A pair of students dissatisfied with DePaul University’s transition to online courses this spring have filed a lawsuit against the school, seeking prorated tuition refunds since classes can’t be held in person during the coronavirus pandemic.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court, argues that students should get some money back because the quality of courses has decreased after the Chicago school closed much of its campus in late March and shifted solely to online instruction.
“The remote learning, online classes are a shadow of the classes that had been offered to DePaul University students prior to the campus closures,” the lawsuit says. “This is particularly true for disciplines and courses of instruction such as the arts and laboratory-based sciences, where hands-on, in-person instruction is the norm — and, in reality, a necessity.”
DePaul is the latest college, but the first in the Chicago area, to be hit with legal action over its response to the coronavirus outbreak. Similar lawsuits have been instigated by students and parents at Michigan State University, George Washington University and the University of Southern California. All the lawsuits contend students are entitled to refunds because they can’t take advantage of the full campus experiences for which they paid.
For its part, DePaul says it has accommodated students while also holding its courses to a high academic standard. Before the lawsuit was filed, DePaul canceled a planned tuition increase for next year, refunded dining and meal costs for students who left campus and waived fees for services, such as athletics, that students could no longer utilize, according to spokeswoman Carol Hughes.
“This purported class-action lawsuit attempts to take advantage of difficult decisions DePaul University made to save lives and presents an erroneous view of how the university has responded to the COVID-19 crisis,” Hughes said in an emailed statement.
Even with most of campus closed, DePaul is still allowing students to use computer labs if they need, she added.
Though Hughes said the value of DePaul’s education has not been diminished due to the unforeseen changes, that message hasn’t resonated with at least the two students who are named in the lawsuit. Additionally, about 5,700 people have signed an online petition asking DePaul to lower tuition because “the educational services offered are not equal to services rendered.”
One of the plaintiffs, Emma Sheikh, a graduate student in DePaul’s College of Education, declined to comment. The other, identified in the suit as senior psychology student Enrique Chavez, could not be reached Thursday.
Both students took out students loans and are using personal funds to pay tuition, according to the lawsuit. Tuition at DePaul varies by academic department, the lawsuit said, but the undergraduate paid $13,160 and the graduate paid $8,515 for the spring term.
The lawsuit accuses DePaul of breaching its contract because it’s still requiring students to pay the full cost of tuition even though the campus experiences it advertises — including its recreational sports, proximity to Chicago and hands-on learning — can no longer be accessed by everyone. As a result of the abrupt shift to online learning, students have experienced a “decreased value of the education,” the lawsuit said.
Michelle Drake, an attorney representing the students, said the lawsuit asks DePaul to refund the difference between the value of online courses and the value of in-person ones. As the case progresses, economists will likely need to weigh in to help determine an exact dollar amount, she said.
“We think universities are like any other business. And if businesses are not able to deliver what’s promised, they need to only ask their customers to pay for what was actually provided,” said Drake, whose Philadelphia-based law firm is also representing students in tuition lawsuits against other colleges. “Sitting in your house watching someone on a computer screen is very different than the in-person, college educational experience that these students and their families paid a lot of money for.”
Hughes countered that DePaul has been preparing faculty to conduct online learning through professional development programs for more than a decade. Most recently, the school hosted a series of webinars to help professors, with more than 1,000 participants, adapt during the pandemic.
“With these foundations, and the amount of resources the university has invested for years in preparations for remote learning, the value of a DePaul education is as strong in Spring 2020 with all classes online or remote as it has been when the majority of classes were conducted in person,” Hughes said.
The first hearing in the case is set for July 27.
echerney@chicagotribune.com
