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Carnegie Mellon University has been hit with a class action lawsuit by a student claiming she should be given a spring semester refund due to COVID-19.
Plaintiff Anokhy Desai says she paid tuition for the spring 2020 semester at Carnegie Mellon as a full time student in their Master’s program in Information Security Policy.
In addition, Desai states she paid mandatory fees, which enabled her to obtain an in-person, on campus educational experience and which would allow her to utilize the services of the university.
Desai maintains in her class action lawsuit that the university has not provided her with a prorated refund of the tuition for the in-person classes that were ceased and moved online. She also explains that she hasn’t been issued a refund for the mandatory fees she paid after the university’s facilities were closed and events were cancelled.
Were you a student in the spring 2020 semester and were denied a refund when classes moved to online learning? Get legal help by clicking here.
On March 16, 2020, the university allegedly stopped providing any of the services or facilities that the mandatory fees were intended to cover because of the university’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
“The University’s failure to provide the services for which tuition and the Mandatory Fees were intended to cover since approximately March 16, 2020 is a breach of the contracts between the University and Plaintiff and the members of the Class and is unjust,” the Carnegie Mellon class action lawsuit states.
Desai says that she and other putative Class Members have paid tuition for a first-rate education and an on-campus, in-person educational experience and were provided with a materially deficient and insufficient alternative, which constitute a breach of contract between the plaintiff and the university.
The plaintiff is seeking the university’s disgorgement and the prorated portion of the tuition and mandatory fees, proportionate to the amount of time that remained in the spring 2020 semester when the university switched to an online learning environment.
Tuition at the university for in-person education for the spring 2020 semester was approximately $27,908 for undergraduate students and ranges from approximately $18,369 to $34,000 for graduate students, the plaintiff states.
She says she paid tuition for the benefit of on-campus live interaction instruction and an on-campus educational experience throughout the entire spring 2020 semester.
On March 11, 2020, the university president, Farnam Jahanian, announced that starting on March 16, 2020, when the students were scheduled to return home from spring break, all in-person classes were to be moved to online remote learning for the remainder of the spring 2020 semester.
In addition, the university announced that it was cancelling all clubs, sports and events for the remainder of the semester, according to the plaintiff.
Desai claims that the university has not held in-person classes since March 5, 2020, which was before the commencement of spring break. In addition, since March 16, 2020, all classes have been offered in an online remote format with no in-person instruction or interaction.
“Although the University has provided an option to receive a refund for pro-rated meal plans, housing costs, and Transportation Fees, the University has not provided reimbursement or refund information regarding tuition or the other Mandatory Fees,” the Carnegie Mellon class action lawsuit goes on to say.
Desai states that students attending the spring 2020 semester did not choose to attend an online institution of higher learning, but instead chose to enroll in the university’s in-person education program.
Desai claims that the online learning options being offered by the university is subpar compared to what the in-person educational experience was like before the coronavirus.
The plaintiff maintains that the students have been deprived of the opportunity for collaborative learning and in-person dialogue, feedback, and critique.
The student alleges the university has not made any refund of any portion of the tuition that she and potential Class Members paid for during the spring 2020 semester for the period that it moved to subpar online distance learning.
“Plaintiff and the Class members are therefore entitled to a pro-rated refund of the tuition and Mandatory Fees they paid for the Spring 2020 semester for the remaining days of that semester after classes moved from in-person to online and facilities were closed,” says the Carnegie Mellon class action lawsuit.
Prospective Class Members include: “All persons who paid tuition and/or the Mandatory Fees for a student to attend in-person class(es) during the Spring 2020 semester at the University but had their class(es) moved to online learning.”
The plaintiff is represented by Gary F. Lynch, Edward W. Ciolko, Kelly K. Iverson, and James P. McGraw of Carlson Lynch LLP.
The Carnegie Mellon Class Action Lawsuit is Anokhy Desai v. Carnegie Mellon University, Case No. 2:20-cv-00844-CB, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
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