On March 9th, 2020, because of the ongoing global spread of the Coronavirus pandemic, including New York City, New York University announced their decision to move all classes to Zoom, which is an online video communications and conferencing platform. While we all sympathize and recognize with the strenuous position that the Coronavirus has put New York University, this shift to virtual instruction has presented itself as a notable reduction in educational and instruction quality, which students fear will negatively affect our educational and professional outcomes moving forward. In addition, we fear that the quality of education we will be receiving over the coming weeks will not be commensurate with costly tuition payments that were made in January of this year.

In addition to a reduction in educational quality, various unintended consequences of the Coronavirus outbreak, including cancelled talks on campus, networking events, and much reduced face-to-face time with professors, colleagues, and guest lecturers, threaten to negatively affect both our short and long-term professional outcomes. This is particularly worrisome for those graduating in 2020, as they will likely find themselves graduating into a recession (which, as the 2008 economic crisis demonstrated, can have a lifelong negative impact on earnings).

With all of this in mind, we call upon the University to address the reduction of educational quality that the shift to virtual instruction brought forward, as well as the negative impacts of reduced networking opportunities and cancelled campus events, by providing students with a partial tuition reimbursement. We note that New York University has a sizable endowment at their disposal and could use a portion of these funds to help protect their student body (who themselves represent future donors) during these difficult times. Thank you for reading and sharing.