HEERF Funding

What is HEERF funding?

In March 2020, the federal government passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which authorized the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF), referred to as HEERF I, to provide funding to assist qualifying students with expenses related to disruption of campus operations due to coronavirus. Roseman University of Health Sciences signed and returned to the U.S. Department of Education the Certification and Agreement.  The total funds allocated to Roseman University was $446,921, which was fully distributed to 600 students as of April 27, 2020.

In December 2020, Congress passed the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations (CRRSA) Act, which authorized an additional round of funds for students in the same amount, commonly called HEERF II.  As of April 27, 2021, Roseman University distributed its entire allocation of $446,921 to 428 students.

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP) authorized additional relief funding to students of higher education institutions, referred to as HEERF III.  These funds were made available on May 24, 2021.  As of February 3, 2022, Roseman University distributed its entire allocation of $1,159,179.

How was HEERF I funding awarded?

Roseman University had an estimated 1400 students who were eligible to receive Emergency Financial Aid Grants under HEERF I.  Not all students applied for funding under this program.  Roseman University required students who were affected by the disruption of campus operations from coronavirus to apply for these grants via a one-page scholarship application emailed directly to all current students, as well as posted on the Financial Aid page of our website.  Students were required to complete the application confirming that they were affected, provide the allowed reason(s) they were affected, and report the total projected cost to the student.  Applications received by the posted deadline were considered for the awarding.

Financial Aid Office staff reviewed applications to confirm that students met the eligibility requirements established by the HEERF that were in effect as of 4/20/20.  Students were scored based on several factors and priority was given to the highest scored students.  The factors used to score students include their Expected Family Contribution (EFC) from their most recent FAFSA (if no FAFSA was filed, an EFC of 50000 was assigned to the student), federal Pell grant recipients, and their proximity to graduation.  Students with a score between 3 and 6 received the highest priority for HEERF funds.  Students with the highest score of 7 were awarded grants from Emergency SEOG funds rather than HEERF funds.

The student’s requested amount from the application was compared to the amount the students would receive based on their score.  In the event of a difference, the student was awarded the lowest of the two amounts.  Therefore, unless the student requested a lower amount, students with a score of 6 were awarded $1384; a score of 5 was awarded $700; a score of 4 was awarded $500; a score of 3 was awarded $300 or $299, with the student’s EFC used as the tiebreaker.

How was HEERF II funding awarded?

Roseman University had an estimated 1250 students who were eligible to receive Emergency Financial Aid Grants under HEERF II when awards were made on April 26, 2021.  All eligible enrolled students were considered when making awards and no application was required.  Students were scored based on several factors with priority being given to students with exceptional financial need, such as those who received Pell Grants.  Scores ranged from 0 – 50 based on factors such as Pell grant eligibility, year-round Pell grant eligibility amount (the higher the total Pell year-round award amount, the higher the score), the previous HEERF I funding awarded, the Expected Family Contribution (EFC) from their most recent FAFSA compared to their overall need (Cost of attendance minus EFC) as a percent, and proximity to graduation.  Awards ranged from $491 – $3,000 based on their total score.

How was HEERF III funding awarded?

HEERF III funding was made available to Roseman University on May 24, 2021.

An electronic application was sent via email to all student cohorts who were enrolled since March 13, 2020. Students were required to complete the application in its entirety to be considered for funding; incomplete applications were not considered for funding. Students were required to answer yes to the following question to proceed with the application and be considered for funding: “Did you experience significant unexpected expenses that would affect your financial circumstances, such as the loss of employment, reduced income, or food or housing insecurity as a result of the COVID pandemic?” Students were also required to enter a “requested amount”.

The application close date was published to all students as 5 pm PST on January 7, 2022. A total of 854 applications were received. Of those applications received, 19 applications were duplicate records, 133 applications omitted the acknowledgment question or a signature, and were excluded. There were 702 unique, complete applications considered for awarding of HEERF III funds.  Applications with only the “other” box checked under eligible circumstances were required to enter text to explain their choice. The text related to those items was reviewed to determine if the circumstances described qualified under the HEERF III funding. If it was unclear, a clarifying email was sent to the student’s requested email address from the application with a deadline to respond. If a student confirmed an ineligible circumstance, they were excluded from the awarding.

Students were also allowed to enter additional information “that demonstrates a particular financial hardship you’ve experienced while enrolled at Roseman since March 13, 2020”. All text in this field was reviewed and if it provided conflicting information with the rest of the application, the student was asked to respond by a specific deadline.

Pell Recipients (current or previous for graduate-level students at Roseman) were awarded first. Awards were made using their requested amount with a minimum award of $500 and a maximum award of $2500/student.  Students who did not indicate a specific amount were awarded the minimum award amount. Students who requested more than $2500 were awarded $2500.

Non-Pell recipients were awarded the remaining amount of funds using the requested amount with a minimum of $500. All requests under $1601 were awarded their requested amount and the remaining balance of available funds was split evenly amongst the remaining students with a completed application, rounded down to the nearest whole dollar. Students who did not indicate a specific amount were awarded the minimum award amount.

The total remaining funds after awarding to all students on the criteria above were awarded to the Pell recipient with the highest requested amount to equal the total allocation from ARP. A total of 690 students received ARP funding.

Information about Institutional Portion Expenditures

Quarterly Budget & Expenditure (HEERF I Final Report) July – September 2020

Quarterly Budget & Expenditure (HEERF I and II) January – March 2021

Quarterly Budget & Expenditure (HEERF I, II, and III) April  – June 2021

Quarterly Budget & Expenditure (HEERF I, II, and III) July  – October 2021