The University of Maryland has received estimates that it will likely earn about $58 million in funding from the American Rescue Plan, the coronavirus relief bill President Joe Biden signed earlier this month.
The $1.9 trillion bill is the third economic relief bill passed since the beginning of the pandemic to fund education. It allocated almost $40 billion toward colleges and universities.
The $58 million estimate is from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. Half of the funding will go toward emergency financial aid for students — a provision the federal government is requiring.
The remaining funding will go to “all the COVID costs” the university has incurred to keep the campus safe, university President Darryll Pines said in an interview Wednesday.
The university will receive the funding once the money “sorts its way through” the U.S. Education Department, Pines said.
“We’re all super excited about that because it’ll be able to mostly help our students, both undergraduate and graduate students,” Pines said.
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In May, the university received $21 million in federal funding from the CARES Act, the largest economic stimulus package in U.S. history. The university also received $32.8 million in funding from the relief bill passed in December, according to information provided by a university spokesperson.
The pandemic has depleted the university’s budget. In September, this university announced it would be facing a $292 million budget cut for the 2021 fiscal year. To offset some of the losses, the university instituted a hiring freeze and temporary salary reductions for employees with an annual salary over $150,000.
But the outlook for the 2022 fiscal year is more optimistic, Pines said.
“We’re not expecting a big cut,” he said. “And I think that’s because the vaccine is coming. And I think that we all can see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
