Grambling State and Southern University at Shreveport use COVID-relief money to forgive student debt

By JC Canicosa
Contributing Writer

(lailluminator.com) — Grambling State University and Southern University of Shreveport have announced last week that they will use COVID-19 federal relief money to pay off student debt for anyone who attended those universities over the past year and a half.

“The pandemic has been really tough on our students and their families, and we’ve seen situations where students have a tough time paying tuition and some had outstanding balances,” Grambling President Rick Gallot said in a Monday evening phone interview.

“We’re just thankful we’re in a position to be able to provide this relief to our students,” he said.

In a written statement, the university says it expects to forgive $1.5 million in student debt. The program will only apply to debt that burdens students. That means, for example, the Department of Veterans Affairs will still be on the hook to pay off veterans’ college tuition, the statement says.

The number of students receiving Pell Grants — a grant program awarded to undergraduates who display “exceptional financial need” — factored into how much federal relief each college or university was allocated, Gallot said.

“It’s one of those rare occasions where the money has been directed to impact students who need it most,” he said.

Grambling joined a “growing number of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) that have cancelled student debt in recent months,” according to the university’s statement. Florida A&M and Johnson C. Smith University in North Carolina have also said they’ll pay off outstanding student balances with pandemic-related debt.

“I wish we could say we were the first, but we were not,” Gallot said.

Southern University of Shreveport’s Chancellor Rodney Ellis held a July 23 news conference announcing his campus’ $3.5 million student debt reduction plan. “Southern University of Shreveport will eliminate the balances of every student who has attended SUSLA from spring 2020 to spring 2021,” he said then.

According to a news release from the campus, Ellis also said students are eligible for up to $1,000 in support to help them return to campus “in the form of computers, credits to your accounts and a number of other resources.”

Louisiana Illuminator (www.lailluminator.com) is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization.

This article originally published in the August 9, 2021 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.