🎓📚 Cornell University Announces $3M Class Action Settlement in COVID-19 Tuition Fees
Spring 2020 Students to Receive Reimbursement Following Transition to Online Learning
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Cornell University is close to settling a big lawsuit that was thrown its way when it switched to online classes due to Covid-19. According to reporting of Independent, the lawsuit was started by a student named Alec Faber back in April 2020. Faber was studying at Cornell during the spring 2020 when everything shut down. He said Cornell broke its promise by closing many of its services and moving classes online.
Now, it looks like Cornell and the students might come to an agreement. A notice in the Cornell Chronicle said that students could get some money from a proposed settlement. Although Cornell denies doing anything wrong, it’s willing to put $3,000,000 into a Settlement Fund to put this issue to bed.
To get a piece of this settlement, students need to have been enrolled in a program at Cornell during spring 2020 and didn't leave the school before March 1, 2020.
The legal paperwork mentioned that Cornell has 24,000 students. If every eligible student gets a share of the settlement money, each student would get $125.
The lawsuit claimed that Cornell broke its promise by not holding in-person classes even though students paid for them. It also said that the school didn’t provide the value for the services that the fees were supposed to cover like using the dining halls, sports facilities, wellness centers, and libraries.
This lawsuit also accused Cornell of unjust enrichment, which means getting benefits at others’ expense.
The lawsuit aims to get refunds for the students based on the amount they are owed, along with other damages.
This case might open the floodgates as many other universities in the US switched to online learning when Covid-19 hit the country hard.
According to some stats, 84% of US undergrads had their classes moved online during spring 2020. About 27% of these students got some tuition money back and 38% got a refund for room-and-board during the first semester of the pandemic.
In a statement to The Independent, Joel M Malina, Vice President for University Relations said: “Cornell is pleased to have reached this settlement, which both sides believe is in the best interests of all parties.”
