became Clayton State’s president last month, said in a statement. “It is our mission to help them reach their educational goals. Unfortunately, sometimes all that is hindering them from continuing their journey is a few hundred dollars. The emergency grant funds that we were able to obtain will help keep many of our students on the path to reaching their potential.”
Several colleges and universities in Georgia have taken similar steps in recent weeks. Georgia Southwestern State University also announced Thursday it is discharging over $110,000 in students’ overdue, unpaid balances and will distribute more than $3 million to enrolled students over the coming year.
Clayton State last fall had about 7,000 students and many of them come from low-income households. State data shows 57% of Clayton State students took out loans to help pay for their education, which is slightly higher than the average for Georgia’s nine public state universities. Sixty-five percent of its first-year students receive federal Pell grants, usually awarded only to undergraduate students who display exceptional financial need.
Clayton State officials said in addition to financial assistance, the university plans to help students academically and socially, as well as providing mental health support.
The federal government in March 2020 approved about $14 billion for the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund fund to help financially-struggling college students and their schools through the pandemic. An additional $21 billion was added to the fund in January. Federal officials in May approved $36 billion in emergency grants under the American Rescue Plan for colleges and universities.
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