At least seven D.C.-area universities have grappled, some more successfully than others, with a series of lawsuits filed by students and their families seeking partial refunds for tuition and mandatory fees they paid before classes were moved online and dormitories were vacated last year as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The first of these eight lawsuits against American University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, Howard University, Catholic University of America, George Mason University and the University of Maryland were filed in May 2020. Three are no longer active; the rest were still tied up in one court or another as of July 30.
The claims in all but one of the lawsuits, which seek class-action status and could cost the universities millions of dollars if found in the favor of plaintiffs, include breach of contract, unjust enrichment, and conversion, according to court documents. The plaintiffs allege that the universities to which they paid tuition and fees didn’t uphold the same quality of education that warranted the full price.
