AC & WTAMU: Federal recovery money starting to run thin

AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) - The COVID-19 pandemic affected many schools and students across the country and the federal recovery funds distributed to schools are starting to run thin.

Amarillo College and West Texas A&M University both say most of its funding has already been spent.

AC receiving about $15 million of student emergency aid funds during the pandemic and all of that has been spent as of July.

The college says it does have $4.4 million left of the Institutional CARES Act.

“We’re going to use it on about four different kind of broad categories of professional development, scholarship funds to help students, technology for website support, software, and then building air safety support,” said Cara Crowley, vice president of strategic initiatives, AC.

WTAMU received over $36 million in federal recovery funds and $14.9 million of that went directly to students.

“We have about $400,000 remaining, that will be going to some spring scholarships for graduates and have already been identified because they took the fall scholarships,” said Randy Rikel, CPA, vice president for business and finance, WTAMU.

Rikel expects to be out of federal recovery money by early spring and says these funds have not only helped students, but has helped bridge a gap with lost revenue.

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