After the switch from in-person classes to online classes on March 16, the majority of Chaminade University of Honolulu students who purchased parking permits, meal plans, and campus housing were suddenly faced with the decision to stay or leave it all behind.  

Because many CUH students have returned to their respective families’ homes, and therefore ceased eating at the Silversword Café and parking on campus, Chaminade leaders made the decision to prorate refunds to students who vacated university housing, as well as those who purchased a meal plan or a parking permit for the spring term, as announced in an email to Silverswords on April 3. 

In an email on April 30, Edna Wilson (who works in the Business Office) then cleared up a few details that were left out of the initial refund announcement.

As of April 30, approximately 175 refund requests had been made. That number continues to grow, as requests are being made daily. Therefore, the first round of refunds were issued by May 1 and more are being processed. 

The type of refund a student will receive depends on if they have a balance on their account. If so, the credit will reduce their debt. If a student’s current balance has been cleared, they will receive a BankMobile notice that they have a refund. If they have yet to make a selection on how they would like to receive their refund, they will need to make a selection through BankMobile before a refund can be issued. 

Student refunds are calculated depending on when they left university housing and returned their room key, what type of meal plan and dorm/room they had, etc. 

Students with meal plans who live outside of university housing must contact the Chaminade Business Office if they would like a refund.

Wilson recognizes that these are unprecedented times and said that the whole refund process has been challenging. She reassures that CUH leaders are doing the best they can to get these refunds out.

Most of the information regarding what students should expect from these refunds was included in the April 3 email and are as follows. 

For students with resident hall contracts who decided to vacate their room on or after Saturday, April 4, a refund was to be calculated according to their move-out date. This was activated upon the return of their room key by certified mail (Chaminade University, Attn: Dayna Bareng, 3140 Waialae Avenue, Honolulu, HI 96816) or in person at Residence Life in Kieffer Hall (Monday through Friday between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.). This refund should be received with an effective date of March 30 and includes one’s remaining weeks of housing and unused meal plan balance. Any refund resulting in a credit balance in the students’ accounts would be issued via BankMobile (a vendor that CUH uses to disburse refunds). Refunds were unavailable to students who chose to remain in their room through Friday, May 8.

For students who purchased parking permits for the spring term, a prorated credit will show up in their student account for the remainder of the term (also effective March 30). Seniors, however, will receive a refund check after May 1 for the prorated balance.

All students are advised to contact Edna Wilson at [email protected] with further questions. 

For first-year nursing major Maggie Blankman, making the sudden move from her dorm in Hale Lokelani to her parents’ home in Omaha, Nebraska, meant that she was to expect a refund. She said that at first, she was overwhelmed by all the information in the initial refund email and struggled to understand where to be expecting the money. Blankman mentioned that many of her pals were also unsure of whether they would be eligible for a refund.

“I think people were a little bit confused on if we were even going to get a refund at all,” Blankman said. “Because I know that a lot of universities didn’t give anything back and didn’t give any help. So I think it kind of was a waiting game. I know everyone was pretty scared when this all started, some people didn’t even know if they were going home. And everything was just crazy at first. But I think Chaminade handled the entire situation really well.”