The car breaks down. The babysitter gets sick. A trip to the emergency room puts an unexpected dent in an already tight budget.<\/p>\n
Those are the types of money emergencies that can derail the education plans of college students who are already struggling financially.<\/p>\n
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has received a Great Lakes Dash Emergency Grant of\u00a0 $630,000 to help undergraduate students meet such financial emergencies and stay in class. Coupled with a contribution from the university, the new emergency funds program will have a total of $675,000 available over the next two years.<\/p>\n
The Dash Emergency Grants, which start this fall, will allow the university to offer students more help in meeting emergency expenses. Eligible undergraduates can apply for a single grant of up to $1,000 through the program for non-academic expenses.<\/p>\n
51ÁÔÆæ is one of 32 four-year universities in six Midwestern states to receive one of the 2017 Dash grants, which previously were given only to two-year campuses. The grant comes from the philanthropic arm of Great Lakes, a nonprofit servicer of student loans.<\/p>\n
The new grant will provide much-needed help for students facing unexpected expenses, according to 51ÁÔÆæ\u2019s Dean of Students Office. Last year, the university had 7,550 students who had an estimated family contribution of less than $5,235, according to the office. These students, taking part in the Pell Grant program for low-income students, are among those most likely to have to drop out of class because of financial emergencies.<\/p>\n
Currently, the office tries to meet the emergency needs of these students through a variety of programs, including gifts from donors and the Life Impact program for student parents. The office estimates that if the awards average $500, the new Dash grants could help up to 660 students the first year and 690 the second year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Eligible undergraduates can apply for a single grant of up to $1,000 through the program for non-academic expenses. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":835,"featured_media":49182,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[174],"tags":[],"section":[122,124],"display_categories":[115,116],"related-coverage":[],"uwmnews-feed":[167],"class_list":["post-49178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","section-campus-community","section-students","display_categories-top-story-secondary","display_categories-top-story-section","uwmnews-feed-alumni-association"],"yoast_head":"\n