One year after Hurricane Harvey, relief efforts still helping UHCL students

In the wake of Hurricane Harvey’s one-year anniversary, UHCL’s Dean of Students Office continues to benefit from some of the efforts that were initially started last year to help students who were affected by Hurricane Harvey but now have evolved into general emergency preparedness efforts.

David Rachita, dean of students, said that Hurricane Harvey has impacted UHCL in a way that will continue to help students in the future.

“I think that in remembrance of Hurricane Harvey, we will see more hawks helping hawks,” Rachita said. “Harvey has also started to make [faculty and staff] think through the recovery process, which is something that we didn’t have to think through with previous hurricanes.”

Ever since Harvey, Rachita said the university has been working to train faculty and staff on emergency situations.

“UHCL now has an intentionally thought through emergency management team,” Rachita said. “FEMA natural disaster trainings were put into place to certify employees on different levels of preparedness.”

One of the efforts started after Hurricane Harvey was the food pantry, housed in the Dean of Students office. Since Hurricane Harvey, the food pantry has remained stocked.

“The food pantry remains in place,” Rachita said. “The pantry won’t necessarily feed the whole community, but it’ll help several students and give us a place to start.”

Rachita said that if anything, the food pantry is going to keep expanding because of the need that the office saw last year after Harvey.

Another thing that was established in the relief efforts at UHCL was the Harvey Emergency Grant. The grant was created for students whose homes were affected by Harvey to be able to use grant money to stay enrolled in classes.

Nearly immediately after Hurricane Harvey, the Harvey Emergency Grant was then turned into the Hawk Emergency Grant.

“Because of Hurricane Harvey, the Hawk Emergency Grant is now in place, instead of an emergency loan,” Rachita said. “This started during Harvey, as we gave out more than $40,000 in grant money.”

The Hawk Emergency Grant currently allows a maximum of $250 per student. However, if the amount of money in the grant increases, the maximum amount could as well, depending on the situation. Rachita said all requests that are made to the Dean of Students Office are funneled through the Financial Aid Office to see if they can provide a “more impactful fund for students.”

Rhonda Thompson, vice president of university advancement, said the Hawk Emergency Grant is a crucial aspect to the university’s mission.

“Giving to the fund benefits the university by helping students stay in school and pay for the resources they need to be successful,” Thompson said.

Thompson and Rachita explained that by helping students pay for education-related expenses, the university is helping take some stress off of students.

Any student who needs access to the Hawk Emergency Grant can contact the Dean of Students Office for the form. This form will be updated and placed on the Dean of Students webpage soon.

Rachita and Thompson both emphasized the importance of donating to the Hawk Emergency Grant, as donations are the sole income for the grant.

“If [the Dean of Students Office] can continue to keep funds coming in, more students can be reached,” Rachita said. “By giving a gift through university advancement, someone can support the Hawk Emergency Grant.”

To give online visit the University Advancement giving page and select the ‘Give to UHCL’ button, then ‘Search Funds’ and type in ‘Hawk Emergency Fund’ and follow the instructions to complete the gift.