Enrolled students in need may be able to use the Student Emergency Fund to help with unexpected, unforeseen and urgent expenses, like housing or living expenses. The link to request the fund can be found at dos.wcu.edu, or by finding the Dean of Students’ page.
The fund was created in 2010 because, in the past, students often experienced emergency situations and didn’t know where to seek help.
The emergency fund was not created to support students with financial aid, but the process does include working with the financial aid staff of WCU on a case-by-case basis.
Instead, emergency funds are used to aid students with unexpected costs that they are unprepared for. These include hunger, short-term help with rent, laptop repairs and other emergencies that may arise.
The funds are readily available to students in need and the process for receiving funds is simple.
Students can access the fund by visiting dos.wcu.edu. To receive support from the fund, students must follow the directions listed on the website.
The Dean of Students, BaShaun Smith, oversees the fund.
“We strongly encourage documentation of the emergency to better assist us with making decisions,” Smith wrote in an email.
The process is completely virtual, so students never have to meet face to face for assistance.
Currently the fund has $43,636 available. This money has been made available through the Catamount Legacy Walk and donations from supporters of WCU.
Money from the fund cannot be used for tuition and other related University fees and charges, family related expenses/bills, non-essential utilities or household costs such as cable or any other anticipated expenses.
“The fund is important to WCU because students have emergencies that occur in their lives. These situations can have a negative effect on those students and hold them back from achieving their academic goals. It’s important because it is another way our community expresses care for our students,” Smith wrote.
Donations to the Student Affairs Emergency Fund, may be added at https://www.givecampus.com/campaigns/13332/donations/new . Under the designation tab, click other and type in “Student Affairs Emergency Fund”.
