Lawsuit filed agains UC, CSU, over response to pandemic FWIW, Mrs. Fugawe attended online classes from a major state university (not in California) and they waived most of the student fees with the understanding that if she wanted to use the things funded by them, like athletic events, parking, fitness center, etc, she would have to pay a la carte for them. So that precedent exists out there and honestly makes sense for students who aren't on campus. Universities act like a business and treat undergraduates like customers. In this case, the customers couldn't access the Memorial Union, ARC or athletic events they paid for so it doesn't seem unreasonable for them to want a refund. The problem of course is that athletic scholarships still have to be distributed, employees are still on the clock, and the Rec Pool still has to be chlorinated so expenses haven't dropped anywhere near zero. There are clearly damages, but the question is who should bear them? The customer or the business? In the private world, the business would be expected to bear it and fund it through savings, loans, or a government bailout. The university could be in a tough spot if their slush fund runs dry and the governor doesn't bail them out because a lot of their miscellaneous revenue from $50 parking tickets and $80 sweatshirts has also dried up. If it was just the athletics fee, maybe students wouldn't cry foul but all of the student fees combined are quite a burden and highlight an amoral system where a small quorum of students vote in a fee that sometimes doesn't take effect for a couple years, in essence voting to tax future students who have no say in the matter. A significant portion is debt service on capital projects that probably should have been on the state's nickel to begin with. Seems cheap to have a special student fee to pay for seismic and fire alarm code compliance.
However the judge rules in this case, I'm sure we can expect future contracts we sign for everything from concert tickets to gym memberships to have a pandemic clause in the fine print to try to shift liability to the consumer in the future situation like this.