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UNC students to receive housing, dining and parking refunds

The UNC System announced students will receive prorated parking refunds. A senior thinks tuition should be partially refunded too.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — UNC Charlotte announced Thursday students and staff will receive prorated parking refunds after COVID-19 forced the university to turn to virtual learning last month. 

Zachary Himes, a student believes some tuition should be reimbursed too.

“It just kind of seems unfair,” Himes said. “We’re not really getting everything we paid for.”

Laid off from work and now learning online, Himes said he’s had to tap into his savings “more and more.” The 22-year-old, who lives with his parents, said he paid for traditional in-person classes for the spring semester, which cost much more than virtual learning.

“If we offer distance education classes at half the price, then we shouldn’t still have to pay full price for distance education,” he said. “They should be a little more flexible with treating students more fairly, knowing how much we already paid.”

The UNC System is guiding all refund decisions. President Dr. William Roper sent a memo to chancellors earlier this week, telling them universities should not consider refunds of other fees beyond spring semester housing and dining and tuition fees for summer classes. However, he sent another memo Thursday allowing for parking refunds.

“It's a start,” Himes said. “But still feel some sort of adjustment for the cost of attendance is warranted given the discrepancy in cost of traditional face-to-face classes and remote courses.”

As we wait to hear if and how the UNC System will handle additional refunds for the spring semester, all summer courses will take place online and will be charged at a much cheaper online rate.

"UNC System institutions have already started issuing refunds fees for housing and dining," UNC System Associate Vice President for Media Relations Josh Ellis said. "The UNC System has remained open and effectively transitioned more than 95% of our classes to alternative delivery methods for the health and safety of our students, faculty, and staff."

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