Salt Lake Community College has begun to disperse emergency student aid from the American Rescue Plan Act, or ARP Act.
Federal lawmakers passed the ARP Act in March to accelerate the nation’s recovery from the ongoing economic and health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The bill provisioned nearly $40 billion for colleges and universities to cover costs incurred by the pandemic and to provide emergency grants to students.
The ARP Act allocated $42.4 million for SLCC, of which $21.5 million was reserved for student aid, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Any SLCC student can apply for an emergency grant, including undocumented and international students.
“Eligible expenses covered by this grant are those associated with a student’s cost of attendance, such as food, housing, course materials, technology, (laptop, supplies, software, etc.), childcare and health care,” the Emergency Student Aid webpage reads.
Previously, SLCC provided federal emergency aid to students with funds from the CARES and CRRSAA acts, two COVID relief bills passed by federal lawmakers in 2020. The college dispersed a combined $10.6 million, roughly half of current aid under the ARP Act.
Students can submit a request for ARP emergency aid by visiting SLCC’s Emergency Student Aid webpage and filling out the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) application.
SLCC does not require students to file a FAFSA application in order to be eligible for emergency aid under the ARP Act.
