The University reported that
emergency student funding from
the
federal
Coronavirus
Aid,
Relief and Economic Security
Act has been awarded to approxi-
mately 5 percent of eligible stu-
dents as of Tuesday.
The CARES Act, which offered
emergency grants to institutions
of higher education to counteract
the effects of the pandemic, pro-
vided $25.2 million to the Univer-
sity of Michigan-Ann Arbor with
the condition that at least half of
the allocated funds be distributed
to students for emergency finan-
cial aid. The act requires universi-
ties to report how many students
received grants and how much
funding has been distributed 30
days after accepting the federal
aid.
Students at the University who
were eligible to receive support
from the CARES Act funding
received an email with the appli-
cation details in early May. The
funds are intended to address
COVID-19 expenses that arose
after the outbreak.
The University published the
current data on the Office of Bud-
get and Planning website on Tues-
day, reaffirming a minimum of
$12,622,026 in emergency grants
will go to students.
The page states $2,712,486 of
the $12,622,026 has been awarded
to students, about 21.49 percent of
the total available financial aid. Of
the estimated 39,388 eligible stu-
dents, 1,997 have received emer-
gency grants, which is roughly 5
percent.
Several other large universities
have already distributed a larger
percentage of their emergency
financial aid to a larger percent-
age of eligible students. The Uni-
versity of California at Berkeley
reported
it
distributed
about
86.26 percent of its emergency
aid mandated for students to
68.38 percent of eligible students.
Wayne State University disclosed
they distributed 41.34 percent of
its CARES funding to 32.28 per-
cent of eligible students.
At
Michigan
State
Univer-
sity, CARES funding has run out
because
applications
request-
ing aid “far exceeded available
dollars and the funds are now
exhausted,” according to MSU’s
Office of Financial Aid.
In an email to The Daily,
University
spokeswoman
Kim
Broekhuizen
explained
the
administration
is
distributing
the emergency funds with the
intention of supporting eligible
students from the winter 2020
semester through winter 2021.
“The act instructs institutions
to award funding for expenses
related to COVID-19 caused by the
disruption of campus instruction
and to do so for the duration of
one year,” Broekhuizen said. “The
University is making decisions
based on the needs expressed by
applicants, their eligibility for
funds and the University’s need to
provide funds to a potential large
number of students over a long
period of time. The process will
evolve as the University moves
through the next year.”
In an email to The Daily, Pub-
lic Health student Anthony Dang
said he applied to receive emer-
gency aid in early May because
his paid internship opportunity,
which would have covered his
summer expenses, was canceled
and he was only receiving a sti-
pend from a different internship.
Dang received nearly the entire
amount in funding he requested
and said it would help cover his
rent.
“Now that I have funding I am
extremely relieved about surviv-
ing for the rest of the summer,”
Dang wrote. “I was currently
looking for a part-time job to do
in addition to my full-time intern-
ship, but stopped at the moment
knowing that I have these emer-
gency funds.”
3
Thursday, June 4, 2020
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com NEWS
Only a woman’s cry stopped the
march that halted traffic along
Washtenaw Avenue Thursday, as
hundreds of community mem-
bers protested police brutality
after a video surfaced of a white
Washtenaw County sheriff’s dep-
uty appearing to punch Sha’Tenia
Grady El, a Black woman, in the
head multiple times during an
arrest early Tuesday morning in
Ypsilanti Township. As the sobs
of Ypsilanti resident Ann Diggins,
Grady El’s sister, pierced through
the crowd, protesters paused. The
drum beats and chants of “no jus-
tice, no peace” and “Black lives
matter” fell silent. Then, after a few
moments in her niece’s embrace,
Diggins and the marchers pressed
on. With a national spotlight
focused on race and policing in the
wake of George Floyd’s death, Dig-
gins said the recent incident in her
hometown has not left her mind.
“I haven’t slept in three days,”
Diggins said. “Every time I fucking
close my eyes, all I fucking see is
that man putting his hands on my
sister, and I just can’t deal with it
no more. I can’t hold in my anger. I
tried and it’s not working. I’m try-
ing to do this shit the right way, and
it’s not working.”
Organized by the non-profit Sur-
vivors Speak, the protesters first
gathered at the Washtenaw County
Sheriff’s Office in Ann Arbor to lis-
ten to speakers for about two hours,
then marched onto Washtenaw
Avenue and a surrounding neigh-
borhood. Police blocked off about a
mile of Washtenaw Avenue, as well
as both directions of U.S Highway
23 overhead.
Daniyal Grady El, Sha’Tenia’s
husband, was tasered during the
incident and also arrested early
Tuesday morning. He said after he
and his wife were released from
the Washtenaw County Jail, the
Taylor Police Department picked
up Sha’Tenia to take her to Wayne
County Jail on an alleged warrant.
“Taylor (Police Department) had
no reason to come pick her up after
she just been abused,” Grady El said.
“She should have been allowed to go
to the hospital and take care of her-
self and get her wounds taken care
of. And then for Taylor to send her
to Wayne County, and have Wayne
County wrap her up in their system
is just ridiculous, especially during
COVID-19. They’re not supposed to
be bringing anybody new into the
court system, into the jails, unless
they’ve committed an actual crime.
And so it’s just a travesty going on
the legal system right now.”
According to a Facebook post,
Sha’Tenia Grady El has been
released from the Wayne County
Jail as of Friday afternoon.
Grady El also expressed anger
and frustration at his wife’s treat-
ment in the initial incident.
“Those police officers had no
right to do anything that they did,”
Grady El said. “The abuse, the pun-
ishment that she took at the hands
of that officer and whoever else was
involved with those officers should
be handled in a correct manner,
and not being investigated by their
own people. They need to be inves-
tigated from outside.”
Jason Robinson, a pastor at
Reach Church in Ypsilanti, said
Floyd’s death in Minneapolis and
the incident in Ypsilanti Town-
ship provoked the community to
demand a change in policing cul-
ture.
“If you have a culture where
officers can step over that line,
but there’s no repercussions, then
it keeps happening over and over
and over,” Robinson said. “But if
you have a culture where people
know the community will rise up,
then officers will think twice about
those
moments
of
frustration,
those moments of anger and just
those moments of just downright
racist bigotry in our communities.
So the goal of it is creating a culture
where this will not be tolerated.”
Local incident in Ypsilanti
sparks demands for change
CALDER LEWIS
Summer News Editor
Courtesy of Calder Lewis
5% of CARES Act
5% of CARES Act
funding awarded
funding awarded
ARJUN THAKKAR
Daily Staff Reporter
Read more at michigandaily.com
Read more at michigandaily.com
Out of 39,388 eligible students, the
University reported 1,997 received grants
Washtenaw Avenue
flooded with protesters
for Grady Els