University of Washington to pay $4 million to students who sued over COVID-19 campus lockdown
The university offered ‘a limited online experience presented by Google or Zoom, devoid of face-to-face faculty and peer interaction, separated from program resources, and barred from facilities vital to study.’
A university spokesperson asserted that the school ‘provided excellent education to its students throughout the period of remote instruction.’
The University of Washington will pay $4 million in a settlement agreement after it was sued for shutting down in-person learning during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.
Doctoral student Alexander Barry sued the university in 2020, and in 2023, a judge subsequently expanded the lawsuit, allowing tens of thousands of other students to be represented as plaintiffs.
The complaint states: “Despite sending students home, transitioning to online instruction, and closing its campuses, the University of Washington continued to charge for tuition, and/or fees as if nothing changed, continuing to reap the financial benefit of millions of dollars from students.”
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“The University of Washington did so despite students’ complete inability to continue school as normal, occupy campus buildings and dormitories, or avail themselves of school programs and events,” it continues.
Instead of allowing students to enjoy “a comprehensive on-campus academic experience,” the university offered them “something far less: a limited online experience presented by Google or Zoom, devoid of face-to-face faculty and peer interaction, separated from program resources, and barred from facilities vital to study.”
The complaint states that the university “did not provide [certain] on-campus experiences and in-person courses, and refused to refund Plaintiff and Class members for their losses due to the campuswide transition to online-only learning starting in the Winter Quarter 2020.”
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, after deciding to shift to an online education method, the University of Washington stated in a COVID-19 FAQ section that “tuition and required fees for spring quarter 2020 are not changing.”
It cited a supposed increase in “investment in instructional costs” because of the online shift.
The lawsuit highlighted that “the University of Washington has also received millions of dollars from the federal government under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, ultimately receiving $39.7 million in total allocation.”
Victor Balta, a university spokesperson, told Campus Reform that the “COVID pandemic imposed large financial costs on the University rather than lessening them. Despite those unexpected costs, the UW ensured students were able to continue earning credits toward their degrees without interruption.”
He alleged that the school “provided excellent education to its students throughout the period of remote instruction.”
Balta also explained that “[g]iven the potential ongoing costs of litigating this case through trial, we believe it was the financially responsible decision to agree to this settlement.”
