California colleges got billions in pandemic relief funds. What will happen once it’s gone?

Jaxon Hutchinson, center, helps his mom, Mikala Hutchinson, prepare dinner as Ryder Hutchinson, far right, eats a snack at their home at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in Oceanside on April 26, 2024. Photo by Adriana Heldiz, CalMattersCongress gave California’s public colleges and universities more than $8 billion in emergency funding during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now the money is drying up and schools are faced with a grim financial future.

He eventually quit and re-enrolled at the community college, where he’s studying animal science. Along with his regular financial aid award, about $10,000 a year, his college gave him an additional $2,000 over two semesters as part of the pandemic relief money. “I’m thankful for whatever I get,” he said.

But the criteria varied: the same student could qualify for COVID relief money at one school but not another. At Chico State and UC San Diego, for example, students applied for aid by submitting a simple form that only asked the amount of money they needed. Students at other schools, such as Cal State Long Beach State and Sonoma State, needed to write explanations justifying their need and some were denied, according to the 2021 state audit.

In their reporting, schools often used vague terms to describe how, exactly, they spent the money they received for institutional use.reported putting the vast majority of institutional funds towards recuperating “lost revenue” from tuition and dorms when students stopped attending. The university declined to specify what they used that revenue for.

Amid the flurry of federal funding, the audit found that many public colleges and universities had neglected to apply for grants they were likely eligible for. Following the audit’s recommendation, the UC system found nearly $74 million in expenses that colleges could bill to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, according to Stett Holbrook, a spokesperson for the president’s office.

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