NOM

Of BYU’s 32M, half or 16M has to be passed through to students.

The CARES Act — the largest economic stimulus package in American history — was signed into law on March 27. It allocates nearly $14 billion to support higher education institutions during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Of the $8,655,748 Harvard is slated to receive, the government has mandated that at least half — $4,327,874 — be reserved for emergency financial aid grants to students.

The Department of Education will distribute the first $6.28 billion to colleges and universities to cover expenses such as course materials, technology, food, and housing students have incurred “related to disruptions in their education due to the COVID-19 outbreak,” according to a April 9 press release.

The Department of Education is requiring universities to sign a certification agreeing to the conditions of use before they can access the funding, but each school may allocate the financial aid funds at their own discretion.

The Department of Education allocated most of the $14 billion in funds based on two factors: the share of recipients of federal Pell Grants, and overall undergraduate and graduate enrollment numbers. It weighted the proportion of Pell Grant recipients as a factor at 75 percent, while enrollment was weighted at 25 percent.

As a result, the top 20 colleges which received the most funding are all public colleges and universities with enrollments in the tens or hundreds of thousands. Arizona State University received the largest relief package of any institution in the nation, netting more than $63 million.

Harvard’s aid package is the third-largest of the Ivy League universities’. Columbia University and Cornell University will receive the largest awards, at $12.8 million each. Yale University will receive nearly $7 million, and Princeton University will net around $2.5 million.

In an April 9 letter to college and university presidents, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos encouraged administrators to set a maximum amount for individual student aid grants.

blazerb wrote: ↑Tue Apr 21, 2020 12:23 pm I don't think receiving this money is nefarious, it's just hypocritical. Unless the government came to BYU and said, "You have to take this money," they are consuming funds that could have gone to other, needier institutions. $54 million is nothing to the church. It's a rounding error when they check the books at the end of the fiscal year. Finding $100 million to support student workers would not be a problem for the church. Why did they need to accept this money?

On the other hand, there are schools where this could have made a real difference. Maybe it wouldn't have gone to them anyway, but this still stinks. And Harvard didn't need to take the money, either.

Reuben wrote: ↑Wed Apr 22, 2020 10:43 am

blazerb wrote: ↑Tue Apr 21, 2020 12:23 pm I don't think receiving this money is nefarious, it's just hypocritical. Unless the government came to BYU and said, "You have to take this money," they are consuming funds that could have gone to other, needier institutions. $54 million is nothing to the church. It's a rounding error when they check the books at the end of the fiscal year. Finding $100 million to support student workers would not be a problem for the church. Why did they need to accept this money?

On the other hand, there are schools where this could have made a real difference. Maybe it wouldn't have gone to them anyway, but this still stinks. And Harvard didn't need to take the money, either.

Do we know that they can refuse?

I would have sent my stimulus money back if I could.

Reuben wrote: ↑Thu Apr 23, 2020 12:33 am

Reuben wrote: ↑Wed Apr 22, 2020 10:43 am Do we know that they can refuse?

I would have sent my stimulus money back if I could.

Well then. Seems they could send the money back, like Shake Shack did:

https://www.ksl.com/article/46743257/sh ... government

Reuben wrote: ↑Wed Apr 22, 2020 10:43 am

blazerb wrote: ↑Tue Apr 21, 2020 12:23 pm I don't think receiving this money is nefarious, it's just hypocritical. Unless the government came to BYU and said, "You have to take this money," they are consuming funds that could have gone to other, needier institutions. $54 million is nothing to the church. It's a rounding error when they check the books at the end of the fiscal year. Finding $100 million to support student workers would not be a problem for the church. Why did they need to accept this money?

On the other hand, there are schools where this could have made a real difference. Maybe it wouldn't have gone to them anyway, but this still stinks. And Harvard didn't need to take the money, either.

Do we know that they can refuse?

I would have sent my stimulus money back if I could.

Emower wrote: ↑Wed Apr 22, 2020 8:54 am You guys are right, hypocrisy is nothing new to the church, and it is totally par for the course, totally expected. What gets me is that the entire justification the church gave for the 100 billion fund, was a rainy day fund. Well now its a rainy day, small businesses are going under, some in part because the small business loan program ran outta cash, and here the church is skulking around stepping on the backs of those businesses to use the funds. They are also doing it with needy families. It used to be that the first place to run was family assistance, then church, then government. Now its government first, family, then the church. Someone I know called it "raiding the coffers of babylon." And again, its expected from a global, profit driven corporation focused on annual revenues. Its just mind blowing to me that people dont see the mormon church becoming exactly what the BOM preaches against.

Red Ryder wrote: ↑Tue Apr 21, 2020 12:26 am This isn’t as nefarious as it looks. The church didn’t exactly say “Hey let’s apply so we can receive money and not spend our own.”

Even Harvard received money.

Just This Guy wrote: ↑Thu May 21, 2020 12:02 pm Well, LDS Inc held on to it for about 30 days. How much did they make off of interest with this? Given that the stock market had pretty well bottomed out around the time they got the money and it has been rebounding fairly well, how much can they make off of short term investments with this?

Next, what about the $20 going to other schools?

Finally, what about the students? Part of the conditions of the US government giving this to the schools was that at least 50% is to be paid to students. So if LDSInc isn't taking the money, then the students that would have been paid from it now get nothing?