March 19, 2020
As a result of the operational changes made in response to COVID-19, students and their families have been asking about refunds. Some have asked about tuition refunds in exchange for the longer week of Spring Break; others have asked about a refund for room and board since we are closing the dorms.
We’re working now to determine the best way to return to students what they have paid for the room and board services Simmons will not deliver for the remainder of the semester. As soon as we know the mechanics of that, we will communicate it. There is no question we will return those monies.
As for tuition, Simmons won’t be issuing any refunds or discounts for that.
When a parent or student pays tuition, they pay for the number of credits a student will receive. We are taking extraordinary measures during this time to help all students receive the credits they enrolled in. This has required faculty to do the unexpected work of taking the learning objectives they had for their courses and ensuring that those objectives could be met in a new learning modality. Sometimes this will mean an emphasis on the same number of contact hours. Sometimes it will involve different ways that students will demonstrate their learning and faculty members will evaluate it.
We are committed to fulfilling the goals and purposes of every course, just as we would if we had a semester with an unprecedented number of snow days or any other unexpected interruption of our usual mode of business.
More information on this subject will be provided as it becomes available.
