UCLA administrators are reaching out to graduate students about emergency financial aid options that are currently used mainly by undergraduates.
These options exist through the Economic Crisis Response Team, founded in 2009, organized to help undergraduates and graduates by providing emergency financial aid. The program began as a response to the economic downturn limiting student financial aid options.
This year, the program is targeting more graduate students in order to make sure all UCLA students are supported, said Maria Blandizzi, director of student services initiatives.
“It’s definitely something that is needed,” said Michael Weismeyer, president of the UCLA Graduate Student Association. “It’s providing valuable offers for students who have nowhere else to turn.”
The GSA will be working to help promote the ECR Team this year and let more graduate students know that it is a resource open to them, Weismeyer said.
More than 300 undergraduate and graduate students have been helped by the program in the last two years since the program’s start, Blandizzi said. Emergency funds can aid a student unable to pay money for rent and threatened with eviction, for example.
The program is funded by a $200,000 grant from Chancellor Gene Block given at the program’s inception.
Students are eligible to receive stipends of $200 to $4,000, depending on need.
Students may only receive money from the program once, Blandizzi said.
While there is no application for the fund, a student must write to the team to request money. A faculty member can also write on behalf of a student.
The team then looks at the student’s current financial standing and also speaks with the student to understand their situation before deciding to grant the funds.
Many graduate students address paying for their tuition in different ways, Weismeyer said.
Some come to graduate school already having worked for several years, while others come straight from undergraduate school, he added.
Marissa Glennon, a graduate student in the Anderson School of Management, worked five years before going to graduate school, and is now paying tuition out of her savings. Although she says she doesn’t need the resources offered by the program, Glennon said she has watched other students build up debt, especially those who go straight from an undergraduate program to a graduate program.
Blandizzi did not have an estimate for when the program would run out funding, nor did she say how much has been used.
It is unclear if the program would receive further funding after the initial grant is used up.
In the meantime, the program is trying to use its funds as diligently as possible, Blandizzi said.