Several lawsuits filed by students against the University of California and California State University systems are making their way through the courts as students try to recoup some money after most schools cancelled in-person classes over the past several weeks due to coronavirus outbreaks.
The plaintiffs are seeking some type of refund and claim an online degree does not carry the same prestige. The lawsuits could cover some 750,000 students if they are classified as class action. The University of San Diego, a private school, is facing a similar lawsuit.
Since the pandemic began in March, California has reported 884,619 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 4,456 Tuesday, and 17,071 deaths, including 77 Tuesday.
As was the case across the country, California colleges and universities suspended in-person classes for the latter part of the 2019-2020 academic year’s spring semester. Administrators were confident in-person classes could resume for the fall semester, and most campuses in California opened in late August and early September with a mix of online and onsite classes with limited occupancy in campus housing.
Coronavirus outbreaks began to spread, something school officials said were primarily caused by students living off campus who were gathering in large groups without wearing face masks or practicing social distancing.
Aside from a partial tuition refund, students want mandatory fees returned to them that generally support non-classroom services such as libraries, exercise facilities and career placement help that are not accessible on closed campuses. The schools did refund room and board costs after closing dormitories and forcing students to move out.
The lawsuits all have the common theme and cite break of contract, saying the schools failed to provide an agreed upon service at an agreed upon price and that the schools are benefiting financially by keeping all of the money.
One lawsuit notes the $785 million in federal relief the two university systems received, saying “the CARES funds are intended to be used as emergency cash grants, not as a vehicle for universities to retain money that is not theirs to retain.”
The California State University system said in a statement that it is “committed to providing a high-quality education at exceptional value,” noting its tuition is among the lowest in the country.
In a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, CSU attorneys said that mandatory fees are flat, rather than based on individual use, and that the lawsuit “does not allege that students failed to receive credits for courses for which they paid tuition and does not specify any differences in instructional quality between in-class and remote instruction.”
A similar lawsuit in Florida was recently allowed to move forward, while one in Boston was dismissed.
