Students and crowdfunding give a new boost to solidarity scholarships

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Institutional Communication Service

26 October 2020

The University community and other parties, continue to help students who are suffering the economic and social consequences of the COVID-19 emergency. The Students' Corporation has decided to allocate 10,000 CHF to solidarity grants and also the crowdfunding initiative launched this summer has been successful, reaching the funding threshold of 4,000 CHF.

In the name of solidarity within the student community, the Students' Council - the governing body of the Corporation - felt it was its duty to chip in with a significant contribution to support students who are in financial difficulties due to the pandemic. It thus decided to allocate 10,000 CHF to fundraising for the solidarity scholarships established for this purpose - https://www.usi.ch/en/university/support-us/solidarity-scholarships. A straightforward and concrete way to fulfil the mission of the Corporation and give meaning to the motto that inspires its action: "For students, with the students".

A positive outcome also for the crowdfunding initiative launched on eroilocali.ch: the funding threshold of 4,000 CHF has been reached. The sum will be allocated to the fund for the creation of additional scholarships. In the name of the true meaning of "crowdfunding", the fundraising took place on a selected platform, and the goal was reached thanks to small contributions from many people who shared the desire to give concrete help to our students who found themselves affected or disadvantaged by the economic and social consequences of the COVID-19 emergency.

Thanks to the 170,000 CHF collected between May and August, to date 95 solidarity grants have already been awarded - click here for more information. These are about one-third of the students who have applied for support. The University has therefore decided to keep the fundraising open to increase the total number of scholarships and to be able to meet other foreseeable needs due to the COVID-19 emergency. The new contributions from the Corporation and crowdfunding are part of this context.

USI, also on behalf of the students who will benefit from the scholarships, sincerely thanks for each contribution and reminds that it is still possible to donate: https://www.usi.ch/en/university/support-us/solidarity-scholarships.