Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - State Supreme Court Justice John Licata denied a tuition refund bid from a Canisius College graduate, who attended classes online during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the lawsuit, Canisius graduate Caleb McCudden calls the online coursework "materially deficient" and an "insufficient alternative" compared to the attending classes on-campus.
While the judge dismissed the claim for a rebate on tuition, the judge said the graduate could make a claim for a refunding of mandatory fees. Tuition and fees for that particular online-heavy semester were $12,385 for McCudden.
"It's happening all over," said Jeff Boron with SendYourKidsToCollege.org.
"These courts are looking at the advertisements and the catalogs of the colleges, for instance, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, they kind of dug themselves in a hole and that court case is going forward because they advertise the benefits of the on-campus experience such as the things that they offer students by living on-campus and the quality of life and activities. If those are denied, the plaintiffs are saying, 'Look, you charge me for this, this is part of the price, I want some of my money back.' So you've seen some of the SUNY organizations refund those obvious fees, like student activity fees to students, but the private schools are being a little resistant."
Boron thinks the Polytechnic Institute case is going forward, and if they rule in favor of the student, this could open up a class action lawsuit.
"You could see this proceed forward for every student that attended that college or university. It's kind of a big deal. When you look at some of these private schools, which are financially strapped right now, they might have to settle some big lawsuits, on the fees that they charge students that they didn't have access to."
Boron says one of the reasons why courts could be siding with colleges instead of the students is because there is no writing guaranteeing quality of tuition.
"The quality of your education, the tuition you're paying for, there's nothing in writing at the college that guarantees a certain quality so that's where it's a tougher case to make against the college. But some of these activity fees and things that you'd have to be on campus to participate in. Those seem a little more obvious."
Student Loan Repayments
Student Loan Repayment has been on pause for about three years,
Boron says we could see that resume in the fall of this year, unless there's another extension.
"The original press release from the Biden administration was payments would start after the Supreme Court date 60 days after or 60 days after June 30. So it looks like, unless there's another extension, which President Biden can do, payments will restart in the fall of this year."
According to Boron, the chances that students will see some debt forgiveness is getting slimmer and slimmer.
"Right now, most of the analysts looking at this particular situation and how the Supreme Court will rule are saying that it's not likely that the loans will be forgiven. However, it still hasn't been announced. So we don't know until we know."
