Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox.
Subscribe to our newsletter here.

Syracuse University is one of 40 private universities listed in an antitrust lawsuit that accuses schools of overcharging students of divorced or separated-parent households.

The class action lawsuit claims the institutions reduced financial aid packages by requiring students to report the income of non-custodial parents — those who do not primarily live with or have custody of the student. The lawsuit was filed Monday before the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Boston University student Maxwell Hasen and Cornell University alumna Eileen Chang brought up the lawsuit against the universities. Alongside SU, Cornell, the University of Rochester, New York University and dozens of other private institutions are listed as defendants.

Hasen and Chang are seeking $5 million in monetary damages and a court order to stop the practice.

The suit states that when Hasen submitted his CSS Profile before applying to colleges, he listed his non-custodial parent’s expected contribution as $0. As predicted, Hasen’s father has not contributed to his college tuition, he alleges.

Chang completed a similar process. Her non-custodial parent is on disability leave and has a much higher income than her custodial parent, so she submitted a request to Cornell’s financial aid office to ask if they could remove her non-custodial parent from consideration for her financial aid package. Cornell denied this request, she claims.

College Board, the non-profit organization that administers AP and SAT exams to high schoolers, was also listed as a defendant in the suit. Hasen and Chang claim the organization has pushed colleges to require students to report financial information about non-custodial parents, regardless of the parent’s obligation to pay the student’s tuition.

The lawsuit claims College Board requires universities to take financial information from both parents into account when allocating aid offers to students. It states this “price-fixing” strategy is estimated to cost affected students around $6,200 in extra tuition annually.

SU’s tuition has steadily climbed in recent years, with a 3.9% increase in 2024. The university’s tuition this year is valued at around $63,000, excluding room and board. A year prior, SU increased tuition by nearly 5% — its largest increase in six years.

SU has been a member of College Board since 1942, according to the suit. SU’s financial aid guidelines require applicants with non-custodial parents to comply with the NCP requirements listed on the CSS Profile website.

The lawsuit alleges that the universities are working with College Board. The organization’s current chair of the financial assistance assembly council works at Columbia University, and one of its chairs is Harvard College’s director of financial aid.

Syracuse.com reached out to a SU spokesperson about the litigation. The university declined to comment.

Published on October 10, 2024 at 12:38 am

Contact Kate: kjacks19@syr.edu