Disaster Aid in Puerto Rico Bypasses a Devastated Island’s Universities

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N.Y.U., which received $264,850, led a public campaign to take in students from Puerto Rico and enrolled about 70 students. Students were required to pay tuition to their home universities in Puerto Rico, and had virtually all costs covered while attending N.Y.U. The students are expected to leave when the semester ends.

“We are very sensitive to concerns that the universities in Puerto Rico have about skimming students who were important to their own academic mission,” said John Beckman, a spokesman for the university.

Grand Canyon University, which received about $239,000, would not say how many affected students were enrolled. A Liberty University official said the school did not count out the number of students who benefited from its $200,000 award, but officials said the university financially supported students, mainly from Florida, in a number of ways after the hurricane.

Southern New Hampshire said it had more than 11,000 students from the affected states, about 50 of whom were from Puerto Rico, and planned to return any unused funds to the Education Department.

The University of Florida disbursed its first federal aid allocation of $77,453 to 38 students, said Rick Wilder, the director of student financial affairs. The remainder will be reserved for returning students who demonstrate need next year.

“We’re always excited to get additional funding for any needy students,” Mr. Wilder said.

In the coming months, the Education Department will award $100 million in additional emergency funding to colleges and universities and their students in areas directly affected by hurricanes and wildfires, and $75 million to help defray costs for those that took in students from the affected areas.

But congressional leaders wrote last month that the voluminous application, which requires two applications and a detailed accounting of expenses and funding received thus far, would place on Puerto Rico a “significant and unnecessary burden that was never intended by Congress.”

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