David, thanks for your responses! I’ll add mine below. They are similar to yours, though now I have the benefit of hindsight!
1. The University created a committee to decide upon the use of the funds. I was not involved in the conversation, but I was very pleased to see that a majority of my law students ended up qualifying for a first-round CARES Act grant. We required that a 2019-2020 FAFSA be on file, so there were some students who missed round 1 awarding – but we did remind them to submit a FAFSA in quite a few places, so this is an unfortunate lesson in the real-world consequences of not reading emails. They are able to apply for funding in a second round of awarding, which will begin soon.
2. We have an internal emergency loan fund (which is need-based), an internal emergency grant fund, and we applied for and received an emergency grant (which is to be fully disbursed to students) from AccessLex. Administering these awards took the bulk of my time in March and April, but I was glad to have resources available to support struggling students.
3. We are offering (online) summer courses for the first time in years, in large part because there was student demand when internships were cancelled. So the whole process for summer is new to me – but I think it’s the standard process for the University.
4. Will we need emergency funds in the fall? As summer goes by, will more students be reaching out because their savings are gone? I’m concerned.
