St. Cloud State University has helped more than 200 students weather a fiscal emergency thanks to a two-year $420,000 grant from the Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation & Affiliates.
The Huskies Emergency Grant assisted 232 students with about $205,000 in grant funds in the first year of the program, which is designed to assist financial aid-eligible undergraduates with a financial emergency. The average grant was for about $900 and led to a retention of about 85 percent of recipients.
These emergencies are defined as unforeseen expenses that, if not resolved quickly, could lead to the student’s departure from college or loss of momentum toward completion of a degree.
Eligible expenses include childcare, gas, housing, automobile expenses, etc. Grants are for up to $1,000 per student.
The grant is part of a $7.2 million Dash Emergency Grant program that awarded similar amounts to 32 four-year colleges in six states, including seven Minnesota schools. In total the 32 institutions provided emergency assistance to almost 2,000 students at a cost of about $1.7 million in grant funds.
The coming 2018-2019 school year is the last year of the grant.
Students who receive emergency grants stay in school at better rates and graduate in larger numbers, according to Great Lakes officials. Great Lakes has helped two-year colleges build emergency grant programs since 2012.
St. Cloud State has earned multiple Great Lakes grants, including these:
- $300,000 in 2013 to provide practices, engagement and interventions that facilitate academic success with first-year students
- $200,000 in 2014 to enhance a survey assessment tool used by Multicultural Student Services to identify at-risk students, in cooperation with faculty
- $205,510 in 2014 to improve the math skills of low-income and ethnic-minority high school students, in cooperation with St. Cloud Area School District 742 and St. Cloud Technical and Community College
Madison-based Great Lakes guarantees and services student loans. Since 2006, Great Lakes has committed more than $200 million in grant funding to promote higher education access and completion for students of color, low-income students and first-generation students.
