COLLEGE STATION, Texas — As a response to the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Texas A&M University says it has authorized funds to pay for aid as part of a grant program.
"Grants are set up in a way to where they can be used very flexibly in order to help students recover," Chancellor John Sharp told our sister station KAGS in College Station. "During Hurricane Harvey, we used it to pay tuition. We used to buy books, to replace books, to replace clothes, all kinds of things like that."
Sharp says the funds will now be used to pay for tuition and certain living expenses for the school's Ukrainian students.
"What it takes to make sure that these Ukrainian students are able to stay in school," Sharp said.
The university says the funds will be given to those students beginning next semester.
So far, they've identified at least 14 students from the Ukraine that are eligible for the financial support, but the university says that number is likely to increase as more students are identified.
In addition to the grant for Ukrainian students, Sharp says that Texas A&M also cut all ties with Russia.
"The first thing we did was broke all ties with Russia," Sharp said. "We had some research contracts, we terminated those. We terminated all collaboration of any kind with any Russian university or any contact by our university, with anything and in Russia."
The university says they will also open facilities for displaced professors and students from the Ukraine to continue their research.
