DOI: 10.3886/icpsr39258.v1
title: Accelerating Recovery in Community Colleges Network Lead: Survey of Pandemic Relief Spending and Recovery Strategies, United States, 2020-2023
title: Version 1

description: In order to assist higher education institutions and their students during the pandemic, the federal government established the Higher Education Emergency Relief (HEER) fund, which directed over $75 billion to institutions of higher education - including nearly $25 billion to community colleges - over a three-year period. Researchers at the Community College Research Center (CCRC), the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), and Wheelhouse: The Center for Community College Leadership and Research at the University of California, Davis (Wheelhouse) partnered through the Accelerating Recovery in Community Colleges (ARCC) Network to understand how community colleges used HEER funds to support their students and institutions during the pandemic. 
This data collection contains responses from a survey of 170 community colleges across six states: California, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas. This institutional survey of pandemic relief spending and recovery strategies attempted to answer the following research questions: 


How did colleges use HEER student and institutional aid?
How did colleges target specific populations for HEER-funded student supports?
What do colleges' expenditure patterns reveal about how student and institutional needs changed over time?
How successful did colleges perceive HEER funds to be in meeting student and institutional needs during the pandemic?
What do colleges' concerns about the end of HEER funds reveal about how to prioritize future funding efforts?
In what ways did colleges' experiences with HEER funds vary based on institutional characteristics? 

The resulting dataset provides insight into the specific pandemic recovery activities colleges implemented, colleges' perceptions of how successful funds were in addressing student and institutional needs during the pandemic, and what institutional needs were not met by aid.
description: The purpose of this study was to determine how community colleges in six U.S. states used federal aid from the Higher Education Emergency Relief (HEER) fund. Researchers aimed to advance the understanding of institutional and student needs for use in policymaking and institutional administration.
description: In April 2023, this project administered a pilot survey to two colleges to solicit feedback on survey design. After minor revisions, data collection began in May 2023 using the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) Original Survey (California only) and Community College Research Center (CCRC) Original Survey (all other states). Institutions received recruitment emails with unique links to the online Qualtrics survey, as well as an alternative PDF version which could be completed and uploaded to Qualtrics.
Additionally, the CCRC provided a second invitation and shortened version of the survey (the CCRC Short Survey) to institutions which had not responded by late June 2023. This short survey could be completed via a fillable PDF or through a real-time video call with researchers. Researchers promoted participation in the survey through regular email reminders and cold calls to colleges that had not completed the survey. The survey's deadline was also extended twice to expand participation, first from June 16 to June 30, 2023, and then to August 11, 2023 for all colleges or August 31, 2023 on a case-by-case basis. 
The PPIC also offered a short survey to colleges that did not complete the survey by the original deadline. The PPIC Short Survey included all questions from the PPIC Original Survey, but a subset of questions was highlighted to create a short version of the survey. While colleges were instructed to only respond to the highlighted questions, some completed additional questions from the PPIC Original Survey.
description: In addition to administrative variables indicating the college surveyed, state, and survey type, this project collected data on the following topics:

Amount of Higher Education Emergency Relief (HEER) funds spent on student and institutional aid
Amount of funding from non-HEER funding sources
Use of Institutional aid including the number of students receiving aid; details on the distribution of aid including the distribution mechanism, eligibility requirements, and targeting of specific student groups for aid; and perceived effectiveness of student aid
Use of institutional aid including how aid was spent and its perceived effectiveness
Colleges' concerns about HEER funding ending and needs left unmet by the funding
description: Response Rates: Responses were received from 170 of 265 community colleges (64 percent). Of the 170 responses, 142 (84 percent) completed an original survey and 28 (17 percent) completed a short survey.
description: The sample for this project consisted of 265 community colleges in the six participating states, including all community colleges in Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, and California, as well as all community colleges in New York's State University of New York (SUNY) system.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: Accelerating Recovery in Community Colleges Network Lead: Survey of Pandemic Relief Spending and Recovery Strategies, United States, 2020-2023
description: Community colleges in six U.S. states. Smallest Geographic Unit: State
description: telephone interview; web-based surveyFor additional information on the Survey of Pandemic Relief Spending and Recovery Strategies, please visit the Accelerating Recovery in Community Colleges Network (ARCC) website.