The U.S. Department of Education has awarded Lakeland Community College $1,536,947 million in CARES Act Emergency Funding to assist the students most impacted by Ohio's stay-at-home order, which was enacted to slow the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic. Lakeland closed it campus facilities to students and the public March 24 with classes continuing through remote delivery, where possible, for the remainder of the spring semester.

The Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund was authorized by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Funds are specifically intended to provide emergency financial aid grants to students for expenses related to the disruption of campus operations due to the Coronavirus.

The campus closure forced most on-campus classes to shift online, which led to a number of unforeseen emergency expenses for students. Many who rely on campus resources such as computer labs, Wi-Fi, food pantry, child care, etc., unexpectedly had additional costs in order to continue the semester entirely online.

"Receiving this CARES Act Emergency funding will allow us to continue to help students with their unexpected expenses that were caused due to the disruption of campus operations," said Melissa Amspaugh, senior director of enrollment operations. "Before this, we were able to help many students thanks to the generous donors to the immediate needs fund through our Lakeland Foundation. But with this additional funding, we can help even more students. The number of requests for assistance has increased by over 300% since March 18, with food and personal care being the greatest request." Lakeland students who are eligible may apply for funding immediately. Information about applying for these funds is available at lakelandcc.edu/web/about/cares-act.

Lakeland's total funding allocation through the CARES Act amounted to $3,073,894 of which up to half of funds are authorized by the U.S. Department of Education to be used to cover associated institutional costs incurred due to significant changes in how instruction is delivered due to the pandemic.

Lakeland's allocation was set by a formula prescribed in the CARES Act, which is weighted significantly by the number of full-time students who are Pell-eligible but also takes into consideration the total population of the school and the number of students who were not enrolled full-time online before the coronavirus outbreak. The most recent data available from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and Federal Student Aid (FSA) for was used for the calculation.

Lakeland continues to operate all college offices remotely, including admissions, student service center, counseling and recruitment, and career/job services by phone and email. Summer and fall registration is currently underway and new student orientation is now available online. Summer classes will be offered online only. Information on fall class offerings is forthcoming.

For more information visit, lakelandcc.edu.

By: Jessica Novak