NYU Tisch graduate students have been told that we will be distance learning for the Fall 2020 semester. We have also been told that we are expected to pay the full rate of tuition and fees, approximately $32,965, despite only using a fraction of the resources and accepting a less than ideal educational experience. We feel the suboptimal quality of distance learning does not translate to the price estimate we have been given, and we demand that NYU Tisch agree to lowering this semester's tuition for all incoming and current graduate and undergraduate students.

While Tisch administration has stated that charging full tuition is justified because remote learning has "nothing to do with how classes are taught", we believe that the true value of education comes from how much we are capable of learning from it. Dancers, Actors, Writers, Composers, Visual and Performing Artists all rely on live, in-person collaborative environments, free from the disruptive, impersonal obstacles created by remote learning in order to be thoroughly present and engaged. To claim that remote learning has nothing to do with how classes are taught or how students are engaged severely underestimates the value of physical classrooms and ignores the rampant dissatisfaction of Arts students across the nation. While we are grateful to study with the same faculty, guest artists and resources that NYU provides, we cannot help but feel like these opportunities are being devalued by this underwhelming shift to virtual classrooms and lessons.

We reject any attempt to increase tuition from last year's rate. We demand that the Fall 2020 tuition should be between $27,000-$21,000 for graduate students, an approximate 13-33% decrease from last year’s tuition, and that similar cuts should be made to undergraduate tuition as well. We consider this a fair compromise based on comparisons to how other American universities with similar programs and acceptance rates have been pricing their remote alternatives. We believe these are the best solutions for alleviating our strain, especially for our out-of-state and international friends who depend more heavily on accommodations and aid. We and our families have been scraping together resources and anticipating long-term debt in preparation of attending this incredible institution, even despite the massive financial struggle caused by the pandemic. The expectation that we pay the full amount for a school that we cannot fully attend is not reflective of a university dedicated to promoting inclusivity or nurturing the next generation of artists, and we request that administration take the appropriate steps to rectify this.