Catholic University settles $2 million lawsuit over COVID-19 tuition refunds
Catholic University of America has settled a $2 million class-action lawsuit with students who sought partial refunds for Spring 2020 tuition and fees due to COVID-19 disruptions.
The settlement will provide automatic payments to eligible students for lost in-person services and instruction.
Catholic University of America (CUA) has reached a settlement for $2 million in a class-action lawsuit filed by Haley Gustavson, seeking tuition refunds on behalf of students for Spring 2020 tuition and fees.
The agreement was approved in September and covers CUA graduate and undergraduate students who were enrolled at the school during the Spring 2020 semester.
“You are a member of the Settlement Class if you were a Catholic undergraduate or graduate student enrolled in the Spring 2020 Semester who did not withdraw by March 18, 2020 for whom any amount of tuition and/or fees was paid to Catholic from any source other than a scholarship, grant or tuition remission from Catholic, and whose tuition or fees have not been fully refunded by Catholic,” the website with details of the settlement states.
Under the agreement between the school and its former students, settlement class members will “automatically receive a payment by check to their last known mailing address as reflected in Catholic’s records after the Effective Date of the Settlement Agreement.”
The original lawsuit, which was filed in 2023, asserted that “as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, [CUA] announced major changes to this schedule in an announcement from the University’s President on March 11, 2020.”
“The University announced that Spring break would be extended for 2 days through March 16 and 17, and that classes would resume on March 18, 2020 in a fully online format,” the lawsuit continued.
“Originally, classes were only scheduled to move online through March 30, 2020,” explained the complaint, “but on March 18, 2020, the University announced that the transition to online instruction would remain through the end of the Spring semester and that ‘closing down most aspects of campus life’ was to occur for the remainder of the semester.”
“In this same announcement, students were reminded that the University ‘closed our residence halls, called off all athletic games and practices, and canceled or postponed many in person events, conferences, performances, and meetings’ [and] as of that week ‘began to give broad permissions to many of our staff to work from home,’” the lawsuit asserts.
“Accordingly, Plaintiff and Members of the proposed Classes were deprived of approximately 46% of the in-person instruction, activities, and on-campus services for which they had bargained and already paid,” the complaint continued.
“The Catholic University of America agreed to settle a class action lawsuit filed against the University after COVID-19 led the University to shift classes from in-person to remote learning for the end of the spring 2020 semester,” a Catholic University spokesperson told Campus Reform.
“Catholic University settled this lawsuit to avoid costly litigation,” the spokesperson continued. “The University does not admit to any fault or wrongdoing, having transitioned to remote instruction to protect the health of students, faculty, and staff, and to comply with public health mandates.”
“A court-appointed settlement administrator will administer the settlement and notify students who are eligible to participate,” the spokesperson concluded.
