The COVID-19 pandemic has displaced many University of Wyoming students from the college’s dorms and apartments, leading some to ask whether UW plans to reimburse them for the semester.
While students living in campus apartments are not required to leave campus, students formerly residing in the residence halls are currently not allowed to return. As most who live in the residence halls pay in advance as part of their tuition and fees at the beginning of the semester, some students feel that they have been overcharged.
“I’ve paid like three thousand dollars to the university to live in the dorms, and now after they’ve taken my money, they say I can’t,” said freshman Amanda Daniels, who lived in Orr Hall before the pandemic. “It just feels kind of unfair to me, like what are they even doing with the money now?”
Daniels has returned to her hometown of Fort Collins for the duration of the closure. She says her family is well-prepared for the pandemic, and that her room and board at the University is not a major expense.
“But it’s not like we’d say ‘You can have it’ or whatever if UW offered the money back,” she said. “That’s still a lot of money.”
As of press time, the University has not issued any guidance concerning possible refunds, and no relevant departments at UW could be reached for comment after repeated attempts. Other colleges across the United States are offering some sort of reimbursement for unused housing and dining services. The University of Wisconsin plans to refund around $78 million to students, and the University of North Carolina has started a similar process.
It’s still unclear what UW plans to do about the hundreds of students currently living in campus apartments. Unlike the residence halls, the campus apartments have not been closed, so students are still allowed there. However, many students left for spring break and now cannot return, and others still living there would like to move out as soon as possible.
“I just don’t see the point in hanging out here and paying rent when I could move back with my parents, or find someplace cheaper back home,” said Kayden Davis, a senior who is working to break his lease. “I should have a degree by May, I ought to be looking for jobs somewhere else anyway.”
Davis lives in Bison Run, where he shares an apartment with three other students. He says he’s worried about keeping communal spaces clean, especially as two of his roommates are not social distancing and going to parties and other large gatherings.
“It’s frustrating, like I shouldn’t have to catch coronavirus because my idiot roommates can’t stop leaving the house,” Davis says. “Plus I don’t even want to be here, and they’re going to charge me 400 dollars for another month.”
Davis added that he recently bought a parking pass that should have extended past the end of the semester, but with the closure, he feels he will not get the full value out of it.
Adding to Davis’s worries is that his job recently laid him off due to the pandemic, a situation that will repeat itself many times over with many other students as the weeks of quarantine turn into months. Many states have discussed the possibility of a rent freeze during the crisis, and many municipalities have already announced a moratorium on evictions.
As the pandemic enters its second month, many students are convinced that something will need to be done.
“It’s like, you’re not going to get money out of me,” said Davis. I don’t have it.”
