By Melissa Vasquez

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – To provide UTRGV students with even more financial support this coming semester, the university has revamped its Fall Relief Package to give all eligible students a total of $1,000 in CARES cash grants.

Each CARES Act eligible undergraduate and graduate student enrolled for Fall 2020 will receive two $500 CARES cash grants that can be used for personal or education-related expenses during the pandemic. 

The CARES cash grants are direct payments to students that will not need to be paid back.    

“Our constant focus is to do all we can to ensure the safety and well-being of our students, and to do all we can to ensure their academic success,” UTRGV President Guy Bailey said. “We know the pandemic continues to affect many of our students and their families financially. To help enable your success, and recognizing that everyone’s needs might be different right now, we have improved our Fall Relief Package to provide you with even more financial support.” 

The Fall Relief Package will roll out in two phases:   

• A few weeks before the start of the Fall 2020 Semester, ALL eligible students enrolled with UTRGV by Friday, Aug. 7, will receive the first $500 in cash grants. 
• The second $500 in cash grants will be received after the 12th class day of the Fall 2020 term. This additional $500 payment will be distributed starting on Sept. 10 and will only go to those eligible students who are still enrolled with us on that date.   

 

In addition, $500 tuition relief packages are available for non-CARES Act eligible students, including: 

• Incoming freshmen who graduated from high school in or after May 2020 and are enrolled full time (at least 12 credit hours) at UTRGV.   
• All continuing graduate students enrolled full time in fully online programs. Non-CARES Act qualifying students will receive tuition relief after current federal and state aid (like Pell Grant and Texas Grant), scholarships, and other gift aid is applied. 

More information on the revamped Fall Relief Package, including FAQs, is available here.

 
CARES ACT FUNDS 

UTRGV continues to implement programs directly benefitting students who have been impacted by disruption to campus operations due to the coronavirus. These programs are funded with both CARES Act funds from the U.S. Department of Education and UTRGV institutional funds, and of the programs’ total costs, no less than $17,169,129 of CARES Act Higher Education Emergency Relief Funds (HEERF) will be expended on eligible students through direct grants. The opinion and content of this communication is that of UTRGV and does not necessarily represent the policy of the U. S. Department of Education or the Federal Government.