Updated May 3 with comments from Molly Hudgins, associate provost for curriculum and experiential learning.

Lindenwood University will reduce summer tuition for some students because of COVID-19.

According to an email from the provost sent out Monday, classes will be $50 per credit hour, or $150 for a three-credit-hour class, for all undergraduate students enrolled in at least one on-ground classes in the Spring 2020 semester at St. Charles or Belleville.

Undergraduate tuition is normally $450 per credit hour, nine times the discounted rate, according to the Lindenwood website. 

“This discount supersedes the previously outlined summer internship credit hour discount. Students will pay $50 for each undergraduate internship credit hour,” Provost Marilyn Abbott said in the email.

Molly Hudgins, associate provost for curriculum and experiential learning, said the discount was made to make it easier for students to make up classes that they dropped this semester because of COVID-19, or to take new classes over the summer.

However, it was not in reaction to a “mass exodus” of students withdrawing from classes, she said. Rather, it was to help people who felt like they needed to withdraw at the last minute.

“Lindenwood wants students to know that we care about them and we want them back, and this was a little incentive to say, ‘Stay enrolled all summer as well, because we really want to see you back in the fall,'” she said.

Hudgins said the discount only applies to undergraduate students because they were “most displaced” by the switch to online, so Lindenwood wanted to focus on making sure they graduate on time.  Many graduate students were already taking classes part-time or online, she said.

No new courses will be added to the schedule, but the discount applies to all existing summer courses.

“We are aware that the COVID pandemic and subsequent move to virtual learning for the spring term has been very difficult,” Abbott said in the email. “We want you know that we are here to support you.”

On April 9, Lindenwood decided to hold summer classes online instead of on campus because of the coronavirus.