![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/20201009_103330.jpg\")
<\/a>The aid can help cover food, travel expenses, living expenses, computers, and other supports for students.<\/p>\n
Camosun vice president of student experience Heather Cummings says the funding from last year has been spent and that most of the new money will be used to top up the college\u2019s Erasing Barriers to Education fund.<\/p>\n
\u201cLots of students lost part-time jobs, didn\u2019t have means by which to pay for things in an emergency, but also to help pay for their educational costs\u2014things that they normally would have had some additional money to pay for,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Rankin says that making sure the workforce is properly educated is essential, and says that the Indigenous funding is an example of the calls to action in the Truth and Reconciliation Act.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole point of this fund is to support our commitment to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the calls to action that the [Truth And Reconciliation Act] required us to do,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Rankin says the additional funding has been sent to Camosun and students in need can access it through the financial aid office.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving access to emergency relief funds was just indispensable to many Indigenous students,\u201d says Rankin. \u201cThey just couldn\u2019t complete their studies without it. Along with emergency living expenses, the fund supports Indigenous students to travel home, because they have their community protocols in times of emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rankin says COVID-19 has \u201cturned our lives upside down\u201d and that he doesn\u2019t want to duck the question of whether or not this funding is actually enough for what students need.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s never enough money to do everything that\u2019s needed in a pandemic,\u201d he says. \u201cThis government has been, I\u2019m proud to say, more generous than any other across the country on number of supports given to small businesses, to tourism, to hospitality, to all of that, and students should be treated with the same level of concern\u2026 is that enough? I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cummings, who says that this funding has been given out to 1,200 Camosun students so far, points out that other emergency funds for students have come from the Camosun College Student Society and the Camosun Foundation. Part of the reason the college is keeping the use of the funding so broad, she says, is because of the variety of hard situations many students are in.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t want to define \u2018hardship\u2019 too narrowly,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Rankin says that while a really tough few weeks are in store for everyone in British Columbia, help is on the way.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want students to succeed,\u201d he says. \u201cWe have one of the best educated workforces in the world, and we want to build that. The pandemic shouldn\u2019t stop us from working hard to make sure that every student facing financial hardships can access assistance when they need it.\u201d<\/p>\n
To date, Camosun, the University of Victoria, and Royal Roads University have together received a total of $1,162,500. These funds are all on top of an annual $100,000 the government gives to post-secondary institutions across BC for student emergency assistance funding.<\/p>\n