Cash grants to be awarded Friday

Vaqueros can expect to receive an email regarding cash grants of $850 or $750 as part of the UTRGV Fall Liftoff program by Friday, as students kickoff another semester amid the pandemic.

All students are eligible for this grant, which can be used toward tuition and fees or awarded directly to students to cover the emergency costs of food, housing, health care, child care, etc. 

“Here at UTRGV, we look for every way possible to support our students,” said Griselda Castilla, associate vice president for Strategic Enrollment, during a Facebook Live July 29 to inform students about the Fall Liftoff. “We know that COVID has thrown a lot of curveballs our way and, so, with the liftoff program, we are hoping that we can provide you some financial relief.”

Funding for the cash grant incentive is authorized by the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund II & III, which is meant to prevent, prepare and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

This federal funding is referred to as “more lenient” in comparison to the rules for eligibility under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, according to Castilla.

She said funding will be prioritized to students with exceptional needs. The university classifies students with exceptional need as those who have an expected family contribution of zero, which is determined by the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

These students will receive $850 grants while students with an estimated family contribution of $1 or greater will receive $750.

Students will be notified via their UTRGV email when they are eligible to receive the grant and will be given the option to authorize whether the grant funds go to their outstanding student account balance, directly to their bank accounts or by mailed check.

All institution mailed checks must be cashed within 30 days and will not be rewritten after their expiration date. 

This is the second Fall Liftoff that the university has offered during the pandemic in an effort to keep students in school, said Patrick Gonzales, associate vice president for University Marketing and Communications.

The grant is also the second part of the 2021 Fall Liftoff program. Part one of the program was distributed to students on Aug. 18 where full-time students received up to $1,000 to cover tuition and fees. 

“We are excited again to be able to provide this financial assistance, because we know that our students are still struggling because of the pandemic and we want to do anything we can to help eliminate any financial obstacles so they can stay in school and continue toward their progress of graduating,” Gonzales said.

Graduating seniors also qualified for the first part of the Fall Liftoff incentive, even if they were below full-time status. All they had to do was apply for Fall 2021 graduation. This was done to ensure seniors did not take more classes than necessary for the sake of receiving the money.

Not taking more classes than necessary seemed to be a common theme among the university’s message for its Fall Liftoff program and its “Stay on Track” requirements.

Stay on Track is a federal requirement that affects the distribution of financial aid. The requirement has been around for years, according to Jael Perez, associate director of Financial Aid Operations. However, it is being enforced now because UTRGV’s technology has finally caught up.

This technology refers to the UTRGV student system working in conjunction with Degree Works, which is what is used to determine what classes a student needs to take.

Starting this semester, financial aid awarded will only be for courses that are applicable to students’ declared degree plans.

This means that students should only be taking classes that they need to graduate and, if they are taking any additional courses in hopes of completing a minor in some other field, then it must officially be declared on Degree Works in order to be eligible for aid. 

Perez encourages students to regularly check their Degree Works on ASSIST to ensure they are on the right track.

“I think the Stay on Track requirement is going to be beneficial to our students because we want to ensure that our students are taking the right courses that apply to their academic programs and, more importantly, ensuring that they’re not taking anything extra that they don’t have to take,” Gonzales said.

Despite the new collaboration between student systems and Degree Works making the course selecting process fairly independent, Perez said the expertise and guidance of academic advisers is still necessary in some cases depending on a student’s major.

For example, things can become confusing, according to Perez, when it comes to other financial aid offer requirements, such as the UTRGV Tuition Advantage Grant, which deems all classes free after 12 credit hours.

Students received an email this summer making them aware of the new requirements and whether the courses they were enrolled for align with their degree plan.

Emails like these will be sent out regularly to alert students and ensure they are aware of the classes they are taking and how it will affect their financial aid awards.

Students in need of additional assistance can send their questions to stayontrack@utrgv.edu, which is being monitored by Financial Aid, Academic Advising and the Registrar’s Offices.