Suffolk University No Tuition Reductions for Spring or Fall 2020 Class Action

Businesses aren’t the only entities that have closed down to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Universities have closed their campuses and dormitories and taken classes to an online-only format. This class action brings suit against Suffolk University in the Boston metropolitan area for not refunding money paid for the curtailed Spring 2020 semester or upcoming all-online fall semester.

The class for this action is all people who paid spring semester 2020 tuition or fees to Suffolk for in-person educational services that Suffolk failed to provide, and whose tuition and fees have not been refunded.

Suffolk has around 7,200 students, studying for bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate degrees. On March 11, 2020, it announced that “face-to-face courses will be moved to remote instruction” starting the following Wednesday. Residence halls were also shuttered and the campus officially closed on March 24 for the rest of the semester.

The complaint alleges that since the closures, Suffolk “has not delivered the educational services, facilities, access and/or opportunities” that students had paid for: “The online learning options being offered to Suffolk students are subpar in practically every aspect, including the lack of facilities, materials, and access to faculty.”

The plaintiff in this case, Mary Ann Foti, has a daughter, Anna Francesca Foti, who was enrolled at Suffolk, studying sociology and psychology. The Fotis paid tuition of $8,400 (not including financial aid) and $145 in fees for the spring semester. Suffolk has not refunded any of this money.

Suffolk touts the advantages it provides to students on campus, including “[d]istinguished faculty provid[ing] individual attention to their students[,]” “many opportunities to combine their academic experience with hands-on experience through internships, service learning and a broad range of extracurricular activities[,]” and “an immersive living and learning experience in the heart of an international city…”

However, the complaint alleges that the online options since the closure have been subpar, due to “the lack of facilities, materials, and access to faculty. Students have been deprived of the opportunity for collaborative learning and in-person dialogue, feedback, and critique.”

Suffolk does offer online courses in ordinary times, but the complaint notes that the tuition is lower because of the lack of access to “facilities like libraries, laboratories, computer labs, and study rooms,” “extracurricular activities[,]” “hands-on learning and experimentation[,]” and so on.

Furthermore, the complaint says, “Suffolk announced that for the 2020 fall semester, all classes will continue to be remote, with online instruction. Suffolk is not reducing or discounting its tuition for this online instruction and will continue to charge full tuition and student fees for the fall 2020 semester.”

Thus the complaint alleges that students should get pro-rated refunds for the spring semester and should also be entitled to pro-rated tuition and fee refunds for the upcoming fall semester as well.

Article Type: Lawsuit
Topic: Consumer
Tags: Education, Failure To Pay For Refund, Reduction in Services Facilities or the Like