Student Threatens to Sue University For Refund

A Summer School student is threatening to sue the University because the Summer School will not refund $775 in tuition although he attended only three days of the one full course he planned to take. The student, William M. Vazquez '81, decided not to take Latin S-Aab when he did not get enough money from relatives and financial aid sources.

Robert W. Wallace, a teaching fellow in the course, said Vazquez told him he would not be able to take the course. "He never came to class after the grace period (of three days) had expired," he added.

See the Registrar

Marshall Pihl '55, associate director of the Summer School and a member of the Administrative Board, said yesterday the University has no record of attendance so students must go to the registrar if they wish to withdraw.

"We try to keep that ground pretty well covered just because of this sort of thing," Pihl added.

Vazquez said yesterday that several days after the beginning of Summer School he called the Summer School office to ask about the steps he needed to take to withdraw.

Vazquez said a woman administrator, whose name he could not recall, told him that not turning in his study card would allow him to withdraw, despite an explicit statement in the Summer School catalogue warning that "merely ceasing to attend classes does not constitute withdrawal."

Vazquez said he then notified his bank to cancel payment on the check he had written to the University. The bank, however, failed to do so, and about a month later when Vazquez wrote a check, he found he had no money in the bank.

Vazquez has failed so far to recover his money. His case will eventually go before the Administrative Board, a group of administrators and senior tutors who make final rulings in cases dealing with undergraduates.

Vazquez, who is married and has one child, said his landlord is in the process of evicting him from his apartment because he is unable to pay the rent. Vazquez is unemployed for the summer because he recently broke his leg, he added.

"It's almost reached the point where I'll be seeking legal counsel," Vazquez said. "It's not something I want to do not only for inconvenience but for financial reasons," he added.

Michael Shinagel, director of the Summer School, said yesterday that he told Vazquez to "put the case in writing and I would turn it over for reconsideration...I have not heard anything from Mr. Vazquez in writing subsequent to that phone call."

However, Vazquez gives a different account of his conversation with Shinagel. He said, "I submitted two written complaints. One to the ad hoc committee (in the Summer School to review refund cases) and one to the Administrative Board. When he told me to do that (submit a written complaint), I told him that I had in fact already submitted those letters. He then said, 'Well I stand by the decision of my colleagues.'"