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A former Nova Southeastern University student filed a class action lawsuit recently after she paid college tuition for on-campus learning the school then canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Tristan Craig of Miami Lakes, Florida, says the university’s decision to cancel in-person classes and on-campus learning and services and not refund some of the money its students paid to be there is a breach of contract. She is seeking the court’s approval to sue Nova Southeastern and represent a class of countless other students in doing so.
Craig filed her class action Sept. 15 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. She is asking the court to order Nova Southeastern, a private university near Fort Lauderdale, to return a prorated portion of the tuition and fees paid for the period when students were restricted to distance learning.
According to the complaint outlining the case, Nova Southeastern students paid all or part of their college tuition for the 2020 winter semester, which was to last until the beginning of May, before the coronavirus outbreak hit the U.S. in March.
Once that happened, things changed significantly for the students.
On March 13, the university suspended classes and on March 23 it switched to online only distance learning for the remainder of the academic year.
Tuition for the four-month winter semester cost $16,185. Students also paid about $2,391 in mandatory fees – registration fees, student services fees, graduation fees, lab fees, health insurance fees – according to the class action lawsuit. And those who lived on campus had paid another $16,765 for room and board for the academic year.
Much of the college tuition paid was for services the students did not get in the second half of the winter 2020 semester, the class action lawsuit argues. Yet Nova Southeastern “has not refunded any amount of the tuition or any of the mandatory fees” even though the school “stopped providing services or facilities the mandatory fees were intended to cover.”
“Students attending Nova Southeastern’s Winter 2020 semester did not choose to attend an online only institution of higher learning, but instead chose to enroll in the University’s in-person educational programs,” the class action lawsuit argues. The complaint goes on to say the school’s online learning program was “subpar in almost every aspect.”
The Nova Southeastern class action lawsuit is one of hundreds that have been filed across the nation in the months after COVID-19 caused colleges and universities to change the way they educated their students. Parents and students from coast to coast are suing schools to try to recoup some of their tuition. Even Harvard University is facing legal backlash from its move to online learning.
Right now, it is unclear how many Nova Southeastern students the Craig class action lawsuit will represent, the filing said, but “the University has reported that an aggregate of 20,400 or more undergraduate and graduate students were enrolled for the 2019-2020 school year.”
In related legal news, U.K. parents and students have started demanding tuition fee refunds after thousands of locked-down students have been forced into distance learning as a result of the pandemic.
Are you a college student whose learning experience has been altered because of the coronavirus pandemic? Did you pay tuition for a college education that has been limited to distance learning online? Tell us about it in the comment section below.
Craig and the proposed Class Members are represented by Nicholas A. Colella, Gary F. Lynch and Edward W. Ciolko of Carson Lynch LLP; Jeffrey K. Brown, Michael A. Tompkins and Brett R. Cohen of Leeds Brown Law PC; and Jason P. Sultzer and Jeremy Francis of The Sultzer Law Group PC.
The Nova Southeastern College Tuition Class Action Lawsuit is Tristan Craig, et al. v. Nova Southeastern University, Case No. 1:20-cv-23818-MGC, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
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4 thoughts onClass Action Lawsuit Seeks College Tuition Refund Due to Distance Learning
Troy University switched to online after all in class gpa took big hit fees food it was all on me and I had no job
I had a 3.5 gpa at the time of the pandemic and I was enrolled in 3 face to face art courses as well as 3 associated lab hours which were paid for separately. When everything switched to online I felt obligated to drop my classes whereas online instruction is not adequate for fine arts. Now since 2021 my gpa is struggling at a 3.07 and this is my senior year and I feel less sure about my ability to get into grad school. I also feel stressed about my ability to afford my last few semesters whereas my pell lifetime eligibility is running out. Most of all my transcript which I have worked so very hard to maintain, is damaged as the most recent courses which I was forced to enroll in online became unusual grades as Cs, Fs, Ds, and an occasional B. My normal grades are As, Bs, and maybe 2 Cs. This is unfair as I feel robbed of my education that I paid for, and also robbed of my hard work and dedication to my degree whereas I now have to struggle to bring my gpa back up all the while knowin the impossibility of getting back to the 3.5 before time for me to graduate. please help.
This is an ONGOING issue with my daughter, in her 5th year, at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. She has ALWAYS been online only. The laws clearly state the university cannot charge fees to off-campus learning students for those things which they cannot use on campus, such as library fees, parking fees, student center fees, etc. It’s a hefty amount every semester and so far we’ve gotten them to take it off ONE semester. Then I check recently and they’ve charged it again every semester.
My son began a year ago and the same thing. He even moved onto campus, had to change rooms because of the amount of mold in his room, and is still charged for the things on campus he doesn’t use because he is all online now, and are supposed to be included in the dorm fee. Yet he’s still charged the extra fees.
One would think an institution this large would have their crap together and realize in their programming not to do this, but they do. And there’s no telling how many students don’t even realize this is happening. I want her money back so she’s not in major debt when she graduates. I’m sick of fighting with this school!
My daughter and son were both changed to online classes by their schools. My daughter attended Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, IA. My son was attending the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, IA.