Score: David 2, Goliath 0

“What’s so small for you is so large for me. If it’s the last thing I do, I’ll make you see.”
-Suzanne Vega, Rock In This Pocket

I’ve been following this story (reg. req.) in the Inquirer on and off for a few years.

Back in 2003, Drexel offered a one year Masters of Business Administration. One of the big draws for this degree was the promise of a 12-day business/education trip to China. Many of the students in this class were drawn to the program with the thought that it could be a foot into that particularly lucrative door.

However, along came SARS.

As the students were preparing to go on the trip, they got wind that Drexel was considering canceling the trip, because they didn’t want to mitigate the risk presented by SARS. (And, to be fair, at the time, there were all sorts of quarantine threats. Also, no one really knew what was going on with the whole disease – Many doubted China was telling the truth about its source, fatality rate, and rate of contagion.)

The students made an appointment with the Dean of the business school and asked to be included in the decision making about the trip. He said they would be, but the next thing any of them knew, as they were celebrating a going away party, they were told to un-pack their bags. Trip was canceled.

The students got peeved, raised a fuss. They had paid their $40K tuition, been promised a trip to China, and wanted that trip. Drexel said they’d do something else. They had a weekend seminar at a hotel, Chinese meal included. Nice.

The students sued. They won.

In the penalty phase, the jury got to decide what penalty Drexel should pay, if anything.

The jury decided, again, in favor of the students. The students who didn’t attend the weekend seminar were awarded $3,464, which was the published cost of the trip. The students who attended the seminar were awarded $3462.01.

That’s right. The jury decided that the weekend seminar with the spiffy dim sum was worth exactly $1.99. Pretty funny, eh?

I’m sure the muckety-mucks at Drexel find it hilarious.

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