Every year, approximately 15 to 25 students utilize the Dean’s emergency fund, which is reserved for emergencies in which a student’s family would be burdened financially, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students Michael Olin said.
Olin explained that the fund could be used in all kinds of situations, noting that the fund could provide financial assistance for a student to travel home in the event of a health or family emergency, or assist a student in paying medical bills for a health emergency.
"There's really no one type of situation; it runs the gamut," Olin added.
Olin noted that the emergency fund has previously been able to provide some students with coats in the event of urgent situations, such as a lost or stolen coat in the middle of the winter.
The Dean’s fund has received several more requests for coats in the past couple of years, Olin said. He noted that the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students decided to grant the increased number of requests for coats last year. However, ODUS will return to using the fund only for emergencies this year, he noted.
“We added a little more specificity in the description because we were getting a lot of requests for coats starting a year or two ago,” Olin said. "And it was never really the intention of that fund, because it's a fund that's really restricted to emergencies."
Olin said that there is no application process to access the dean’s fund. Students are advised to reach out to his office, and then he assesses their situation. The requests to utilize the fund are evaluated on a case-by-case basis. He noted that while there is no predetermined amount, the funds are not limitless, and grants are usually up to $500.
Princeton Hidden Minority Council co-chair Dallas Nan ’16 said that he made use of the emergency fund during his freshman year, when he needed to travel home to visit his mother after she had undergone heart surgery.
"With the help of this emergency fund, I was able to be flown back to Boise to be with my mom, and thankfully she made a full recovery," he said. "But in that moment, I could not exist at Princeton, and I'm so thankful that this fund was in place and that Princeton was able to provide me with the resources to go back home and be with my mom."
However, Nan also noted students’ lack of knowledge about such opportunities.
"The fact that so many very valuable resources exist on this campus and hardly anyone knows about them is a travesty, because resources should exist to support and provide what is necessary,” he said, “The advertisement of the resources and their existence in general is pretty much unknown to a lot of students.”
He also said students have been confused about existence of such resources in residential colleges, noting that many students have believed that each residential college had an emergency fund for students.
“There was this discourse about the fact that this did exist, and people would be asking for them and then the residential college staff would say, 'Oh, that doesn't exist,' or 'We'll see if we can use the emergency fund,' but it never actually could be used,” Nan said.
Director of Student Life for Mathey College Matthew Frawley and Director of Student Life for Whitman College Momo Wolapaye deferred comment to Olin, but added that residential colleges do not have emergency funds of their own.
The directors of student life for Rockefeller College, Butler College, Forbes College and Wilson College did not respond to a request for comment.
Olin explained that students are often referred to him through Directors of Student Life or staff from University Health Services or Counseling and Psychological Services. He noted that information regarding the emergency fund is available on the ODUS website, but that students may not necessarily visit this website. He noted that there might be a misperception that residential colleges have funds that students can tap into for unexpected personal expenses, but added that this is not the case as far as he knows.
“The DSLs are always directing students to me for any sort of emergency expense," he said. "We certainly want it to be utilized; we don't want to hide it. If a student has an emergency, and we can help out if it's going to be a burden for them, we definitely want to help out as much as we can."
Nan said the University should better advertise such resources, suggesting a publication describing the various options available to be distributed upon students’ arrival on campus. He noted that the PHMC shares information about resources on their website.
“This needs to be an institutional effort. So, students cannot be expected to clarify this information for their peers,” he said. "I think if the University puts the onus on us to spread word about these, they're doing a disservice to all of their students."
The University offers other financial resources to students in addition to the dean’s emergency fund, Olin noted. He explained that UHS has a fund for non-emergency medical-related issues that can help students afford medical care if it would be a financial burden, and that CPS offers no-interest loans to help students afford ongoing mental health treatment.
According to the UHS website, the mental health loan program allows students to apply for up to $1,250 in loans per semester to cover outside mental health costs, and these loans do not draw interest while the student attends the University.
Nan also said that medical assistance funds exist to help students cover the costs of their deductibles for medical care.
Olin said that the Financial Aid Office is another resource for students confronted with financial burdens on campus.
“Financial aid builds into the financial aid package some funds for personal items, and also travel for those students for whom it would be a financial burden,” Olin said.
According to Director of Undergraduate Financial Aid Robin Moscato, each student’s financial aid budget includes approximately $3,500 to cover books and personal expenses.
“Students are always welcome to come in and speak with a financial aid counselor,” she said. "It can be very helpful as they're trying to figure out how their aid package works, where money is supposed to come from, and so forth."
The Undergraduate Student Government is working to clarify the availability of emergency funds and resources for students, University Student Life Committee chair Kathy Chow ’17 said.
Chow said that the USLC is interested in investigating what sorts of funds are available for students, adding that she thinks there is general confusion around the policies for using college funds.
She explained that the Committee’s recent coat giveaway reflects the group’s interest in student access to on-campus financial resources, noting that a member of the committee who needed a coat attempted to receive funding from the University last year and was unable to do so.
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