Northwestern University Owes COVID-19 Semester Refunds, Class Action Claims [UPDATE]
Last Updated on October 14, 2021
Greenwald v. Northwestern University
Filed: August 28, 2020 ◆§ 1:20-cv-05095
A class action argues Northwestern University owes tuition and fee refunds for the Spring 2020 semester curtailed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Case Updates
October 14, 2021 – Lawsuit Dismissed
The claims detailed on this page have been dismissed after a federal judge found that Northwestern had not entered into an express or implied contract with students to provide in-person education.
While the plaintiffs contended that “express terms” in their admissions letters promised an in-person experience, U.S. District Judge Harry D. Leinenweber held that the letters contained no such promises.
“The closest the letters reach to any reference of in-person instruction are in portions that extoll the benefits of entering into a contract with the University in broad terms and are not concrete enough to be actionable,” the judge wrote in a September 16 order.
Judge Leinenweber found no evidence of an implied contract either, according to the order. While the plaintiffs cited pictures and descriptions on Northwestern’s website of student experiences and activities, these cannot be taken to mean that Northwestern is contractually obligated to provide “the exact same experience” to future students, the judge ruled.
Moreover, the additional evidence provided by the plaintiffs is “plague[d]” by the same problem, according to the order. Northwestern’s course catalogs state either that Northwestern reserves the right to change rules, policies, tuition, fees, curricula and courses or that the school’s registration and academic program policies may “change without notice,” the order stated.
The faculty handbook, the judge found, is not circulated to students and therefore cannot be considered part of Northwestern’s offer of an implied contract.
Because the plaintiffs’ unjust enrichment claims repeat their contractual obligation allegations, they must also be dismissed, Judge Leinenweber held.
While the judge gave the plaintiffs 30 days to file an amended complaint, they have not done so, the docket shows.
A proposed class action looks to recover tuition and fee refunds for those who paid for on-campus courses at Northwestern University before the Spring 2020 semester was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The plaintiff, a master’s student in Northwestern’s Sound Arts and Industries program, stresses in the 13-page lawsuit that a material part of his coursework involved the use of a studio replete with sophisticated equipment maintained by the defendant. Per the complaint, the plaintiff would not have enrolled in the program, for which he paid more than $65,000 in tuition for 2019-2020, had he known he would be deprived of the use of the studio and equipment for a significant portion of the Spring 2020 semester.
The Evanston, Illinois university announced on March 11 that all classes would be transitioned online and in-person instruction halted as a result of the coronavirus crisis, the suit says. Since then, Northwestern students have been denied the bargained-for in-person instruction and access to “facilities, technology, services, resources, and other benefits” for which they contracted upon paying tuition and fees to the defendant, the lawsuit relays.
“Almost all the course work in a Sound Arts masters [sic] degree involves listening to various recordings, audio edits, etc. through state-of-the-art speaker systems,” the suit says. “Because a significant amount of fidelity is lost over video conference calls the student’s educational experience is severely diminished.”
According to the lawsuit, Northwestern on April 30 informed students that tuition would not be adjusted, and rejected such requests from the plaintiff, who stressed to the school the nature of his Sound Arts and Industries master’s program. On August 13, the case goes on, the plaintiff and others in the program were informed they could withdraw for a quarter but that their transcripts would reflect the absence.
Echoing a slew of semester-refund class actions filed amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the complaint asserts that students have lost out on the benefits of the education, services and extra-curricular experiences they were promised by Northwestern. Though the school has failed to hold up its end of the bargain, it has nonetheless chosen to retain and refuse full or partial refunds for tuition and fees “despite the dramatically lower quality and less valuable education and services” provided by the school, the suit alleges.
“Defendant is thus profiting from COVID-19, asking students and their families—many of whom have been laid off, become ill, lost loved ones, or are otherwise suffering significantly—to bear the financial brunt of the pandemic,” according to the complaint.
The case looks to represent those who paid tuition to Northwestern for an in-person class or classes and did not receive the in-person education for which they paid.
ClassAction.org’s coverage of COVID-19 litigation can be found here and over on our Newswire.
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