[ad_1]
Within the 10 weeks or so because the coronavirus turned all of our worlds the other way up, we’ve seen many examples of selflessness and kindness.
Nonetheless, human beings are flawed creatures, so we’ve additionally witnessed many examples of selfishness and cynicism.
For an instance of the latter, look no additional than the flurry of lawsuits which were filed in opposition to schools and universities across the nation by college students and the opportunistic attorneys representing them, asking that a part of their spring tuition be refunded as a result of campuses needed to shut because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Final week, a class-action lawsuit was filed in opposition to California College of Pennsylvania asking that all the college students who attend the varsity obtain a pro-rated refund for the portion of the semester their lessons had been on-line. The swimsuit argues that the training Cal U. supplied by means of the web programs was substandard and college students missed out on all the opposite advantages of campus life.
Ashleigh Coffman, a Greensburg advertising main who graduated this spring, is the lead plaintiff within the swimsuit. When contacted by the Observer-Reporter, she stated she labored two jobs to get by means of Cal U. She additionally stated her lawyer was going to file an analogous swimsuit in opposition to the College of Pittsburgh. We wouldn’t be in any respect stunned if different establishments of upper training within the area are focused. To this point, fits like Coffman’s have been filed in opposition to such universities as Rutgers, Brown, Cornell and Purdue.
Working two jobs to get a bachelor’s diploma is an admirable show of grit and dedication, and, certain, it needed to be inconvenient and disruptive for Coffman and her fellow college students to be barred from Cal U.’s amenities and spend weeks studying from dwelling. However the truth is that they did obtain an training from certified instructors. In the event that they had been sufficiently motivated, college students accomplished their coursework, acquired a passing grade and credit towards commencement. That, on the most elementary degree, is what they’re paying for.
Faculties and universities had been in an unenviable place after they needed to inform college students to depart campus, or not return from spring break. Some didn’t have on-line studying packages in place, and instructors needed to rapidly improvise. If they’d stayed open, campuses would have been hotbeds of illness transmission, and would have posed a grave hazard to the communities that encompass them. And schools and universities have already taken a extreme hit on account of the coronavirus lockdowns, since they’ve needed to partially refund pupil exercise charges and costs for room and board. In Pennsylvania, the State System of Larger Training, which incorporates Cal U., will lose $70 million to $100 million on account of having to refund some charges.
If schools and universities needed to partially refund spring tuition, extra money can be misplaced, college and employees can be laid off, packages and majors might nicely be axed, the price of tuition would escalate and the quantity of monetary assist accessible to college students can be diminished.
Who can be the losers in the long term? The scholars who’re right this moment clamoring for refunds.
[ad_2]