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New York University (NYU) faces a class action lawsuit by students claiming the university has not refunded any tuition and fees during the COVID-19 crisis.
Plaintiff Daniel Zagoria says he is a resident of New York, a student at NYU and plans to graduate at the end of the summer 2020 semester with a Master of Science Degree in Real Estate Investment & Finance.
Zagoria claims that for the 2019-2020 school year, he was charged tuition in the amount of more than $2,000 per credit.
In addition, Zagoria states that NYU has charged him fees totaling more than $1,000 for the spring 2020 academic school semester.
The NYU student alleges that he paid additional fees to attend a Global Real Estate Markets course, which involved trips to Paris and Amsterdam. However, because of the coronavirus outbreak, all of the courses have been moved into an online learning environment.
Zagoria states that the university has shut down its campus facilities, discontinued all in-person instruction, and moved all classes to an online environment. He claims that while these actions are necessary due to the coronavirus outbreak, NYU has continued to hold him and his fellow students accountable for the full pre-shutdown tuition and fees.
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Zagoria notes that while NYU should not be held responsible for the campus closures, neither should the students.
He claims that NYU continues to demand that all students perform the obligation of paying tuition and fees in full, without any reductions, despite the university’s lack of full performance under their agreement.
“This indefensible breach is saddling wholly innocent students with mounting debt as a result of having to pay tuition and fees for services they are not receiving and facilities that are not being provided,” states the NYU class action lawsuit.
The plaintiff maintains that the defendant has breached its contractual duties by stopping all in-classroom instruction at all campuses and shutting down campus facilities while continuing to collect full tuition and fees from matriculated students.
Zagoria states that NYUs performance under the contract is of a different nature and of lesser value than what students signed up for at the time of their enrollment in the university.
To be sure, NYU has refused to make any tuition accommodation or provide any reimbursement, even though the university is not providing the students the services for which they paid for, the NYU class action lawsuit goes on to say.
The plaintiff claims that none of the centers or institutes that the university prides itself on having are actually open or available to use by its students. Zagoria claims that NYU is still charging and demanding tuition even though these facilities are closed due to the coronavirus outbreak.
The plaintiff also maintains that despite preaching the value and benefits of its in-person classroom instruction in its marketing materials, NYU has now recanted, stating that their online learning platforms are of the same value and quality of its on campus classroom instruction.
Zagoria points to an online petition that has been signed by NYU students which demands partial tuition and fee refunds for NYU students for the spring 2020 semester.
The online petition allegedly maintains that students are being charged fees and tuition for facilities and instruction that they are not receiving.
The NYU class action lawsuit states that the online petition has received more than 11,000 signatures in support, a majority of which are coming from enrolled students. The petition claims the university has changed the deal that it had with students, but refused to refund any tuition and fees back to the students.
Zagoria says NYU has breached its agreement with students by continuing to charge and demand full tuition and fees despite not providing any in-person classroom instruction on any of its campuses and by not making campus facilities available to its students.
Some questions of law and fact in this class action lawsuit include: 1) whether the relationship between students and NYU is contractual in nature; 2) whether the university ceased providing in-person classroom instruction across the board; 3) whether the actions of NYU has harmed the students and Class Members; and 4) whether students are entitled to declaratory or injunctive relief.
Prospective Class Members in the class action lawsuit include: “Students enrolled at NYU who pay or are obligated to pay any tuition or fees and any students enrolled at NYU in any future summer session or semester in which NYU does not provide access to its campus facilities or on-campus instruction yet continues to charge full tuition and fees without any proration.”
The plaintiff is represented by Azra Mehdi of The Mehdi Law Firm, Roy A. Katriel of The Katriel Law Firm PC, and Ralph B. Kalfayan and Veneeta Jaswal of The Kalfayan Law Firm APC.
The NYU Coronavirus Class Action Lawsuit is Daniel Zagoria v. New York University, Case No. 1:20-cv-03610, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
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