Siena College has completed the Department of Education’s Certification and Agreement form and has received $1,310,319 in funds for Emergency Financial Aid Grants to students via the CARES Act.
The CARES Act provides colleges and universities with an allocation for emergency student relief funding that must be used for student expenses related to the disruption of campus operations due to coronavirus, such as food, housing, course materials, technology, health care, and child care. Siena College is required to distribute this emergency funding only for this purpose.
If you believe your student qualifies for this emergency relief, please reach out to aid@siena.edu.
There are approximately 3,750 students who are eligible to participate in Title IV financial aid at Siena College. As of 12/11/2020, Siena College has disbursed $1,310,319 to 1,024 students.
| Number of students* | dollars disbursed | |
| 04/01-6/30/2020 | 143 | 301,242.03 |
| 07/01-09/30/2020 | 378 | 607,655.03 |
| 10/01-12/31/2020 | 638 | 401,421.94 |
| 1,310,319.00 |
* Students may have received a disbursement in multiple quarters. The unduplicated number of recipients is 1,024.
Siena created an online application for students to provide information related to the financial impacts of COVID-19 to their family and what specific financial needs they have as a result of the disruption of campus operations due to COVID-19, including, food, housing, technology, course materials, health/child care and other costs. The Financial Aid office reviews and evaluates each application based on the information provided and awards funds based on each student’s identified needs and the availability of funding. Our office will contact students to obtain additional documentation, where necessary. Instructions to students completing the form are as follows:
“The CARES Act Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund provides funding to institutions to use for emergency financial aid grants to students for expenses related to the disruption of campus operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Students are then asked to provide details of those expenses. Once the we review documents and approve disbursement, a check is processed via the College's accounts payable system. No additional instructions are provided to the student with the disbursement.
Siena is committed to providing the education for a lifetime to our students — please reach out to aid@siena.edu if you have any questions or concerns.
In addition, Siena College received $1,310,318 in CARES Act funds to cover any costs associated with significant changes to the delivery of instruction due to the coronavirus. The College used these funds towards providing room and board refunds to students for the Spring 2020 semester. The required report to the US Department of Education documenting these expenditures can be found here.