Community-driven financial support for students during a pandemic: the Access Network Emergency Fund

Co-presenters: Benjamin Pollard (Univ of Colorado) and Gina Quan (SJSU).

The Access Network consists of nine university-based programs from across the country working toward a more equitable, inclusive, and accessible physical science community. Students in Access play a significant role in the leadership of the Network and of their sites. Since the Network’s formation in 2015, over 100 graduate and undergraduate students have directly participated in Access Network events, mentored fellowship opportunities, and/or professional development experiences. In Spring 2020, we launched an emergency fund to support student members of the Network who have been financially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This fund emerged out of the recognition that: 1) the Network involves members with a range of financial means, and those with more financial privilege wanted to support those with less, 2) different levels of financial privilege are driven (in part) by institutional forms of oppression, so providing this support is a small step toward justice, and 3) we have a collective responsibility to facilitate community and foster the sense that we are “in it together.” The fund ran in six two-week cycles. Upon its completion, we conducted anonymous surveys of donors and recipients to gauge the impact of the fund. This talk will first present an overview of the structure and outcomes of the Emergency Fund. We will then reflect critically on the ways that we could have improved the fund, share what we have learned about physical science students’ financial need, and discuss the importance of short-term emergency funding for students. Having run this initiative has made us more aware of the challenges students experience while trying to pursue education as well as one example of how educators can respond to these challenges.