On March 12th, University of San Diego announced that in-person lectures will be suspended until the end of Spring 2020 in response to COVID-19 pandemic. It was claimed that "the Financial Office will arrange pro-rated reimbursement credits of room and board and parking charges," but students should also receive refund for tuition.

While we appreciate how the university values students' health status, it is unreasonable for us to pay the full cost of tuition under these circumstances, as the effect of online lectures will be completely different from in-person lectures in terms of communication, atmosphere, convenience, etc.

There's a huge difference between the tuition of online courses and the tuition of in-person lectures. According to the information about online Bachelor's programs on U.S. News (https://www.usnews.com/education/online-education/bachelors) the average tuition per credit online is about $500, yet the tuition per credit at our university is $1740.

According to CollegeCalc, a website of college pricing data, USD is the 14th most expensive four-year college in the state (https://www.collegecalc.org/colleges/california/university-of-san-diego/) USD students, especially international students, are paying a tremendous amount of money for our education. It is ultimately not the responsibility for us, many of which are currently full-time students, to bear the cost of the impact of the coronavirus on academic resources.

We hereby request at least 20% refund of tuition for all students to account for the difference in the quality and cost of education between in-person and online instruction.