Author: ESOSA RUFFIN

On May 26th and May 27th 2020, the MPRCA team prepared emails for Federal Pell Grant recipients and Pell eligible graduate students (“Pell eligible students”) to send to Monmouth’s CARES Act Grant team. In these emails, students inquired on their eligibility for CARES emergency relief aid and attached financial aid award letters of a student who did receive CARES aid and a student who did not. The CARES Act grant team responded to these emails, denying these Pell eligible students CARES aid with a justification that the students did not demonstrate “Unmet Need.”

On Wednesday, June 3, the Monmouth Pell Recipients for CARES Aid (MPRCA), a student organization recently established to address Pell grant recipients from Monmouth who have not yet received CARES aid despite eligibility, sent a letter to President Patrick Leahy and the Monmouth CARES Act Grant team. Students have also formed a petition to address these concerns, which has circulated the Monmouth community and has nearly met its goal of 1,000 signatures. The MPRCA letter to Leahy is published below.