Financial Updates for Students and Families from President Davis-Blake

Dear Students and Parents,

I hope you’ll excuse my email to you on a weekend, but now that the spring 2020 credits and financial aid adjustments have posted to student accounts (as of Friday, April 24), I want to continue our commitment to openness about our activities and plans related to COVID-19 and communicate directly with you about the credits you are seeing in Workday Student. In addition, I want to keep you updated on some ongoing student services and other financial details.

This is an incredibly uncertain time for everyone, and all of us would rather be on our beautiful Bentley campus gearing up for the end of the semester. Finishing final papers. Preparing for exams. Looking ahead to internships and new jobs. 

I also know that this uncertainty has added to the financial stress many of our students and families are feeling. We understand and we are committed to help. This week, we completed our credit process for room and board and parking charges. As we committed to in March, the credits posted to student accounts reflect 44% of all room and board charges and parking charges, based on the effective move-out date of March 16, 2020, proportionally adjusted for financial aid.

We know that some families may have questions about the financial aid adjustment that is reflected in the credits. Every school funds financial aid differently and every student package is unique. You can find the details about how Bentley calculated the adjustments, including a baseline equation for the calculation, in the Financial Questions section of the Frequently Asked Questions for Students on the COVID-19 page of our website. 

Many students and parents are also curious about how the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act impacts Bentley and our students. Bentley is actively working with an outside firm with expertise in this area to ensure that we apply for all funds for which we are eligible to try to help our students with most need. As 50% of the CARES funding is reserved to “provide students with emergency financial aid grants to help cover expenses related to the disruption of campus operations due to coronavirus,” we will provide more details to eligible students as soon as our application is approved and we receive funding from the federal government.

As you may know, all students have been assigned staff mentors through the NEST program. I encourage you to contact your mentor if you'd like to speak with someone individually about how to access help. Those mentors will be able to help connect you with the right people and resources you need.

As always, this update will be posted on Bentley.edu/coronavirus along with all news we have shared with students, parents, faculty and staff throughout this crisis. I encourage you to visit this page often for updates. We will continue to communicate with you in the coming weeks and months to share updates and we anticipate more news to come in the weeks ahead. In the meantime, please know that we are here to support you in any way that we can.

President Davis-Blake