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Rutgers University students are demanding that tuition and fees be reduced after the school announced that most classes for the fall semester will be taught remotely amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Student Shreya Patel started a petition Monday calling on the university to understand that remote education does not merit the same tuition costs as in-person education. Patel’s petition has garnered over 16,000 signatures as of Wednesday afternoon.
MIT TO ONLY INVITE SENIORS TO CAMPUS IN FALL, FREEZES TUITION HIKE AS CLASSES SHIFT MOSTLY ONLINE
“They are failing to recognize that just because we have a ‘world-class education’ does not mean that remote learning is a substitute for in-class learning and other on-campus services,” Patel wrote. “What we pay for as part of our tuition is to be taught by a professor in a class setting where we can actively engage, ask questions and interact with our peers.”
“How could the current decision made not impact tuition if we cannot utilize resources to the fullest extent? If there are strains on the university’s ability to pay for expenses, why should students have to pay full price?”
While Rutgers recently announced it would back off from a planned 3 percent tuition hike for the upcoming academic year due to the likelihood of remote learning, it hasn’t reduced costs.
A view of the Waksman Institute of Microbiology on the Busch Campus at Rutgers University. (iStock)
Tuition for in-state undergraduates at Rutgers costs $12,230 annually, while out-of-state students pay $29,012. Additional fees, including campus, school and computer fees, add up to over $1,400 per semester.
The school defended its decision to charge full fees, saying that students will still have access to many services like academic, health, wellness counseling, IT infrastructure and libraries.
“Tuition and fees are set at the minimum amount required to provide our 70,000 students with a world-class education,” school spokeswoman Dory Devlin told NJ Advance Media. “A robust Rutgers education, whether delivered in a remote, hybrid or in-person fashion, is comprehensive and is provided by some of the finest scholars in American higher education.”
Rutgers media studies and journalism professor Todd Wolfson told MyCentralJersey.com that students shouldn’t be expected to pay campus fees or subsidize activities like the athletics program, which may not go forward in the fall.
“I do align with them that tuition should be less if students are not going to be on campus," Wolfson said.
Other universities have also decided against reducing tuition for the fall semester. Harvard is charging full tuition for mostly remote learning, while Cornell has gone ahead with its plan to raise tuition for an in-person semester.
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Meanwhile, Princeton has approved a 10 percent discount on tuition costs for students both on campus and remote.
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