Students who were enrolled at Cornell during the Spring 2020 semester may be eligible to receive a sizable settlement from the University. On Sept. 21, the University reached a $3 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit that alleged Cornell breached its contract with students when the institution moved classes online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The lawsuit was filed in April 2020 by Alec Faber ’20 and argued that students did not agree to pay equivalent tuition and fees for online learning. The lawsuit blamed the University for refusing to reimburse or not adequately returning money to students for tuition, fees and other costs they paid for when typical operations were disrupted by Cornell’s in-person shutdown. Faber declined to comment.
