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As colleges and universities shut down in March and face-to-face instruction ended, students were sent home to begin distance learning, emptying campus housing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now, over a month later, the institutions have begun reimbursing students for room and board and, in some cases, other fees, for the time they were absent. Plus, the schools have canceled in-person instruction into the summer, resulting in a loss of income for those sessions.
The total amounts at the 14 state state's system of higher education schools, such as Lock Haven and Bloomsburg universities, have left the state system with a loss of expected revenue.
"When you factor in refunds on room and board and some fees for both the spring and summer, then pull in the CARES Act funding that the federal government passed, our bottom line financial impact is a $52 million loss," said David Pidgeon, director of public relations at PASSHE, the state System of Higher Education.
"But, to put that into some perspective as well, the spring 2020 refunds alone were close to $100 million. This is still a very challenging number to look at when you look at the negative $52 million," he added.
The CARES Act will certainly offset some of the deficit, Pidgeon admitted. The first part of the act, which has already been released, provided for direct student aid.
"My understanding on that was that a university that had already provided refunds could not take that money and refill their bank accounts," he said. "The money, which has to be spent over the next year, has to go to direct student aid and the university has discretion on figuring out how they would use their allotment of funds."
"The second half goes to the institution and they are trying to unpack as best as everybody can, what kind of parameters might be around on that," Pidgeon said
Lock Haven University is looking for the federal stimulus package to help alleviate the financial impact of the fee reimbursements for the spring semester.
"Federal stimulus funds for Lock Haven are available and welcome with half being directly distributed to students in the form of financial and hardship support and the other half as institutional aid that will help absorb the loss of revenues for the year," according to Elizabeth Arnold, executive director of strategic communications at the university.
"To minimize the impact of these refunds, and certain future revenue losses, it will be necessary for the university to reduce spending through the remainder of the fiscal year," Arnold said.
Some of the cost-saving measures include a spending freeze for activities unrelated to essential services.
"This will come from the reduction of payments for dining services, the elimination of travel and conferences, a reduction in utilities, limited overtime and eliminating the hiring of temporary summer facilities employees and other cost containment measures," Arnold stated.
Private colleges are also faced with issuing refunds for the time that students were absent from campus.
Bucknell University is returning about $9 million in refunds or credits for spring term room and board, according to Mike Ferlazzo, director of media relations and communications at Bucknell.
The university has not made a decision on how to compensate for the loss.
"Given the economic uncertainty moving forward, we haven't made a definitive decision on what those actions may end up being," Ferlazzo said. "However, we continue to pursue opportunities made possible at the state and federal levels."
Bucknell has applied spring housing, meal plan and student activity fee credits to student B-bill accounts. Ferlazzo indicated that students who have a credit balance on their account may choose to leave the credit there and apply them to charges for the fall semester or they can request a refund on some or all of the credit balance.
Pennsylvania College of Technology, to date, has refunded $1.8 million in housing and meal plans for students.
"The College has refunded four weeks of housing/meal plans for on-campus students to help them and their families cope with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic," said Suzanne Stopper, senior vice president for finance, CFO at the college.
"We are also providing gift cards for a small number of students who are still on campus, because all on-campus dining facilities are closed due to the governor's order. The gift card can be used to purchase food and take-out meals in the local community," Stopper added.
Penn College, too, is investigating funding provided by the CARES Act to provide financial assistance to students as well as continued delivery of academic operations and student-focused services, Stopper said.
"The college is evaluating the budget impact of the lost revenue," Stopper said. "Moving forward, we will reduce expenditures as appropriate. We are also evaluating all avenues of relief provided under the CARES Act."
Because many of Penn College's coursework involves labs, the college has decided to not reimburse fees associated with labs.
"We are doing all that we can ensure that our students are prepared for the demands of industry while we respond safely and responsibly to the complexities of the COVID-19 pandemic and address additional expenses associated with remote instruction," Stopper said.
"Our lab structure provides students with additional hours with faculty experts at a cost significantly below the per-credit-hour rate. Because lab fees are being used to help us continue to deliver scheduled instruction remotely/online, and since we must ensure that all course outcomes are met, lab fees are not included among our reimbursements," she added.
Pidgeon noted that there are many unknowns in the long term for PASSHE universities such as decisions that have to be made about tuition for the 2020-21 school year.
"We are, at this point, unaware of what our state appropriation could be for the next fiscal year," he said. "There are a lot of rumors, speculation out there about another federal stimulus that might impact higher ed."
Pidgeon explained that, with remote learning at universities being extended into the summer, the question is what will fall 2020 look like?
"We have to persevere through all those unknowns and make decisions in both the short term and the long term to the very best that we can because we know there are students at home right now and prospective students that are asking the same questions that we are," Pidgeon said.