A new analysis from the Hope Center finds that even as more colleges publicize emergency aid for students, awareness gaps and limited funding are reducing the share of students actually receiving support. The work centers on how emergency assistance is operationalized—what students know, whether they can navigate the application process, and whether institutions have sufficient resources. For institutions, the report suggests that program visibility alone does not translate into measurable take-up, and that administrative friction can become a hidden barrier for students facing urgent financial or personal crises. The findings also imply that budgets may be stretched thin enough that aid becomes available in name but constrained in practice. With multiple campuses facing enrollment and persistence pressure, emergency grant capacity is increasingly tied to retention outcomes and institutional accountability expectations under student success strategies and performance-based funding models.