Quinnipiac University received several grants over the past few months including $306,244 from the state Office of Higher Education (OHE) and almost $30 million in total from three federal COVID-19 relief bills. 

Additionally, the university requested almost $300,000 funding from the Justice Department’s Office on Violence Against Women (OVW).

Grant to help local high schoolers preparing for college

With a goal to prepare at least 100 high school freshmen from Hamden, Meriden and Ansonia school districts for college, the university put $444,425 into its Quinnipiac University Advancing Diversity in Science (QUADS) program, of which $306,244 was funded by the OHE.

The three-year-long program allows high school students to work on a project investigating their home communities with guidance from their teachers, as well as Quinnipiac faculty and student mentors. Prospective students will have a chance to improve their college readiness through campus visits, job shadowing and attending workshops.

The majority of the total amount, $182,900, will go toward salaries for newly hired and promoted employees —  $38,400 for the program director, $36,000 for the part-time program coordinator, $36,000 for eight faculty mentors, $52,000 for 25 student mentors, $1,600 for on-site director of first aid and $18,900 for director of summer programs and planning.

On top of their salaries, they will get employment benefits that total $39,509.

Teachers from eight of the program’s partner schools will receive a $10,000 honoraria, which brings the total price tag to $80,000.

All expenses related to the instructional material and supplies, including t-shirts for students and lab and special event supplies, are covered by the $21,550 grant from the OHE.

Quinnipiac contributed $112,666 to cover administrative support, event space, furniture and digital infrastructure. The remaining $7,800 was for other costs such as an external evaluator, background checks and licensing fees.

The OHE awarded the grant on July 1, and it will cover the program’s expenses until June 2022. The university can renew the award next year.

Assistant teaching professor of education Cindy Kern will serve as the director for the program.

“This is an awesome and timely opportunity for Quinnipiac to serve our community,” Kern said in a press release. “QUADS facilitators use equity-based principles to design meaningful ways for students to both enhance and contextualize their college readiness and learn science while moving toward social justice.”

Federal grants from COVID-19 relief bills

As a part of the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund programs under the United States Education Department, Quinnipiac received three stimulus checks that total around $26.6 million starting in 2020.

This includes $13.7 million from the American Rescue Plan (ARP), $7.6 million from the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations (CRRSA) Act and $5.3 million from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

Out of the $26.6 million, the U.S. Education Department mandated Quinnipiac to allocate at least $12.28 million for student financial aid. As of June, the university has distributed $4.96 million to students with grants from the CRRSA and the CARES acts. While the student portion of the CARES Act’s fund was completely distributed, the university still needs to give out another $385,000 to students from the CRRSA Act’s grant.

For the $6.9-million student portion from the ARP, the university “is in the process of developing a distribution policy based on federal guidelines, with the intent of assisting as many students with high financial need as possible, while ensuring that the awards are substantial enough to be meaningful,” according to its website.

Besides the money for students, around $11.8 million of the institutional portions from the ARP and the CRRSA acts remained unused, according to the university’s latest report.

Quinnipiac spent all of the $2.6 million for institution-related expenses from the CARES Act last year for tuition/housing refunds, campus safety operations and technology fees.

Grant to combat sexual and dating violence on campus

With goals to educate students about domestic violence and provide resources to victims of such violence, Quinnipiac applied for a $299,904 grant from the OVW in March.

If awarded, the university will partner with the Hamden Police Department and community-based nonprofit organization Women and Families Center (WFC) to provide more resources and services to students.

The Chronicle reached out to the Department of Justice to ask whether or not the university was awarded the requested fund but hasn’t received any response at publication.

According to the grant proposal, around half, or $150,178, of the total amount will be a three-year salary of the yet-to-hire program director who will oversee all the aspects of the proposed project. An additional $52,562 will go toward the director’s employment benefits.

Another $38,000 was requested to cover the Quinnipiac personnel’s consultant travel costs for the OVW technical assistance.

With less than 20% of the request fund left, the university will use $28,000 to expand its domestic violence victims services on campus with WFC as its partner. The proposal listed $3,900 for supply items including the program director’s computer, laptop, printer, general office supplies and brochure and flyers printing.

The remaining $27,264 was described as indirect costs.

If the OVW releases the grant to Quinnipiac, the university will be required to use the fund to implement all the proposed programming over the next 36 months.