Students Across The Country Are Suing Their Universities For Reimbursements

Students Across The Country Are Suing Their Universities For Reimbursements




Students across the United States have been instructed to leave their campuses, move out of their dormitories, and start taking classes online as their institutions try to integrate social distancing suggestions to fight the threat of the novel coronavirus. That has put the last of the spring 2020 semester in a lurch, and students understandably feel displaced and lost because the COVID-19 pandemic dismantled the life they once knew. Right now, some of these students are suing their schools for a refund.


Students and parents from all three of Arizona’s public universities — the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, and Northern Arizona University — filed a class-action lawsuit on March 27 against the Arizona Board of Regents immediately following the schools resisted to refund room, board, and campus fees to students who'd to leave school because of COVID-19. On April 8, students at the University of Miami filed a class-action lawsuit soon after paying for in-person courses at a higher rate and then being forced to take courses online, while students at Drexel University sued their school and demanded tuition refunds. On April 9, students from Michigan State University filed a suit against their school, and students at Columbia University and Pace University filed suits on April 23 in a task to earn back financial reimbursement, too.


While each lawsuit differs in specificity and claims — with asks ranging from prorated refunds for housing to refunds on tuition and on-campuses services — all the suits claim that students bought far more than they procured because of the spread of COVID-19 that forced them off of campus and away from classes.


One lawsuit, from Liberty University in Virginia, is already making its way to federal court, soon following the universities’ president Jerry Falwell Jr. Reported on March 23 that students would have to return to campus to take their courses online, despite Virginia’s ban on gatherings of 10 or more people.


“I think we have a responsibility to our students — who paid to be here, who desire to be here, who love it here — to give them the ability to be with their companions, to continue their research, appreciate the room and board they’ve already purchased and to not interject their college life,” Falwell Jr. Instructed them Richmond Times-Dispatch at the time.


One of the students at the well known Christian university sued the school on April 13 in response, demanding a larger refund for student services fees and claiming that the school rejected to perfectly refund students for their fees that will go unused — fees for on-campus services and activities, primarily. Students were originally planned a $1,000 credit if they didn’t hope to return to campus in the fall, Forbes announced, however the lawsuit alleges that this is a “mere fraction” of what the school should be paying, according to POLITICO. In addition, the suit claims that those who won’t return to school in the fall, excluding graduating students, won’t receive the refund despite the fact that students had to take their classes online for the last of the spring semester also, according to CNN.


“Liberty University is, in a very real sense, profiting from the COVID-19 pandemic — keeping its campus and campus services ‘open’ as a pretext to retain Plaintiff’s and the other Class members’ room, board, and campus fees, despite no longer having to incur the whole cost of offering those services, all of the while putting students’ finances and health at risk,” the lawsuit alleged, according to POLITICO.


In response, a spokesman for Liberty University issued a statement saying that it was not them, however the students and their attorneys who were trying to “profit from a public health crisis,” CNN reported.


“Each of Liberty's changes in operations and modes of delivery has been required by governmental officials, a fact the complaint omits,” the statement mentioned, according to CNN. “That fact legally excuses Liberty's adjustments and leaves the plaintiffs without a legal case.”


While it’s unclear how any judges will respond to these suits, several schools might be waiting for cash from Congress supplied in the CARES Act, Forbes announced. Among other advantages, the $2 trillion stimulus bill will offer $6 billion to colleges and universities, some of which can be used for whichever the school sees fit. Nevertheless those funds are imperfect at best, and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is fighting to make sure that undocumented students and non-permanent residents won’t have the ability to receive advantages or assistance from the bill despite the bill saying nothing about students' documentation status.









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