Coconino News

The Arizona Board of Regents is being sued after they allegedly failed to refund student fees after COVID-19 caused schools to shut down and transition to online schooling. 

According to AZ Daily Sun, a number of students have come forward with a class action lawsuit against the Board of Regents, alleging that they were refused a refund of their student fees following the closure of universities due to the novel coronavirus outbreak.

The student fees include room and board fees, Adam Levitt, the plaintiffs’ attorney from DiCello, Levitt and Gutzler said.

Northern Arizona University (NAU) allegedly did not refund $10,780 in fees and University of Arizona did not refund more than $3,000.

While it was within the universities’ rights to stop offering classes, Levitt said, students of these institutions are entitled to a refund of their fees. 

“It is unconscionable for them to attempt to keep the many thousands of dollars in room and board fees they collected from each student, even though they have terminated the services that these fees covered,” Levitt said in a press release.

While the virus has caused many students to return home to wait out the quarantine with their families, Northern Arizona University still had 1,300 students living on campus as of March 27.

Currently, students are trying to get signatures on their online petition which requests a refund for the month of school that they are unable to attend due to closures from the virus. These refunds are being requested in form of cash or credits for the coming semester. 

While the University of Arizona has offered a marginal rent credit option for 10% of the 2019-2020 or 2020-2021 housing costs, NAU and Arizona State University have failed to offer any sort of refund of fees that students have paid out. 

According to AZ Daily Sun, the Arizona Board of Regents failed to provide an immediate comment.