Students at New York University's prestigious Tisch School of the Arts asked the administration for partial refunds due to remote learning.

The administration denied their requests, but one dean responded by sending them a video of herself dancing to REM's "Losing My Religion."

While the video may have been well intended, many students found it tone-deaf.

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As New York University switches to virtual classes, students at the university's Tisch School of the Arts want some of their tuition money back. But instead of receiving refund checks, they received a video of their dean dancing the REM's "Losing My Religion."

While students were outraged by the video, some calling it tone-deaf, Dean Allyson Green said her video was taken out of context and "surely neither frivolous or disrespectful."

Dean Allyson Green attached her dance video to an email to students earlier this week, according to NBC news.

In it, she explained that she doesn't have the authority to refund tuition and that it would be challenging for the school to do that, NBC reported. The full cost of a year's tuition at Tisch costs about $58,500.

NYU Tisch senior Michael Price told NBC he thought the video was Green's attempt to "reach out to the student body," but that it was tone-deaf.

"I am personally upset that we are being denied access to this equipment and facilities and still being charged the same amount for what is admittedly by the university a lower quality education," he said.

Overall, the response to the video online was rage and cringing.

Student Eli Yurman wrote an open letter to Green on the NYU Local blog. It was titled "Please Stop."

Yurman talks about student's efforts to seek a refund for their classes, and the school's denial.

"In the most recent email, in addition to doubling down on the message 'we are not refunding your tuition,' Dean Allyson Green included a Vimeo link to a two minute and 16-second video in which the self-described choreographer and visual artist awkwardly dances and lip-syncs to R.E.M.'s 'Losing My Religion,'" Yurman wrote.

"We here at NYU Local would just like to say: what the f*** is this. I mean, Allyson. What the f***," he continued.

Yurman said that students understand that private university financials are complicated and that "you can't just wave a wand and give people their tuition," but the video was a poor choice.

Like many schools during the coronavirus pandemic, Tisch too has turned to remote learning. For many students at the prestigious art school, virtual classes aren't cutting it. Students at the school launched a petition seeking partial refunds.

In the blog post, Yurman said that even if the end, the students seeking the refund are "in the wrong," Green's decision to send out a dance video was not thoughtful.

"The video is not cute. It's uncomfortable to watch, it goes on for too long, you end it by staring at the camera for a good eight seconds, none of it is working in the way you think it's working," he wrote.

In an emailed statement to Insider, Green said that she has welcomed new students to Tisch to "Losing my Religion" for the last eight years.

Green said she explained in the email to students that it's a piece that "speaks to frustration and disappointment, and that helped see me through the loss of 30 friends to AIDS — another difficult period for artists."

"What I meant to demonstrate is my certainty that even with the unprecedented hardships of social distancing and remotely-held classes, it is still possible for the Tisch community to make art together, and that all the artists in our school will find ways to remain closely connected even as circumstances challenge us," she wrote. "I regret it if my email left the reasons for my dancing misunderstood — although I will note that I have also received many positive acknowledgments — but its intent was surely neither frivolous or disrespectful."

The REM dance wasn't the first time that Green sent out a dance video to students. Two weeks ago, Green posted another Vimeo link, in which she offered tips and encouragement to students struggling with remote learning.

"There is nothing remote about our Tisch Passion," she said. "If you're along and get bored or lonely or frightened, reach out to somebody."

At the end of the video, which she noted was posted on rainy Friday the 13th, Green said, "but soon, 'Here Comes the Sun,'" before filming herself dancing to the uplifting Beatles song.

Message from Dean Allyson Green from on Vimeo.

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