This is an emergency fund for low-income students at The Rhode Island School of Design affected by school closure and the COVID-19 epidemic. We are currently accepting Google forms from RISD students in need requesting emergency financial help and will be posting digitized money transfers from all donations collected. We currently have over 1,000 signatures and counting on our petition "Petition for the Partial Refund of Tuition and Fees," in which we are asking the institution for partial tuition refund to compensate for the loss of access to studio space as well as any related lab or equipment fees. While it will be a great victory for students if we get reimbursed for fees we will not be utilizing, we understand that students who rely solely on financial aid will NOT be receiving a significant or any monetary refunds to support their transition to working and living remotely. Unfortunately, the institution has not yet addressed how to support low-income students in this transition. We hope that we as a community and student body can help our peers that need financial help, the help they deserve and need. Thank you.

Currently, we are a collective of 5 current RISD students and 1 alum working on this fundraiser and allocating funds:

Sara Park BFA Graphic Design '20
Wen Zhuang BFA Photo '19
Alexis Caruso BFA Textiles '20
Fia Tharp BFA Painting '21
Minji Koo BFA Graphic Design '20
Felicita Devlin BFA Textiles '21

Information on fund allocation + withdrawal:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KUxNGREhNniWprbWuvQXupGo-ULCwchT_ON2yHFI7UY/edit?usp=sharing