B-School Students Get Rent Refunds

Harvard Business School will refund a portion of the rent paid by first-year MBA students who leased on-campus dorm rooms before administrators announced a shorter academic year, school officials said yesterday.

Business school administrators announced the shortened semesters, which will shrink the school year from nine to eight months, in September, when the first-year MBA students arrived.

But the approximately 255 first-years who planned to live on campus had already paid for their leases based on the longer school year, according to the HBS housing office.

"Originally, the rates that students were quoted were rates for the full academic year, and those rates were roughly comparable to last year, maybe with a two percent increase," said Cathy Cotins Harris, associate director of MBA management.

But students complained that it was unfair to pay nine months' rent during an eight-month school year, said Aileen W. Lee, a student leader and first-year student affected by the change.

"I think many students may have felt frustrated because it was kind of a surprise," Lee said.

As a solution to the controversy, the school's administration plans to credit approximately one month's rent to the students, provided they vacate their campus rooms by the end of the second semester. Harris said.

"We are going to offer a one-month rebate to anybody who choos- es to leave after May 1, which is the end of the term," Harris said. "Our sense is that some number of students, particularly those who are graduating in June, will want to stay through June, but we're not differentiating."

Harris said students will receive the rent rebate as a credit on their term bills.

"The upshot is people will be billed less in January [for the second semester] if they select to stay eight months," she said. "They can elect that at any point and have that rebated on their term bill. [The lengthened school year] primarily affected the first year class.

But for second year students, if they want to leave after the first week in May, they can take us up on this."

Representatives from the housing office were unable to confirm the exact amount of the rebate.

Harris stressed that the rent controversy did not result from a simple administrative "oversight."

"The dorm rates were set last November," she said. "The change in the length was not known at all at that point. It wasn't a deliberate attempt to get nine months rent for an eight month stay. It was just an oversight on when the calendar was approved."

First-year MBA students who may have their extra rent refunded said were pleased by the administration's move.

"I heard some others talking about it, and I think it sounds like a great idea if we could get a month's worth of rent back," said Steven T. Latham, a first-year business school student who lives in campus housing. "I could really use it.

Harris said students will receive the rent rebate as a credit on their term bills.

"The upshot is people will be billed less in January [for the second semester] if they select to stay eight months," she said. "They can elect that at any point and have that rebated on their term bill. [The lengthened school year] primarily affected the first year class.

But for second year students, if they want to leave after the first week in May, they can take us up on this."

Representatives from the housing office were unable to confirm the exact amount of the rebate.

Harris stressed that the rent controversy did not result from a simple administrative "oversight."

"The dorm rates were set last November," she said. "The change in the length was not known at all at that point. It wasn't a deliberate attempt to get nine months rent for an eight month stay. It was just an oversight on when the calendar was approved."

First-year MBA students who may have their extra rent refunded said were pleased by the administration's move.

"I heard some others talking about it, and I think it sounds like a great idea if we could get a month's worth of rent back," said Steven T. Latham, a first-year business school student who lives in campus housing. "I could really use it.