Document Author: Nicole L. Hacker

When Care Isn’t Enough: Administrative Burden in Federal Higher Education Pandemic Emergency Aid Implementation (2022)

Departing from traditional financial aid policies, during the pandemic the federal government
introduced emergency aid to higher education for the first time. This study examines the implementation
of that program, including students’ need for and access to the resources and the processes they navigated
to obtain help. We identify multiple forms of administrative burden present, and using both survey data
and focus groups, explain how they affected students and institutions. The psychological costs of
administrative burden were particularly substantial and should be addressed in future programming.

When Care Isn’t Enough: Scaling Emergency Aid During the COVID-19 Pandemic (2021)

When the pandemic devastated communities and college campuses, colleges and universities faced an emergency. For the first time in history, Congress responded by authorizing billions of dollars in emergency aid to quickly alleviate hardships.

This report shows how colleges and universities met the challenge of emergency aid during the pandemic, drawing on a year of surveys and focus groups, fielded and conducted by The Hope Center and DVP-Praxis, that reflect the views of institutional leaders and students from coast to coast. The results offer valuable insights that should shape the future of emergency aid and student support. While the onset of the pandemic was unprecedented, its ongoing health concerns and the looming consequences of climate change ensure that knowing how to deliver emergency aid at scale will be essential to the well-being of future students. With these lessons in mind, we can all be better prepared and ready to respond.