A University of Missouri student, seeking to represent a class of his schoolmates, has sued the university system for failing to reimburse them for portions of their tuition and on-campus fees.
The UM System closed its campuses for the majority of the spring 2020 semester, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The complaint states the system’s roughly 75,000 students did not sign up for a school that was only offering an online education; instead, they chose and paid for the complete in-person university experience.
“These students are not wealthy, and many have had to move back in with their parents because of the closures and the money they lost. At a time when the economy will hit new graduates particularly hard, it’s shameful the UM system is refusing to do right by the young people it is sworn to educate and raise up as leaders,” said plaintiff attorney Mike Arias of Arias Sanguinetti Wang & Torrijos.
The suit alleges the University of Missouri’s refusal to reimburse this money constitutes breach of contract and violates state law.
“Like many other institutions, organizations and companies, the University of Missouri made the right decision in closing its campuses during COVID-19; however, the leadership did the wrong thing by not reimbursing students the money they paid to learn from live professors, spend time on campus, and network with their current and future peers,” said attorney Rick Cornfeld of the Law Office of Richard S. Cornfeld, LLC, also representing the plaintiff.
The case is Student A v. The University of Missouri, Circuit Court for the County of Boone, Missouri Thirteenth Judicial Circuit, Case No. 20BA-CV01729. View the complaint here; https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hBEM1pCPkZKljTdOUoG9PpE9pt3cP21r/view.