University of Chicago Students Threaten to Withhold Tuition if it isn’t Cut in Half

University of Chicago Students Threaten to Withhold Tuition if it isn’t Cut in Half

There is another alternative here. These students could just drop out or enroll somewhere else.

Campus Reform reports:

Hundreds of UChicago students threaten to withhold tuition

If the University of Chicago doesn’t cut tuition in half for the duration of the pandemic crisis, hundreds of students are threatening to withhold tuition payments for the spring quarter.

A petition demanding negotiations for the cuts has more than 1,700 signatures, with more than 900 students considering a tuition strike.

A newly formed student group, UChicago for Fair Tuition, created the petition demanding the university cut tuition by 50 percent and eliminate all fees “for the duration of the crisis, beginning spring quarter.” It adds that this reduction should not affect current financial aid or result in pay cuts to employees. Further, they demand refunds to students who have already paid in full.

Additionally, the group is calling for the school to “waive advanced residency tuition for doctoral students” and “long-term budgetary transparency and a tuition freeze.”

According to the petition, and a study by CollegeCalc, the University of Chicago was the most expensive school in the nation for the 2018-2019 academic year. The petition notes that students “pay an exorbitant amount for tuition with little to no transparency about how the budget is allocated, or why tuition continues to increase.” Thus, the students demand the budget be released to see where their $80,277—the total cost for an on-campus student, according to the university’s website—goes.

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