All college students would receive housing and meal plan refunds or credits under a bill proposed by LD8 Assemblyman Ryan Peters and Assemblywoman Jean Stanfield.

“Students break the bank to attend college and keep up with ever-increasing tuition and room and board. They’re very generous to what they pay colleges for their education. It’s only right colleges return the generosity without any hassle. This bill will make sure that happens,” Peters said. “These men and women were not given an option. They had to leave their dorms and campus housing to protect everyone’s safety. They should not be paying for that,” Peters continued.

The bill would require institutions of higher education to provide a refund or credit to students for unused on-campus student housing and meal plans due to the COVID-19 public health emergency. A credit or refund must reflect the number of days between the date the institution required a student to vacate housing and the originally scheduled end-of-occupancy date.

If an institution chooses to provide credit towards an upcoming semester, the student may request that the credit be fully refunded if the student does not re-enroll in the next semester or if the student re-enrolls but does not plan on using on-campus housing or a meal plan.

“For all the great support the federal government’s massive stimulus provides to people, college students have been widely left out. They won’t be receiving much support, yet are still being told by some universities to pay up for services they’ll never use,” Stanfield said. “That is not right, and we can’t put these young adults in an even deeper hole than the one student loans already put them in. We need to make sure that all these women and men are getting their money back. No exceptions,” she continued.

The draft of the bill is below: