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Northeastern University’s Ell Hall \u00a9 Wikipedia<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n
Graham Dockery
\nRT.com<\/p>\n
Boston\u2019s Northeastern University has dismissed 11 students, kicking them off campus and pocketing their $36,534 tuition checks. Coronavirus has blurred the distinction between higher education and highway robbery even further.<\/p>\n
The students were enrolled in Northeastern University\u2019s Nu.in program, which usually places students abroad for their first semester. However, coronavirus restrictions saw the students confined to Boston this year, and put up in the city\u2019s Westin Hotel. Tuition remained at a pricey $36,534, even though the hotel\u2019s\u00a0\u201csocially distanced\u201d<\/em>\u00a0student center was a far cry from the foreign campus experience in Ireland they were promised.<\/p>\n However, that experience was cut short and all 11 were dismissed on Friday with no refund, after they were caught gathering together in one of the hotel rooms in breach of the university\u2019s coronavirus rules.\u00a0\u201cStudents who attend an unsafe gathering, social or party, either on or off-campus, can expect suspension,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0student affairs vice-chancellor Madeleine Eastbrook wrote in a letter to students.<\/p>\n The students will get a chance to appeal their dismissal, but for now their academic adventure has arrived at a premature end. The university has nothing to worry about though, as it\u2019s pocketed a tidy profit of $400,000 from them.<\/p>\n Trying so strong-arm teenagers into isolation is not just difficult. It\u2019s also cruel, and denies them the opportunity to connect with each other at a time when they\u2019re just savoring their first taste of freedom. Students hang out, party, hook up, and build lasting friendships during this time, and attempting to quash that is undeniably mean-spirited.<\/p>\n But Northeastern is not the only university making tyrannical demands of its students. Michigan\u2019s Albion College is requiring incoming students to install a tracking app on their phones that will alert college authorities if they try to leave campus. Additionally, students will have to submit to regular coronavirus testing, will only be allowed to visit a list of\u00a0\u201capproved businesses,<\/em>\u201d and will be required to submit an application to leave campus five days before doing so, and even then only in the case of a medical, religious, or family appointment.<\/p>\n Albion will suspend any student caught breaking the rules, though the fate of their tuition fees is unclear. Similar regimes have been reported in colleges nationwide, with some\u00a0encouraging<\/a>\u00a0students to rat out their partygoing peers, and others\u00a0threatening<\/a>\u00a0rule-breakers with expulsion.<\/p>\n Punishing students for being students should be considered a crime against youth and vitality, especially when adults on campus aren\u2019t held to the same standards. In Albion, for example, faculty are free to come and go, while students remain on campus-arrest.<\/p>\n At least students in these institutions can actually go to college though. Far more universities are offering distance learning this semester, and charging exorbitant rates for the virtual experience. Harvard University\u2019s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, for example, is holding\u00a0\u201call course instruction\u201d<\/em>online<\/a>\u00a0this semester, and still charging students $26,984 for the privilege of sitting through Zoom lectures.<\/p>\n Harvard is one of many offering such a raw deal, with Johns Hopkins University and Princeton University among\u00a0hundreds<\/a>\u00a0of colleges switching to virtual lessons this semester. Students in both of these institutions will get only a ten percent discount off their regular fees.<\/p>\n Paying the equivalent of a modest salary to look at a laptop screen at home is daylight robbery. Allowing teenagers to come to campus before stealing their tuition when they behave like teenagers is daylight robbery. Higher education costs have already spiralled out of control in the US,\u00a0rising<\/a>\u00a025 percent in the last decade. Coronavirus restrictions only make the robbery more galling.<\/p>\n And it\u2019s not like these institutions are short on money. While the switchover to distance learning will drive some smaller universities into debt, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, the University of Texas, and Stanford University all have\u00a0endowments<\/a>\u00a0of over $27 billion. These are just the top five in a list of more than 60 universities with endowments of over a billion dollars.<\/p>\n For those who have already paid tuition, it is likely too late now to ask for a refund. For those who feel bilked,\u00a0lawsuits<\/a>\u00a0may now be the only recourse.<\/p>\n