According to the Fall 2020 Housing Addendum signed by incoming students, "In the event that the University terminates the housing contracts due to public health concerns, the University will use a standard schedule for calculating refund amounts as specified in the terms and conditions of the housing contract. The refund schedule mirrors the institutional tuition and fees adjustment schedule by weekly proration found here."

This schedule is designed for individuals who drop out of the university and bases their refund off of how many weeks they have completed. This policy when mirrored for housing refunds indicates the following:

1) If a student were to be sent home in the first two weeks of school they will receive a full refund for their housing fee.

2) If a student were to be sent home in the second through the sixth week, they will be refunded a decreasing value of 70-40% of the housing fee where the amount refunded reduces every week.

3) If a student were to be sent home after the sixth week at any point, they will not be refunded for their housing fee. Meaning if a student is sent home week seven (Only about halfway through the 13-week term, they will be charged for the full value of housing)

Students being sent home in mass should not be refunded in the same manner as students who voluntarily withdraw from the university. Rather, students should be charged a proportional amount to the percent of the term completed. Meaning if students were to be sent home in week 9. They would be only charged 9/13ths of the housing fee, where 13 weeks is the length of the term.

We urge the university to change its refund policy so that a student is refunded proportionally for the duration of the term left rather than have the policy reflect the current weekly proration schedule. In these trying times, families will be heavily burdened with the cost of tuition and housing, and changing the schedule will greatly alleviate some of this burden.