Alan S. Caniglia alan.caniglia@fandm.edu
Fri, May 15, 7:12 PM
May 15, 2020
Dear Students,
This is a brief update on the federal government’s Coronavirus Aid, Recovery, and Economic Security Act (the CARES Act) funding and distribution.
When it was announced late March that F&M was eligible for CARES Act funding, the College quickly filed an application for the funds. We were notified just a few days ago that the funds are available. Per the CARES Act, at least half of the funds are to be used for direct emergency financial assistance for eligible students. The remaining funds may be used to offset institutional costs associated with significant changes to the delivery of instruction due to the coronavirus.
In a few days, we will email a form to your F&M address that you will need to fill out to request funds. The form will require you to confirm that you incurred eligible expenses, and will ask you questions about those expenses. Please respond as soon as possible. We would like to get these funds to you as quickly as we can!
Because F&M has already distributed room and board refunds to eligible students living in College-owned housing using College funds, we will use a substantial portion of the CARES Act funds to provide grants to eligible students in off-campus housing. However, we also will provide grants for all eligible students (no matter their housing location) who can demonstrate unexpected expenses associated with the pandemic that are deemed eligible according to government guidelines.
The amount students will receive for eligible expenses will depend on a variety of factors, including the amount of their eligible expenses, where they live on or off campus, the financial aid they receive, and other factors consistent with CARES Act guidance. Students should not expect to be reimbursed in full for eligible expenses, but we believe that the reimbursements will provide meaningful relief.
The CARES Act specifically prohibits the disbursement of funds to some members of our community, including international students. We feel it would be unfair and incompatible with our values as a community to provide no relief to those students who are ineligible for CARES Act funding. Therefore, F&M will use its own institutional funds in circumstances where the CARES Act would not apply to make sure all students are treated equally.
More information will follow next week. And please be on the lookout for the application form in your F&M email!
Alan Caniglia
Alan S. Caniglia
Vice President for Strategic Initiatives
Acting Vice President for Finance and Administration
Professor of Economics
Franklin & Marshall College
PO Box 3003
Lancaster, PA 17604-3003 USA
phone: (717) 358-3993
pronouns: he/him/his