An Ohio University student started a petition after OU said it will not be reimbursing tuition for the Spring Semester due to COVID-19.
Michael Chaney, a senior studying sports management, started the petition, which now has over 1,400 signatures, after he was unimpressed with the response he got from the university.
“I had just kind of been thinking lately (that) we're not really getting what we agreed to pay for in the beginning,” Chaney said.
Students who live on campus or have a meal plan will receive reimbursements, Carly Leatherwood, a university spokeswoman, said. Tuition, however, will not be refunded.
Chaney emailed the bursar’s office on March 24 and was met with what he thought was a dissatisfactory response.
“They sent me back a two sentence email basically saying, ‘No, tuition is not going to be adjusted.’ Nothing is changing, other than the mode of delivery,” Chaney said.
Chaney took to Twitter to share the bursar office’s reply and his thoughts because he thought the university’s response was unprofessional.
“I've kind of done this before on Twitter, like I'll just post my opinions or like experiences that happened to me, and I'll just kind of see where it goes,” Chaney said, “But I had no idea that this was going to get the attention that it would.”
In addition to the lack of tuition reimbursement, Chaney said he has had previous bad experiences communicating with the bursar's office and that the office has previously not accepted his independent loan immediately, leaving him with late fees and holds on his account.
Chaney said during two semesters, he wasn’t able to schedule classes until the morning of the first day of the semester.
The response to the tuition reimbursement Chaney received on Twitter was mostly positive, getting around 50 retweets expressing his sentiment, with one response suggesting that he start a petition.
“I thought about it, and I was like, ‘That's actually a really good idea.’ So I did. I tweeted a link to it. I thought maybe 20 or 30 people would sign it. You know, maybe it'll be kind of something fun for a little bit,” Chaney said, “I think the last time I looked was this morning, and it has over 1,000 signatures.”
The petition got over 1,300 digital signatures in just three days. Chaney hadn’t expected the petition to go as far as it did but was impressed with the support it received.
“I honestly wasn't really planning that we get to this point, so I don't even know what the next step is,” Chaney said. “People were telling me, ‘Thank you for speaking up about this,’ and all that. I was just sitting in bed just tweeting my thoughts. I didn’t really think that I was doing anything.”
Some other out-of-state students, like Ryan Chisholm, a freshman studying forensic chemistry, were also not impressed with the university’s choice to not refund students.
I'm not too thrilled about it since, of course, out-of-state tuition is rather expensive,” Chisholm said.
Chisholm said he is unable to get the same type of education he was receiving in some of his classes, like labs.
“A lot of my classes have been actually hugely affected due to the fact that I'm ... a science major, and I had a couple labs,” Chisholm said.
The policy also impacts student workers who needed on campus jobs to help pay for their tuition.
“I don't really think it makes a lot of sense,” Theo Bookwater, a freshman studying integrated language arts who works for the university’s cafes, said. “ A lot of people are relying on that job, especially the juniors and seniors who were working there to pay for their tuition and for their rent for that matter.
OU did announce that all students who had campus jobs have the option to work for the university in a remote position.
