ASU asks students in on-campus housing to consider moving out due to coronavirus

Arizona State University is asking students living in university housing to consider moving out, shortly after university President Michael Crow told The Arizona Republic it was an inappropriate time to discuss refunds.

The university issued a notice Saturday "strongly encouraging" students in university housing to consider other options for the near future, particularly those who may need to self-isolate or become ill, said university spokesperson Katie Paquet.

"If circumstances permit, we recommended they consider moving out of the residence hall to a family residence or a living environment that minimizes their contact with others," she said.

The university's residence halls would remain open and essential services would continue to be provided to students, according to Paquet. On March 16, ASU announced its decision to go online through the end of the semester.

At this point, ASU students who have left the dorms to return home will not be getting housing refunds. In an interview with The Republic on Friday, Crow said it was inappropriate to talk about refunds at this time.

"The funny thing is that somebody declares a national emergency, and they're talking about bringing out martial law in California. And then people ask us, are we going to give them a refund? Are you kidding me? I mean, that's what you want to talk to us about is a refund?" he said.

"So, like I said, we're offering full, full service. We'll sort all of this out at some point, but we're not going to sort it out now. That's like 48th on a list of 48 things."

While he called the issue of refunds a "noise-level issue" compared to the bigger concerns the university was dealing with to continue the operations, he said the university would "look at it ... depending on the circumstances" moving forward.

GCU asks students to move 'as soon as possible'

Grand Canyon University issued a statement on Saturday asking all non-international students to leave on campus housing.

The statement says it would be difficult for the university to accommodate a large quantity of students if Arizona issues a stay-at-home order, like other states have.

Students who are not international but cannot return home must request a waiver from the university to stay. The university is planning on reducing its food services in anticipation of less students being on campus.

The statement says that any students not on campus should not return and they will have until April 23 to collect their personal belongings. The coronavirus FAQ on the university's website still states that no housing costs will be refunded to students who leave campus.

Northern Arizona and Grand Canyon universities would also not refund students for housing costs; however, GCU would return some money for meals.

Meanwhile, the University of Arizona offered its students who lived on campus but would not return this semester credit to their accounts because of the "unique and unprecedented circumstances," an email to residents said.

Students were also offered either get 10% of their meal plan costs refunded as a rebate, or 20% of their costs applied as a credit toward next year's meal plans.

Republic reporter Rachel Leingang contributed to this story. Reach the reporter at chelsea.curtis@arizonarepublic.com or follow her on Twitter @curtis_chels.

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