By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Bowling Green State University’s Student Emergency Fund is not new. It’s existed for 20 years and has helped a couple dozen students annually in that time.
Last week, as the impact of the coronavirus pandemic have settled in, more than 300 students reached out to the fund for help with rent, utilities, buying food, and other necessities.
Dean of Students Chris Bullins said: “Traditionally we use it to help students who are experiencing a financial hardship that keeps them from being able to remain a student at the university.”
In normal times, students are already facing financial pressures not only paying for college but for rent, utilities, and food.
“Many of our students have lost income due to the closing of their jobs due to the social distancing,” Bullins said. “The majority work in industries that have been impacted by efforts we’re doing to control this pandemic and they’re not eligible, many of them, for unemployment benefits.”
That’s all added to their stress, and the university employs the fund to help alleviate some of that pressure.
The university has been capping grants at $500 per student for the semester “in order to maximize the number of students we can help,” he said.
The majority of requests are from students living off campus.
Cash is not the only way the university is trying to help.
Each student who requests aid is contacted by someone from the dean of students office, Bullins said.
“We really want to understand the totality of their situation and want to leverage all the resources we know about to help them in addition to emergency fund.”
That includes making sure they know how to apply for unemployment if they are eligible and about job openings the office has heard about.
“We try to educate them about the mandated delay in utility cutoff so they can call those utility providers and take advantage of that through May 1,” Bullins said.
They also advise them about local food pantries and the university’s Grab and Go food bag program. Among those options is the mobile food pantry that will be at First United Methodist Church today (March 26) from 2-4 p.m.
Not only has there been more demand on the fund, but there’s also been an outpouring of giving as of this morning there have been 338 gifts, totaling $50,003.16 to the fund. That’s just in the last week when the university started trying to raise awareness of the fund.
“We’re very appreciative,” Bullins said. That puts it at more than $100,000.
Information about how to donate to the fund and how to apply for help is at bgsu.edu/falconrelief.
Also, those who want to offer words of encouragement to students on social media can use the hashtag #FalconFamily.
Bullins said students seem to be managing with the shift to online learning. “Students are adapting. There have been minimal problems connecting with their faculty and getting information and assignments. They are really are making the best they can of this uncharted situation.”
Still, he said, students miss the co-curricular and other outside the classroom activities.
