At Augustana College, Kai Swanson says a majority of its funding will go directly to students based on need. The rest will go toward covering COVID-related expenses and loss of revenue, which generated a deficit of 11.5 million dollars for the college.
“We had to spend on contact tracing teams. That was actually one way we avoided furloughs. We repurposed some of our colleagues to contact tracing in a very robust effort there, but you still needed to have some hotels for quarantine and isolation space.”
International students at Augustana College also faced challenges getting federal support last year. On a Zoom call today, Swanson thanked Congresswoman Bustos for the inclusion of international students in the ARP.
“We had about 160 international students for whom it was simply not an option to go home, and as you know, some of the early aid that was sent to higher education expressly prohibited benefiting our international students. Thankfully, that is quite anachronistic.
Early enrollment numbers for Augustana College’s fall semester are up. Swanson says they’re subject to change between now and the first day of school, but it gives him hope for higher education post-pandemic.
