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Tuesday, April 28, 2020
Volume 154 No. 38 SERVING SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1934
WWW.SJSUNEWS.COM/SPARTAN_DAILY
COVID-19
CARES Act shows inequity gap By Vicente Vera SPECIAL PROJECTS EDITOR
San Jose State President Mary Papazian announced in a campuswide email Thursday that the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act will allocate $28.7 million in emergency funding to the university, half of which will go directly to students. The $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill, the biggest federal relief bill ever signed into law, is meant to offset the losses Americans are facing amid the coronavirus pandemic. “You just state your reasoning of why you need financial help, whether that’s for food, whether that’s for housing or whether for any other reason,” Ass o ci ate d Students President Branden Parent said in a recent Instagram Live Q&A. “As long as it’s COVID-19 related.” Through application forms, students must demonstrate that they suffered a loss of income because of COVID-19, which includes prosp e c t ive work-study opportunities and employment at the university. Parent went on to say that an application form will soon be made available through SJSU Cares. Once the SJSU Cares office deems a student eligible for emergency aid, they can receive up to the equivalent amount of this school year’s Federal Pell Grant award – $6,195. During Wednesday’s A.S. Board of Directors meeting over Zoom, Papazian said SJSU should receive the emergency aid any day now. “We’re waiting for the money to drop into the accounts, as soon as that happens, we’ll be sending out the information for you,” Papazian said in a video of the meeting provided to the Spartan Daily. “If we have direct deposit information, it will go right into the student’s account.” She said the university would prioritize full-time students over part-time students and that those who still need more financial assistance after the first cycle of aid drops can request additional assistance.
“The students who are the most needy – and we have those indicators from the financial aid office actually – we’ll have sort of a higher number of dollars they are able to access,” Papazian said. According to Parent, receiving emergency aid will not impact a student’s existing financial aid, such as current grants, loans and debt status. “You can decide what you want to spend it on,” he said during the Instagram Live Q&A. If a student was awarded a Federal Pell Grant, but did not complete the semester because of a COVID-19-related emergency, the semester will not count
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients and undocumented students do not qualify for federal financial aid programs and are not eligible for the emergency grants. “It definitely sucks,” Parent said during the Instagram Live Q&A. “Right now the university is waiting on more support from the state to see if they can get more help for the students who were left out of the CARES Act, like international students and students who are undocumented.” Grace Pang, California State Student Association vice president of legislative affairs and a previous Spartan Daily columnist, said she encourages students who do not qualify to still reach out to SJSU C a r e s , w h i c h does not d i s c r i m i n at e based on immigration status. “This exclusion from the federal government is an arbitrary travesty and decision made to marginalize our communities further given many of our undocumented, international and non-qualifying students are most at need for emergency aid right now,” she said. An estimated $14.3 billion of the coronavirus relief bill was set aside for higher education emergency relief according to the Department of Education, less than 1% of the coronavirus relief bill. “We all have the right to demand for equitable support services to reach financial mobility, retain in school and have a better future,” Pang said. Public health senior Michelle Agellon said she would accept whatever funding the university can provide, assuming there is enough for everyone who needs it. “It would mean a lot,” said the San Jose native. “I have a family of five and having to stay home has meant an increase in food amenities, utilities and other necessities such as medical care and child care.” Under the coronavirus relief bill , universities are required to allot no less than 50% of funds taken from the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund to students. Papazian stated in her campuswide email that the other half of the funds will be used to “maintain a robust academia, co-curricular,
The CARES Act offers $2 trillion in federal relief for the coronavirus pandemic. $14 billion is allocated for the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF).
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At least $14 million is for students.
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SJSU is set to receive $28.7 million from HEERF
toward their grant duration limit of 12 terms. However, the federal government restricted who is eligible to receive grants. The coronavirus relief bill allocates funds for students who are eligible for federal financial aid under Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, which includes programs such as the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
IN BRIEF Students can receive up to $6,195 in emergency funding. Those ineligible for federal financial aid, such as international and undocumented students, will not be approved for CARES Act funding. Other financial aid will not be affected and funds received through the CARES Act do not have to be paid back. Universities determine how much students receives. and work environment for all members of our community.” The coronavirus aid bill also states that all student loans and interest payments will be deferred to Sept. 30 without any consequence to students borrowing from federal student loans. In a similar declaration, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced on March 25 that the Department of Education would refund $1.8 billion in loans to more than 830,000 borrowers and release withheld payments from defaulted loans. “Americans counting on their tax refund or Social Security check to make ends meet during this national emergency should receive those funds,” she stated in an official news release. Though A.S. President Parent said SJSU is still waiting to receive the federal emergency aid from the coronavirus relief bill, an email will be sent to students with instructions on how to apply for the funds as soon as the university receives the money. Follow Vicente on Twitter @VicenteSJSU
Census deadline extended to October By Chris Padilla STAFF WRITER
The deadlines for the census have been pushed back because of the coronavirus, affecting millions, including the population of San Jose. After putting data collection efforts on hold in March, the U.S. Census Bureau announced changes to its operations in order to protect the public and bureau employees in an April 13 statement. Jeffrey Enos, the U.S. Census Bureau’s deputy regional director of the Los Angeles region, said the bureau has extended the self-response phase deadline until Oct. 31 to account for the pandemic. The initial self-response phase includes online, phone and mailed responses. The next phase, the counting of group quarters, which includes e-responses and paper counts, have
If you ever wanted to see the census in action, now is that time. Nicholas Kuwada Santa Clara County project manager for the census
an extended deadline of Sept. 3, giving the bureau almost an extra three months to fulfill this phase. Enos said everyone should fill out their census forms soon so they don’t forget. The state uses data from the census to decide how to allocate funding to programs such as Medi-Cal, MediCare and the food stamps program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, as well as provides infrastructure funds for things like roads and highways. Nicholas Kuwada, Santa Clara County census
project manager, said the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown a wrench in operations because the group relies on door-todoor enumerators to ensure that everyone is counted – a practice which has become tricky because of the risk of COVID-19 transmission. “It’s like rain on your birthday, except this is a torrential downpour and it doesn’t seem like there’s an end in sight,” Kuwada said. However, the U.S. Census Bureau is still responsible for carrying out the count
because the Constitution mandates that the government count every person living in the U. S. every 10 years. The COVID-19 pandemic forced census workers to adapt. Despite large numbers of San Jose State students moving back home as the school transitioned to online classes, the university sends the number of students who live in university-owned housing, whether in dormitories, sororities or fraternities, to the U.S. Census Bureau. This also applies to other group housing such as orphanages, homeless shelters, hospitals and prisons, where the respective organizations have to count their own occupants. As of April 1, Enos said, any students who live off-campus are counted where they live. Anyone in the country, regardless of their legal status or whether they’re on a visa or just visiting, should be counted
for the census, according to Kuwada. He a ls o said that the public is often confused about KUWADA who should be counted in a household. The answer is everyone living in it, he said, including roommates, children and tenants. Census data also determines the amount of federal relief aid given to regions, which is vital in times of crisis like during natural disasters or pandemics. “If you ever wanted to see the census in action, now is that time,” said Kuwada, referring to how census data is used to determine allocation of funds during disasters. Follow the Spartan Daily on Twitter @SpartanDaily