On July 20, 2024, the Court in this case granted final approval of settlements between Plaintiffs Andrew Corzo, Sia Henry, Alexander Leo-Guerra, Michael Maerlender, Brandon Piyevsky, Benjamin Shumate, Brittany Tatiana Weaver, and Cameron Williams (“Plaintiffs”) and the Settlement Class (defined below), on the one hand, and Defendants Brown University (“Brown”), University of Chicago (“Chicago”), The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York (“Columbia”), Trustees of Dartmouth College (“Dartmouth”), Duke University (“Duke”), Emory University (“Emory”), Northwestern University (“Northwestern”), William Marsh Rice University (“Rice”), Vanderbilt University (“Vanderbilt”), and Yale University (“Yale”) (together “Settling Defendants”), on the other. The settlement agreements are referred to herein as the “Settlements.” The Settlements are on behalf of a class of certain current and former students at seventeen universities (“Defendants” or “Defendant Universities”). The seventeen Defendants are the Settling Defendants plus the following schools: California Institute of Technology (“Caltech”), Cornell University (“Cornell”), Georgetown University (“Georgetown”, the Johns Hopkins University (“Johns Hopkins”), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (“MIT”), University of Notre Dame du Lac (“Notre Dame”), and the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania (“Penn”).
The Settlement Class is defined as:
-
All U.S. citizens or permanent residents who have during the Class Period (a) enrolled in one or more of Defendants’ full-time undergraduate programs, (b) received at least some need-based financial aid from one or more Defendants, and (c) whose tuition, fees, room, or board to attend one or more Defendants’ full-time undergraduate programs was not fully covered by the combination of any types of financial aid or merit aid (not including loans) in any undergraduate year. The Class Period is defined as follows:
- For Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, MIT, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Penn, Rice, Vanderbilt, Yale—from Fall Term 2003 through February 28, 2024.
- For Brown, Dartmouth, Emory—from Fall Term 2004 through February 28, 2024.
- For CalTech—from Fall Term 2019 through February 28, 2024.
- For Johns Hopkins—from Fall Term 2021 through February 28, 2024.
-
Excluded from the Class are:
- Any Officers and/or Trustees of Defendants, or any current or former employees holding any of the following positions: Assistant or Associate Vice Presidents or Vice Provosts, Executive Directors, or Directors of Defendants’ Financial Aid and Admissions offices, or any Deans or Vice Deans, or any employees in Defendants’ in-house legal offices; and
- the Judge presiding over this action, his or her law clerks, spouse, and any person within the third degree of relationship living in the Judge’s household and the spouse of such a person.
Plaintiffs allege an antitrust conspiracy involving all seventeen Defendants. Defendants deny the allegations and assert multiple defenses. The Court has not decided who is correct. Plaintiffs have resolved their claims with the Settling Defendants for aggregate cash payments totaling $284,000,000.00 (the “Settlement Fund”), and certain other relief. The case continues against the non-settling Defendants. The Court appointed Angeion Group, LLC (“Angeion”) as the Claims Administrator. If Angeion was provided your contact information from one or more of the Defendant(s), Angeion would have previously emailed or mailed a notice to you indicating how you could access the long form notice of the Settlements (“Settlement Notice”). The Settlement Notice summarizes both the litigation and the terms of the Settlements. The purpose of this Proof of Claim or “Claim Form” is to ensure that members of the Settlement Class can participate in the distribution of the $284 million Settlement Fund, less attorneys’ fees, expenses, administration costs, service awards approved by the Court, and any taxes owed (“Net Settlement Fund”).
The Claims Administrator, Angeion, in conjunction with Plaintiffs’ economic expert retained to assist with the allocation process, EconOne, will determine the payment amount for each Settlement Class member who submits a Claim Form (“Claimant”). Each Claimant’s pro rata share of the Net Settlement Fund will be computed based on the formula set forth in the Revised Plan of Allocation (posted on the Important Documents page this website), and the process will be consistent with the Allocation Plan Process (posted on the Important Documents page of the Settlement Website). In short, each Claimant’s share will be determined based on (1) the average “Net Price”—the price of tuition, fees, room, and board minus all need-based and other forms of aid (excluding loans)—charged by the Defendant University (or Defendant Universities) the Claimant attended in each of the years (or fractions of years) the Claimant attended during the Class Period; (2) the number of years (or fractions thereof) the Claimant attended a Defendant University (or Universities) during the Class Period; and (3) the total number of Claimants who submit timely and valid Claim Forms.
Each Claimant must provide proof that he or she is a member of the Settlement Class in order to receive a payment from the Net Settlement Fund.