About 14,000 students at Dallas College have had their tuition bills eliminated during the past year. The college used money from the federal government's Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund to help students facing financial hardship because of COVID-19.
"Clearing the balances will provide much-needed relief to many of our students," said Dr. Marisa Pierce, Dallas College associate vice chancellor of enrollment management. "We hope that by removing this barrier we allow them to continue the pursuit of their educational and employment goals."
Dallas College began offering the help to students in the spring semester of 2020, when businesses across north Texas closed or operated under reduced capacity limits to help limit the spread of the coronavirus.
"A lot of our students ended up not being able to work as many hours due to the of the pandemic or a lot of the shut-downs," said Dr. Adrienne Thompson, Senior Director for the Dallas College Foundation. "We have been able to help students tremendously in the areas of child care, food, housing. But also we had the opportunity to help students pay off some of their tuition, to go back and help them with outstanding balances."
The tuition grant program helped 11,000 students who attended classes during the spring, summer and fall semesters in 2020 along with another 3,700 in the spring semester of this year.
"Having the opportunity to help them pay off this tuition and outstanding balances plus help them fulfill those emergency basic needs they had during this COVID has really helped our students understand that we care for them as a whole," said Dr. Thompson.
Students who still need help with tuition or other expenses can find information on various aid programs on the Dallas College web site.
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