Class Action Lawsuits for Refunds After COVID-19 Closures

• In Event: Education in the 21st Century: Evaluation, Engagement, and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

As COVID-19 forced higher education institutions (HEIs) to close campuses, stakeholders nationwide filed lawsuits seeking refunds. The University of California (UC) system, located in a state with affirmative-action controversies and an ethnoracially diverse population, received multiple class action lawsuits. The UC lawsuits present opportunities to examine how discursive practices in legal documents reflect various parties’ interests converging and diverging during large-scale crises. We ask: How do stakeholders and HEIs communicate their interests converging and diverging when HEIs experience a large-scale crisis? We employ critical discourse analysis to examine the data. Preliminary findings suggest stakeholders’ interest in premium on-campus experiences diverged from HEIs interest in curbing COVID-19. The study has implications for research and practice about HEI crisis response.

Authors

• Rafael Eduardo Alvarado, The Pennsylvania State University

• Raquel Muñiz, Boston College

• Dwayne Kwaysee Wright, George Washington University