Pa. state universities anticipate up to $100M loss from providing students refunds for room and board

State System of Higher Education

Reportedly, 94 percent of faculty union members voted yes on the new contract.

Pennsylvania’s 14 state universities are facing a severe financial hit because they won’t resume in-person classes for the last half of the spring semester due to the coronavirus.

The State System of Higher Education is projecting a loss of $100 million in total for the universities, due to refunding tens of thousands students a portion of their room and board payments.

Refunding other fees, for student recreation centers, parking, student union and others, would be on top of that.

Each university will have to find money within their own budgets to cover that loss and the system is leaving it up to each one’s discretion, said system spokesman David Pidgeon. Most of the universities have already communicated to their 96,000 students about their plans for issuing refunds.

Within the past two weeks at system Chancellor Dan Greenstein’s direction, all 14 state universities suspended in-person class instruction for a two-week period to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Since then, all 14 schools made the decision to transition to remote learning for the remainder of the spring semester as have a number of other colleges and universities across Pennsylvania.

In making that decision, the issue arose about the need to refund students or issue credits for a prorated share of their room and board charges and fees, since students were ordered to not return to campus after their spring break ended.

According to the State System, housing plans range from $3,144 to $11,380 and board plans range from $1,780 to $4,924 per year.

Last week, the system’s leaders issued guidance to the universities about how to handle the situation. Pidgeon said that included prorating the student refunds to when services stopped, to work with affiliates who may be in a position to provide refunds, and to be aware that using credits to carryover instead of refunds could impact student federal financial aid.

“These were guidelines but the decision-making rested with the universities,” Pidgeon said.

State Auditor General Eugene DePasquale urged the universities to provide refunds to minimize the financial pinch that many students and families may be feeling as a result of the coronavirus situation.

Reached on Thursday, DePasquale said he knows for the universities, several of which are already financially challenged, “it absolutely stinks.” But he added it’s the right thing to do.

“The room and board is something the students aren’t getting right now so they shouldn’t have to pay for it,” he said. "This is something that is very tough on everyone but the right move to make is to give the refund.”

Jan Murphy may be reached at jmurphy@pennlive.com. Follow her on Twitter at @JanMurphy.

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