LETTER: Students deserve to get what they pay for

Regarding your editorial, “University students would be losers in lawsuits over online learning”: Simply put, you have a lot of nerve casting this issue as selfish, on anyone’s part.
Do students’ not deserve to get what they paid, often exorbitantly, for? If you stopped publishing for three months, through no fault of the newspaper, should your subscribers continue to pay?
More importantly, have you been on the business end of higher education lately? They are no better then glorified debt collectors, demanding payment in full, in advance and using hardball tactics including sending dunning notices to all – regardless of whether tuition’s been paid, threatening to lock students out of classes, and yes, using hardball debt collectors when necessary.
People who paid for an on-campus, in-class education deserve some pro-rata refund for some portion of half a semester. Do the math and you’ll find that it’s not that much on an individual basis. In addition, rather then cash, 75% or more would get a tuition credit.
This boils down to a matter of fairness and principal. As they sit on their billion-dollar endowments, schools cannot simply say “on campus and online are the same” and expect to get away with it.
Chris McKeown
Westwood, MA