State universities predict $100M loss

PennLive

Pennsylvania’s 14 state universities are facing a severe financial hit because they won’t resume in-person classes for the last half of the spring semester because of the coronavirus.

The State System of Higher Education is projecting a loss of $100 million in total for the universities, due to refunding tens of thousands of students a portion of their room and board payments.

Refunding other fees, for student recreation centers, parking, student union and others, would be in addition to that.

Each university will have to find money within its own budget to cover that loss, and the system is leaving it up to each one’s discretion, system spokesman David Pidgeon said.

Within the past two weeks, all 14 state universities have suspended inperson class instruction for two weeks to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

Since then, all 14 schools chose to transition to remote learning for the remainder of the spring semester, as have a number of other universities across the state and country.

Another issue is the need to refund students or issue credits for a prorated share of their room and board charges and fees, since students were ordered not to return to campus after their spring break ended.

According to the system, housing plans range from $3,144 to $11,380, and board plans range from $1,780 to $4,924 per year.

Recently, the system’s leaders issued guidance to the universities about how to handle the situation.

Mr. Pidgeon said that included prorating the student refunds to when services stopped, to work with affiliates who may be in a position to provide refunds and to be aware that using credits to carry over instead of refunds could impact student federal financial aid.