As universities prepare for the Fall 2021 semester, CARES Act funding can support long-term university initiatives with funds they have yet to utilize. Aside from the significant financial support institutions are encouraged to extend to students hit financially, institutions can broadly utilize CARES Act funding to expand additional support for students with broad applications as institutions had to undertake increased operational costs in the wake of COVID-19.
This includes improving technology and software updates that will continue to be necessary as students will seek alternatives to in-person appointments for campus services. In conversations with Symplicity users, many career centers, student conduct, and disability services offices will continue to utilize virtual tools to support their students from helping conduct virtual career fairs, mock interviews, appointments, and improve workflows to increase campus collaboration.
Additionally, continuing to offer virtual alternatives has expanded student services reach and benefited the non-traditional student who might be working full-time, taking care of family, or disabled students who struggled in the past to meet on-campus office hours. With CARES Act funding, institutions can continue to invest in comprehensive approaches to student success for everyone.
The Department of Education says that institutions, “should continue to make investments in multiple methods of communication in the coming months and years to support these students, including, for example, communicating how to use online platforms, broadband, and devices in ways that are accessible to students with disabilities and in common languages spoken by students to increase their access to this technology.”
To support continued efforts in the wake of COVID-19, many universities turned to Symplicity to provide seamless, uninterrupted support to their students. With our suite of student services solutions, Symplicity has helped colleges close the insights gap many are facing, according to a recent survey conducted by Symplicity of 500+ higher education administrators, in which 66% of respondents reported that lack of actionable data and limited technology are the greatest challenges their institutions face in 2021.
If you are interested in applying CARES Act funding towards Symplicity solutions, fill out our form to receive a template letter that can be used to submit a proposal.