AUB Students File Lawsuits Against University

By Staff, Agencies

Scores of students filed two lawsuits against the American University of Beirut [AUB] Tuesday, in an effort to combat a decision that forces them to now pay tuition fees at the LL3,900 to dollar rate, as compared to the LL1,515 rate they had previously been paying.

Prior to this, these 64 students, wanting acquittal from the inflated fees, paid their tuition through a notary public at the LL1,515 rate. The bids and deposits were then processed by the notary public, and official documents were sent to the university to verify occurrence of payment.

AUB not only rejected the payments made through the notary public, but considered them null and void, informing the students via email that they would be given a grace period until March 2 to pay the full fees or risk being deregistered from all their courses.

This email, which the students consider to be an erratic threat by the administration, states that “deregistration means you will be dropped from all your courses, and will not be allowed to attend classes, access Moodle or take examinations. For your safety and that of others, we still recommend that you settle your tuition payments.”

If the court approves the first lawsuit by issuing a resolution verifying the legality of the bids and deposits, and the students who have paid at LL1,515 are found to be in the right, they will be absolved of any further payments. AUB will therefore be obliged to accept the overheads and this means that the students would be able to proceed with the semester as planned.

AUB has a history of raising tuition fees without clear cause, as occurred in 2014. The Stop Tuition Fee Increase movement burgeoned during this time to halt the 6 percent increase, when students occupied university buildings and staged sit-ins across campus. The university then reversed the hike in fees.

Similarly, when the call to hike tuition fees by 160 percent was announced via email in early December by AUB President, in which he stated “with great reluctance” that the increase was necessary “for the financial survival of AUB,” students took to the streets to protest. They were met with teargas and the use of excessive force, as many students are reported to have been injured by security forces outside the Beirut campus.

Preceding this decision, the AUB administration had already gone forth with budget cut measures in July when the employment of some 1,500 university and hospital staff was terminated without warning.