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The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted higher education in California and across the nation, forcing students and institutions to adapt rapidly to the public health and economic crisis.
In response, the federal government provided more than $10 billion directly to help campuses and their students weather the crisis. This analyzes the pandemic-related allocation and expenditure patterns across California’s higher education landscape.
Key takeaways from the report include:
- Funding allocations were sent directly to colleges based on student characteristics. In the first round of funding, federal rules used each campus’s share of students receiving Pell Grants and the number of full-time-equivalent students to distribute funding, which disadvantaged colleges with low Pell take-up and more part-time students.
- Funding was required to be split evenly between emergency student aid and money for institutional relief. Many campuses also used some of their institutional relief funds to provide additional assistance to students.
- Individual campuses largely chose how to distribute student aid. Even with federal and system-wide guidance, campuses often had different calculation methods. Early on, more emergency aid went to students with financial aid applications on file and those enrolled in more courses, while some campuses also supplemented base aid with application-based grants.
- One-third of the institutional portion of expenditures was spent on replacing revenue from enrollment and auxiliary services. The other two-thirds covered increased costs due to the pandemic—such as social distancing and health, online instruction, and additional student funding. However, expenditures varied considerably by campus—likely a result of different needs, spending rule interpretations, and future plans.
- Because pandemic safety issues forced most courses into an online environment, campuses spent more than $460 million on online education training, equipment, and subscriptions for students and staff. Some—especially CSUs and CCCs—see an expanded role for online education in their future.