[winflop]

Stanford has announced that all classes for the Spring Quarter will be online only at least to start. The administration hasn’t taken a formal position as to whether there will be any in-person classes at all during the Spring Quarter. Stanford has further announced that financial aid for the Spring will be reduced to reflect the lower cost to students of not living on campus. Yet the administration has also said there will be no reduction in tuition for Spring Quarter due to the online classes. 

So students will at a minimum be partly deprived of the on campus experience during the Spring, and may be completely deprived for the entire quarter, but will receive no reduction in tuition. I might feel differently about such a decision for a less wealthy school, but that doesn’t seem to me to be the right thing for Stanford to do.

As a point of reference, on Tuesday Santa Clara announced that the entire Spring Quarter will be remote and students on campus need to move out. We moved my son out of his dorm yesterday. I wrote to the President asking that they reduce tuition for the quarter. Remote instruction is not the same value as an on-campus education. Stanford needs to do the same.

[winflop]

Stanford has announced that all classes for the Spring Quarter will be online only at least to start. The administration hasn’t taken a formal position as to whether there will be any in-person classes at all during the Spring Quarter. Stanford has further announced that financial aid for the Spring will be reduced to reflect the lower cost to students of not living on campus. Yet the administration has also said there will be no reduction in tuition for Spring Quarter due to the online classes. 

So students will at a minimum be partly deprived of the on campus experience during the Spring, and may be completely deprived for the entire quarter, but will receive no reduction in tuition. I might feel differently about such a decision for a less wealthy school, but that doesn’t seem to me to be the right thing for Stanford to do.

As a point of reference, on Tuesday Santa Clara announced that the entire Spring Quarter will be remote and students on campus need to move out. We moved my son out of his dorm yesterday. I wrote to the President asking that they reduce tuition for the quarter. Remote instruction is not the same value as an on-campus education. Stanford needs to do the same.