Howard University faces students’ complaints on social media about unexpected tuition bills

By Dalila Muata, NBC

Howard University says that it is helping students deal with outstanding tuition balances after several shared complaints on social media that they were unexpectedly handed hefty bills for past semesters at the school.

The university switched to a new student platform, prompting at least 1,000 students to be notified that they still owed tuition for semesters going back two years in some cases. Some of those students posted their grievances with the university on social media, garnering millions of views. Though some students said they were being blindsided with new student debt, Howard said the students had owed the balances all along.

Many of the social media posts resulted in thousands of dollars being raised to help students resume their educations after some said they could not continue at Howard without paying the debt.

In a statement released to NBC News after publication on Thursday, Howard University said students’ accounts were delayed between January and June. The university also said students were notified about data transfers between October and November. Earlier, the university told NBC News that the outage of information was only between May and June.

In a previous statement, the university said half of the accounts with holds on them were “resolved due to student payments, financial aid or payment arrangements and holds are being lifted on their accounts.”

Howard University also said it would offer extended virtual and in-person office hours to help students.

Many of the students dealing with this have no financial safety net.

HBCUs formed in response to segregation, which lasted through Jim Crow.

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