LARAMIE — Fall enrollment at the University of Wyoming rose dramatically after the Aug. 10 announcement of grant funding for students from the CARES Act.

Earlier this month, UW was facing a 20% decline in enrollment for the fall.

Gov. Mark Gordon announced that those “unemployed or underemployed due to the impacts of COVID-19” would be eligible for grants of $2,500 for tuition this fall.

Gordon also announced that all UW students would be eligible for $3,250 in grant funding to pay for non-tuition costs.

Within a week after that announcement, 191 additional students enrolled in classes.

By Aug. 18, 11,500 students had enrolled at UW, just a 4.5% decline from the same point last year,

when 12,037 student had enrolled at the school.

This week, the Joint Appropriations Committee discussed the possibility of using CARES Act funding to provide UW students an additional $6,500 grant for the upcoming academic year.

JAC members largely expressed support for the idea Wednesday, and established a task force to explore the idea.

To be eligible for grant funding, UW students must have been admitted by Friday.

So far, it appears the funds that Gordon allocated for grants will be sufficient to cover all students who’ve enrolled, UW spokesman Chad Baldwin told the Boomerang on Friday. If it turns out that funding won’t be sufficient to cover all student, Baldwin said it’s likely UW would ask for more funds.

“I wouldn’t want to speak for the governor on that, but I think we would be

prepared if necessary to ask for more, but I haven’t heard about anything that we’ve overspent,” he said.

While UW students have until Nov. 1 to apply for the CARES ACT grants and until Dec. 1 to apply for the Trailblazer grant, 5,241 students have already taken that step.

Gov. Mark Gordon announced that those “unemployed or underemployed due to the impacts of COVID-19”would were eligible for grants of $2,500 for tuition this fall.