A class action lawsuit has been filed against the Arizona Board of Regents, the governing board for Arizona's three public universities, after the three schools refused to refund room, board and campus fees to students who were displaced because of coronavirus.And these aren't even those eeeeeeevil for-profit schools.
All three universities, Arizona State University, University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University, moved their classes to online only for the remainder of the Spring 2020 semester to protect students and staff and prevent the spread of coronavirus.
Students who lived on-campus were either told to move out or encouraged to do so. The lawsuit says the Arizona Board of Regents has refused to offer refunds for the unused portion of their room and board and their campus fees. The lawsuit seeks payment of the prorated, unused amounts of room and board and fees that the class members paid but were unable to use.
Wednesday, April 01, 2020
How Could The Plaintiffs Not Win?
On what grounds could the universities expect to keep this money?
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We have a sophomore at UWashington(Seattle). The U was slow to decide what to do, and in the end, aren't charging for those who leave campus for Spring quarter. The dorms are still open, though, since the large number of international students need someplace to live. They are also not consolidating everyone who's still there into a couple dorms--probably wise when proximity would be bad if covid takes hold in a dorm.
Food service is pro-rating their refunds, but keeping everything from winter quarter, whether kids left early or not--they say they still had to run the dining halls and still had full expenses during that time.
Right now there's lots of buzz about the cost of the King County bus pass that is automatically charged to every student every quarter (like many schools, the student ID functions as a community bus pass). With many students away from Seattle, they're upset they still are paying for this.
Our kid isn't in a lab or art class that has supply fees, so I don't know how they are handling that.
For kids who left campus when things went online with a week and a half to go in the Winter term and left everything back in their dorm room, the U works with private firms--Dorm Room Movers being prominent--to move out the kids' things. I have heard rave reviews for them. When they get to a room, they actually are video conferencing with the dorm residents, and getting direction about whose stuff is whose. Then they pack it all up and either ship it to the student or store it for next year. A great service and they obviously figured out the logistics of it very quickly. Well done!
We had the same occur at Nevada- per contract, they are informed that voluntary exit does not permit refunding (and following the explosion at Argenta Hall during summer, neither does involuntary relocation)- many students had voluntarily exited/moved out prior to the official call to significantly reduce housing except for special cases (international students and formerly homeless students with nowhere to go). However, after public uproar that not all students were being refunded, the university elected to refund students who had moved out since the state's official closure of the University and school systems (3/17).Arizona I would imagine had similar contracts with their students, but for some odd reason, 18 year olds and their parents don't often read contracts associated with housing or higher education.
After graduating and working in the private sector for a year and a half, I returned to working for my former college in their extension program, and several of my research undergrads did not like my response to their housing woes and frustrations when expressed to me via Zoom. Contracts are so important, and really should be treated as such. While I feel for these students and their housing concerns, all of them DID have the option to go home, and all but one had entirely moved out before the official announcement. Even though we knew what was on the horizon, if anyone had opened their housing contracts, it explicitly states the conditions for refunds.
Arizona is probably prepared for this fight, I would argue good luck to those students and families. Hopefully they all read their contracts and are not paying to lose this game.
Also, as we enter month 2 of governor recommended social distancing and the extension of school closures an additional month, I am mentally preparing to not only continue checking in on my high school school students who participate in extension programs, like one I lead, but also I am preparing to see many of those college students drop out. Interest is beginning to falter, and I cannot blame them. It's hard to maintain a full class load, research projects, and whatever else they are balancing, whether it's work from home, caring for family, etc. I can relate, I've been homeschooling my 2nd grade stepdaughter for 3 weeks now, while working, running our ranch, and caring for family.
Overall, colleges may be playing a big money grab game in the months to come; not only from lost housing fees, but lost future tuition, lost independent funding, etc. This could be a greater storm to come.
I'm getting ready to fight a similar fight against my Mother's senior independent living facility. She has an apartment which she pays for at about four times the rate of a conventional apartment due to programs, security, etc. Because she was in the hospital for heart issues and then moved to rehab during the current situation, she legally CANNOT be moved from her rehab to her senior living center. Meanwhile her insurance carrier Humana, is insisting they won't pay anymore. Legally she can't be moved, but the insurance company insists on her being moved. I have calls in to a variety of media and legal outlets. I know she can't be the only person locked out of facilities for which they are paying nor is she the only one being abandoned by her insurance.
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