This weekend, our firm filed two class action lawsuits on behalf of the thousands of students at CU and CSU. The suits primarily are based on the the colleges’ refusal to return a pro rata share of the fees that these students have paid for various campus activities.
We understand that these are tough times for all and that colleges, like everyone else, have had to adjust on the fly, but that doesn’t mean that basic fairness should be abandoned. These students paid hundreds of dollars of fees to be able to access campus activities for the entire school year, but they won’t be able to access them for 1/4th of the school year. In light of that, the schools should return 1/4th of their student fees. Think of it this way: if you contract with a company to build a house for you for $100,000, they build 75%, and then circumstances beyond everybody’s control prevent the completion of the house — should the company get to keep all of the money or should you get $25,000 back?
Plus, all students now are in online or remote learning classes, which generally are cheaper than traditional classroom courses. Yet, they’re still being charged the higher rates.
It’s not the colleges’ fault that we’re currently in the situation that we’re in. In fact, the colleges are doing a good job in light of these challenging circumstances. But, like any other business, colleges should not be entitled to keep something that doesn’t belong to them — particularly when they’re in a much better financial position than the students they serve.
We have filed against two university systems at this point, but we’re looking for more students — inside and outside of Colorado — who are in a similar situations as the students we’re already representing. If you know of anyone, please have them get in touch with us.
