As of March 13th, all the classes at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago turned online for the rest of the semester due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). 

We understand the importance of public health at this time, however we express our concerns over the quality of our education in light of the changes in instruction. We request for the school to look after the students’ financial investment and be committed to further efforts on providing fair adjustments to the tuition for Spring 2020. 

An essential part of being a student at SAIC is our access to resources, networks of artists, in-person critiques and studio-based learning. Many of us chose to attend SAIC because we know how much SAIC values this as an essential part of our education as mentioned here on website. However, the sudden change has made us students concerned about the quality of our education, which will be further discussed below. We hope that the institution follows through with their commitment to these core values and considers our requests seriously. 

We know because we are artists, there are many possible ways to work with this current situation. However, we believe as artists we also have the responsibility to ourselves and our peers to assert our rights and values. 

Please refer to below for further detailed explanation on why SAIC students need partial refunds.  

Due to the rising concerns regarding the global novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, SAIC made the decision to cancel in-person lessons and transition to online learning on 13 March 2020. This resulted in the extension of Spring Break till 29 March 2020, with classes slated to resume on 6 April 2020 through online learning platforms. We recognise the necessity of such measures to protect the public health of not just our school community, faculty and administrative staff, but its connection to the greater society at large. However, we also seek your understanding in recognising and addressing the long-term impacts of such short-term measures on the quality of our education. These unprecedented changes have left the student body to grapple with the disruption of in-person, studio and facility based learning, which is an integral part of our education at SAIC. 

The following are our concerns with the transition to online learning:

Studio-based Classes 
A considerable section of classes offered at SAIC are heavily studio-based. Classes such as Ceramics, Sculpture require specific equipment that is likely to only be available on-campus, such as the Ceramic studio or the Woodshop. It is a challenge for both faculty and students to expect to be able to continue such classes that rely so heavily on the pre-existing studio spaces, materials and hands-on guidance. Even if a transition to online learning can be executed, it is arguable that the lack of access to the required materials/studio/resources will severely affect students’ education, especially when it comes to technical and equipment-based learning. This also affects the heavy emphasis on effective, in-person critiques which is a fundamental component of the creative process and our classes at SAIC. Our greatest concern lies with the inherent problems with conducting studio-based classes online, and the detrimental effect it will have on the quality of our education at SAIC. 

Access to equipment/facilities 
SAIC provides students with many on-campus resources via channels such as the Media Center and Tool Checkout. Students rely heavily on the on-campus resources, such as but not limited to: film equipment (cameras, tripods, lenses), wood shop equipment (stationery power tools, hand tools, wood materials), advanced output technology (3D printers, laser cutters), to be able to create our work. Our 4-year education at SAIC is one of the only sustained periods of time in which we are guaranteed access to such facilities through our classes and the tuition paid to the school. In the event that we are able to transition to online studio classes, we still compromise on the quality of work that can be produced without access to the equipment that is required. 

Cancellation of Critical Events 
SAIC students are losing their valuable opportunities that are directly linked to their professional engagement and campus life due to the total cancellation of events such as artist talks, gallery openings, graduation, club meetings, and etc. 

Limitations of Individual Circumstances  
In addition to this unprecedented suspension of school, the drastically shifting situation in the United States has forced many students, both domestic and international, to experience some sort of dislocation, be it geographical, financial, etc. The “social distancing” measures put in place in many different cities, states and countries will also limit students’ ability to be able to cope with the demands of certain studio classes. If residing in a location that has mandated a compulsory lock-down of its citizens’ movements, it is impossible to expect that students will be able to find resources and materials for their classes. 

We understand that the current situation is extremely unprecedented, however, we also believe strongly in maintaining the quality education that SAIC, as an institution, aims to provide. 

In light of these limitations of online learning on the quality of our education, we present the following requests: 

Partial Refund or Pro-rated Refund of the Tuition Paid for Spring 2020
Including the sudden suspension of classes from 13 March to 29 March, a student undertaking a regular 15-credit semester at SAIC would have potentially missed a total of 10 classes. With the strict attendance policy and the continual emphasis on the cost of our education by “credit-hour”, it is equivalent to an estimated 3000 USD worth of classes resources and studio time lost due to the suspension of classes. We demand a partial refund of these classes.  

We also request for subsequent consideration of the disparity between the quality of online classes and the expected quality of SAIC studio classes in the shift to online instruction and request for a prorated refund for the rest of the classes that will be conducted in remaining weeks of the Spring 2020 semester, considering that many of our classes (for reasons stated above) are not designed for online instruction. 

Partial Refund of Our Technology Fee and Ventra U-pass 
We also would like to request a partial refund of our technology fee, considering the fact that non-essential services on campus have been suspended and we no longer use them for the rest of the semester. Similarly, Ventra has also offered refunds to their customers who are no longer utilising the public transport system due to the shut-down of non-essential services in Illinois. We request that the school consider a refund of the U-pass fee in a similar vein. 

We are sure that SAIC seeks to provide the best quality of education that it can given the circumstances and we hope that the voices of the students are heard in their consideration of how to best navigate these unprecedented times.

We thank you in advance for your consideration and hope this channel of dialogue can be opened up.