School Policy Question

[Anonymous4]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Tennessee

Here is my question. I attend the university of Tennessee and signed up for alternative spring break (volunteer trip). I did not read the information carefully enough because it said if you do not withdraw by email by a certain date (Jan 31), then you have to pay the $250 fee no matter what. I sent my withdraw email March 1 but was told that because I electronically initialed the statement that I would still have to pay the fee to volunteer. I know that the position was filled by another person who had to pay the $250 fee and it did not cost $250 to process my application so my question is, is there any way around this policy? The person I emailed said they " couldn't budge on their drop date policies", but i'm curious if there is a legal way around.

Side note: I work, attend school full time, and pay for my expenses so forking out $250 for a volunteer trip I did not go on is very very hard.

Thank you to whomever can help!

 

[cbg]

I did not read the information carefully enough because it said if you do not withdraw by email by a certain date (Jan 31), then you have to pay the $250 fee no matter what.

What is hard about this? You signed a contract that said you have to pay the fee unless you withdraw by email by January 31. You did not withdraw until after January 31. Whether they did or did not fill the slot with someone else does not affect that you signed a contract to pay the fee if you did not withdraw by January 31. Whether it does or does not cost them $250 to process your application does not affect that you signed a contract to pay the fee if you did not withdraw by January 1. What "legal way around it" do you think exists?

If you want to add a lawyer's fee to what you already owe you can have one review the entire agreement in total and tell you what they think, but I promise you that the University had this reviewed by a whole slew of lawyers, none of whom saw any legal issues with the requirement.

 

[stealth2]

Consider it a $250 lesson learned to read thoroughly before signing anything.