The Student Assembly voted on Thursday to allocate additional money to the Summer Experience Grant, which seeks to sponsor students in “unpaid or minimally paid” roles and help them obtain “career-related experience” during the summer.
The number of applications to the grant has increased since it began, according to S.A. Resolution 26. The S.A.’s Financial Aid Review Committee saw 273 applications during the 2016-2017 academic year compared to 198 during the previous year.
“We saw a significant increase in applications and what that means is we are able to give less students awards,” said Mayra Valadez ’19, vice president of diversity and inclusion and chair of the Financial Aid Review Committee.
The FARC is planning to award up to $45,000 for the grants for this academic year and the next one, according to the resolution.
To keep up with demand, the Student Assembly passed a resolution to allocate $0.87 from the Student Activity Fee to the S.A. with the understanding that all of the allocation would go towards the Summer Experience Grant.
During the meeting, Cornell Minds Matter also delivered a presentation explaining their mission and expressing their desire to create a mental health taskforce aimed at reviewing university policy and making direct suggestions on the behalf of students.
“Our goal is not only address the challenges that students are facing, but to debunk the stigma that mental health is only negative” said Cooper Walter ’18, vice president of outreach for Cornell Minds Matter.
The Student Assembly also voted to increase the number of The New York Times distribution locations on campus from five to eleven locations and to form a committee tasked with investigating Cornell’s Net-Print system.