The suspended students do not have the option to go online AFAIK. They are suspended and “not part of the NEU community” for the rest of the semester. No refunds of tuition and room and board. Let’s see if a parent files a lawsuit.
A lot of colleges seem to be suspending students for violating the covid policies. Are freshman who are suspended and sent home after a week going to be considered transfer students if they apply to other schools for 2021? The Northeastern NUIN students aren’t actually matriculated yet, but I think students at most other colleges probably are.
I honestly think that’s harsh and a mistake. Losing the room and board makes sense, but the tuition? Unless they don’t have any online capabilities for NUIN students… Not sure.
Edited to add- just did a little more research and there is no online version of NUIN. Classes don’t start until Sept 9th though, so I would have expected at least a partial refund of tuition.
NU was explicit about expectations to both NUIn and NU students. And there is NO refund of tuition to parents as well as NO refund of room and board, and in addition students CANNOT do online learning for the fall semester. Additionally they must take and pass a NEGATIVE covid test before leaving campus community. If positive, they must be moved to an isolation dorm so as not to infect those outside the Northeastern University community. Let’s see if parents appeal as there is a stated right to an expedited appeal through the university. But NU is seriously not messing around…
$36,500 gone for those parents.
if any of the NUin students were still under 18, I wonder if the parents themselves had to sign something
Can someone link to Northeastern saying these students can not switch to online classes and will be out the $36k?
That would be by far the biggest hammer brought down on social distancing violators, and hopefully will spread to other schools.
Very harsh indeed, but also highly effective if they follow through.
From the official news release:
https://news.northeastern.edu/2020/09/04/northeastern-dismisses-11-students-for-gathering-in-violation-of-covid-19-policies/
“The students have been informed that they are no longer part of the Northeastern community for the fall semester.”
…
“Payments by the students will not be refundable, per guidelines of the N.U.in Program.”
YIKES!!! This “might” have ripple affects for next year. This would give me great pause to apply to this school. Trust me I get it but unless your wealthy $36,5000 is not a drop in the bucket for probably the majority of the people out there , especially now. Yes, I would determine lawsuits on this. Yes, the families and students knew their policy but I don’t understand on what grounds they can keep their tuition. Sure lose Room/board but tuition? Maybe I am not understanding this?
@AlwaysMoving From the Northeastern news release I linked to above:
“The students have been informed that they are no longer part of the Northeastern community for the fall semester.”
“Payments by the students will not be refundable, per guidelines of the N.U.in Program.”
And a Boston Globe article:
“The dismissed students will not be allowed to take courses from home this semester but will be permitted to return in the spring, Nyul said. They were part of a special one-semester program for freshmen that was prepaid and cost $36,500. That money will not be refunded.”
NEU is a private institution and can set whatever terms they want. There is no right to an online education at NEU if a student violates the terms of their educational contract. I am positive their general counsel reviewed everything before issuing that policy many weeks ago. Students and parents were on repeated notice quite a long time ago. You attend a party you are suspended, you host a party you are suspended.
The moral of that story is buyer beware. Parents need to read the fine print.
I agree with this. $36,500 is a pretty steep fine for a first time offense. There has got to be an appeal process for this.
From the same link I quoted above.
".They have the right to contest their dismissal at an expedited hearing. "
"“The dismissed students will not be allowed to take courses from home this semester but will be permitted to return in the spring, Nyul said.”
From The Globe article it is not clear if the $36,500 payment can be applied to Spring semester.
So on a slightly more optimistic note…My Michigan son ended his first week(don’t worry I won’t give a week by week, blow by blow)…So I asked him if he would rather be home or at school now seeing how everything is working. He said, definitely school since he doesn’t have to deal and talk to us every minute of the day…hahah…lol…
So this brings me to hopefully a good point…for the kids at home give your kids room to breathe. One thing that was a bit hard on us was his schedule. It was totally different then ours including when to eat dinner, how late he was up with his friends ,online etc. Treat them more like their away then with you, I guess…something maybe we all didn’t have to think about before…fyi.
So he has one live class twice a week now since another class when remote. He has to be in project groups for 2 different classes. Meeting with the other students is fine .He has few classes for his major and is working on this 2 minors and likes them. No issues with the remote or live classes expect for one that is a major issue. One professor is NOT technical. So he gave his class live but all the students were in the “waiting” room and he didn’t know that. So that one class was major fail for the first class. The second class went better but he apologize and is getting technical help from the university. All classes are recorded so this weekend he will review any if needed. Not a lot of homework yet, just the first week. Spring semester they “piled” the homework on, maybe to keep them engaged or off the streets but he said the amount was intense to say the least.
He is working on his student org, applied for 13 sessions for an upcoming job fair (can’t believe he’s a senior and starting to do this now…), has an online job at school so keeping busy.
All students are really wearing masks. He is in a co-op house(probably not the best time) . Except for a group house meeting online he barely sees people. Outside a bit. Inline for the buffet style meals (they have a chef…), They are taking is seriously. No one wants to go home. His house is mostly Junior/Senior engineering and graduate and research students. so upperclassmen/women.
Also even on reddit and the like it seems the kids are self policing a bit. I think this is the key as I mentioned before.
Well, this might all be for not since this is the first weekend. Hopefully they make it through unscathed.
It is a gamble. But if by December Northeastern is one of only a handful of universities that has not sent most students home and gone completely to remote learning that could be an advantage for them in future years.
My understanding is the N.U.in program is a program for students that were not admitted to the fall semester, so they are offered spring admission and classes overseas. Due to COVID they did their fall at the Westin.
I think because the students were not enrolled at NU yet is why the announcement says “not part of the community” instead of suspended for the fall term.
https://www.northeastern.edu/nuin/what-is-nuin/faqs/
It sounds like there isn’t an online version of these classes anyway.
I’m glad NU did it and hopefully it spreads to other schools.
I still don’t see the basis of a lawsuit from a student who was thrown out of disobeying rules they signed a contract to obey.
I guess I could see a lawsuit from a student who said they did obey the rules and the college wrongfully identified them, but that’s uninteresting.
There must be an online version of the classes these kids were taking or what were they doing in the Westin near campus? Are you saying their classes were all in person?