This is undoubtably a chaotic time, and many students are consequently facing financial strain. As such, it is incumbent upon UIS to pay us back that which we are owed -half of the fees which are applied to on-ground students for the half of the semester that we will not be on the ground.

The current circumstances –between the shelter-in-place order and the forced move off of campus –have deprived many students of their primary sources of income and created a host of new financial issues that they have to deal with. On top of this, many are being forced to confront the challenges of online classes for the first time. These two situations are connected via the fees on-ground students have paid for. There are a number of fees applied to on-ground students that are not applied to 100 percent online students, and for the rest of the semester, that includes the entire student body. We have paid for services that we shall not be allowed to use, and it is quite reasonable for us to insist that we be compensated for this loss of service.

These fees include the Student Union fee, which provides support for the UIS Student Union, which the majority of students cannot use for the rest of the semester. The Service fee, which provides support for “a variety of co-curricular and extracurricular activities and services benefitting the student population,” the benefits of which the majority of the student population cannot enjoy for the rest ofthe semester. There’s also the General fee, which “supports fixed costs and overhead,” but is not applied to 100 percent online students. We are not asking that these fees be refunded in full, we merely wish that half of each fee be refunded for the half of the semester that we will be denied access to the campus amenities we paid for.