NYU Tisch Students Get Video Of Dean Dancing Instead Of Tuition Refund Checks Amid Coronavirus

The dean of New York University Tisch School of the Arts sent a video of herself dancing to students who demanded the school give their tuition money back after the coronavirus forced them to attend virtual classes.

Several back and forth emails occurred between students and NYU Tisch’s administration, according to NBC New York. Afterwards, Dean Allyson Green reportedly sent an email to the students with a video of herself dancing to “Losing My Religion” by R.E.M.

Green wrote that she couldn’t refund tuition and that it is “challenging” for NYU to reimburse students right now, according to NBC New York. The video was shared on Twitter by NYU Tisch senior Michael Price, who called it “embarrassing.”

“The focus of my career as a performer, choereographer, and dance educator, and my most authentic mode of expression, has always been dance. In the video, I shared the song with which I have welcomed first-year students to the Tisch School of the Arts for the past eight years. It is a piece that — as I explained in the accompanying email — speaks to frustration and disappointment, and that helped see me through the loss of 30 friends to AIDS — another difficult period for artists,” Green said in a statement to the Daily Caller.

WATCH:

The Dean of Tisch sent this as an attachment to the email saying they won’t give us our money back. Embarrassing. pic.twitter.com/Q63x5GqsJm

— Michale_Price (@michale_price) March 23, 2020

NYU Tisch costs about $58,500 in tuition per year. Price suggested this was Green’s way to “reach out to the student body,” but noted that it was tone deaf, according to NBC New York. Many of NYU Tisch’s classes require hands-on education, as it is an art school, the publication reported. (RELATED:Harvard Tells Students Not To Return From Spring Break Amid Coronavirus Spread)

“What I meant to demonstrate is my certainty that even with the unprecedented hardships of social distancing and remotely-held classes, it is still possible for the Tisch community to make art together, and that all the artists in our school will find ways to remain closely connected even as circumstances challenge us. I regret it if my email left the reasons for my dancing misunderstood — although I will note that I have also received many positive acknowledgments — but its intent was surely neither frivolous or disrespectful,” Green continued in the statement.