Wednesday, February 9, 2022 COVID-19 Updates

The Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund III (HEERF III) is NOW OPEN for students for the Spring 2022 semester. To APPLY NOW for financial aid assistance related to COVID-19, University of Mississippi students should complete the application form (you must be a student to access this form). Visit this page for details about eligibility and requirements.

HEERF stands for the “Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund,” and it was authorized by the American Rescue Plan (ARP) and signed into law on March 11, 2021. Along with universities across the country, the University of Mississippi has received this federal COVID-19 relief funding to address COVID-19 impacts including “student portions” which must go to students in the form of emergency financial aid grants and “institution portions” which can be used by institutions to alleviate financial hardships brought on by COVID-19.

The U.S. Department of Education required a fixed amount of HEERF funds to be provided directly to students. Recognizing the great need among our students, to date the university has awarded $2M above the grant requirements to students and will use institutional portions for additional student awards for the Spring 2022 semester.

The student portion of the funds have been used for any component of a student’s cost of attendance or for emergency costs that arise due to coronavirus, such as tuition, food, housing, health care (including mental health care) or childcare.

At the University of Mississippi, the institutional portion has been used to respond to the coronavirus in support of campus safety and operations, address instructional and technology needs, replace lost revenues and provide more than $2M of additional emergency financial aid grants to students to date. Visit this page for quarterly expenditure reports of institutional and student HEERF funds.

So far, the university has given out approximately 15,000 awards totaling more than $32 million directly to students meeting eligibility requirements since spring 2020, but we’re not done yet! We are currently in the process of accepting applications and disbursing another $12 million from the current round of student and institutional HEERF III funding. The emergency financial aid grants to students do not typically exceed $3,000 per student.

Here’s a breakdown of all the phases of COVID-19 federal funding awarded to the University of Mississippi and University of Mississippi Medical Center:

Funding to the University of Mississippi:

Funding to the University of Mississippi:

Funding to the University of Mississippi:

For more information and FAQs, visit this page.

The following categories of students are eligible:

Students will be considered based on the following criteria:

What? FREE COVID-19 PCR testing

Who? For symptomatic or asymptomatic students, faculty and staff

Where? University-Oxford Depot on campus

When? Monday through Friday, 3-7 p.m., and Saturdays, noon-4 p.m.

How? To schedule your test: