The U. of Puerto Rico’s Humacao campus suffered major damage in Hurricane Maria, in September 2017.
The U.S. Department of Education will give $63 million in aid to 47 institutions of higher education affected by recent natural disasters, including Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, according to a news release issued on Tuesday.
The department will distribute a total of $100 million until 2022, according to the release. This year the department allocated funds by evaluating damage and recovery costs at the various institutions hit by natural disasters. Portions of the money can directly help students at risk of homelessness or displacement, but campus construction and repair projects also qualify.
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Angel Valentin for The Chronicle
The U. of Puerto Rico’s Humacao campus suffered major damage in Hurricane Maria, in September 2017.
The U.S. Department of Education will give $63 million in aid to 47 institutions of higher education affected by recent natural disasters, including Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, according to a news release issued on Tuesday.
The department will distribute a total of $100 million until 2022, according to the release. This year the department allocated funds by evaluating damage and recovery costs at the various institutions hit by natural disasters. Portions of the money can directly help students at risk of homelessness or displacement, but campus construction and repair projects also qualify.
Three campuses in the University of Puerto Rico system, at Carolina, Humacao, and Ponce, will receive funds. The Humacao campus will be granted $10 million. Humacao is on the island’s eastern shore, where Hurricane Maria hit the island the hardest in September 2017.
Months after the storm, the Humacao campus was still filled with plastic tarps. Students and instructors crowded into makeshift classrooms next to damaged and mold-filled brick-and-mortar lecture halls.
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The department will also give money to five Texas colleges and universities, including the Houston Community College system and Lamar University, near the Louisiana border in Beaumont.
Texas colleges and universities were largely spared direct damage by Hurricane Harvey, which made landfall on the coast in August 2017 and caused severe flooding in Houston and elsewhere in Harris County.
Campus operations shut down for several days, but most institutions resumed in-person classes early in the semester. Emergency relief funds helped students replace damaged goods, including laptops and school supplies, in an effort to keep them enrolled. Still, severe flooding pushed some classes online and shut down certain buildings, including residence halls.
Five Florida institutions will also receive department funding. Florida Keys Community College — which needed to repair roofs, restore phone services, and clean up downed trees and debris after Hurricane Irma — will receive more than $3.1 million.
Here’s a list of the institutions that will receive aid from the Education Department.
Fernanda is newsletter product manager at The Chronicle. She is the voice behind Chronicle newsletters like the Weekly Briefing, Five Weeks to a Better Semester, and more. She also writes about what Chronicle readers are thinking. Send her an email at fernanda@chronicle.com.
