The California State University and the University of California systems have been hit with class actions on behalf of students who claim the schools have profited off of the COVID-19 pandemic by denying requests to refund certain fees after campus closures.

The two suits, filed by plaintiffs attorneys Monday from Cowper Law in Los Angeles; DiCello Levitt Gutzler in Chicago; and Matthew S. Miller LLC in Chicago, follow a string of complaints filed by plaintiffs lawyers seeking disgorgement for unpaid refunds as states ordered nonessential businesses to shut down to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

The student plaintiffs are suing the higher education institutions for breach of contract, unjust enrichment and conversion after the schools turned away their bids for refunds of unused campus fees following closures in March, according to the lawsuits. The universities have reportedly returned room-and-board costs but have not refunded bills for on-campus services such as the student and health centers.

"Even if CSU claims that it did not have a choice, it nevertheless has improperly retained funds for services it is not providing. No matter the excuse, CSU's actions are unlawful and unfair, and equity demands disgorgement of the fees and monies paid to make Plaintiff and the other Class members whole," asserts one complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

The lawsuit against the University of California, filed in federal court in the Northern District of California, contends that the school has the right to cancel fee contracts, but it does not have the right to keep the fees for services it did not provide. "The inequity is further highlighted by the fact that University of California will be receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to help cover the costs associated with the COVID-19 disruption," plaintiffs lawyers write.

The University of California system did not reply to a request for comment, and California State University's public relations team was not available for comment Monday evening.

DiCello Levitt has filed similar suits against the Arizona Board of Regents, Grand Canyon University in Phoenix and Liberty University in Virginia. On Monday, Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro also filed a class action lawsuit against Vanderbilt University in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, claiming Vanderbilt violated state laws for failing to reimburse tuition, room and board and other costs.

Adam Levitt, partner at DiCello Levitt and co-counsel for the plaintiffs, said the firm has selected its targets carefully and deliberately. "We haven't been running around essentially carpet-bombing colleges and universities," Levitt said. "We're very careful in picking our targets and determining what the alleged wrongdoing is, if anything, at each of these schools."

With a combined student enrollment of 700,000 students and campus fees totaling between $2,000 and $4,000 a year, Levitt said the two systems are withholding a lot of money from students and families.

"As our mom used to tell us when we were kids, if you take something that isn't yours you've got to give it back," he said.

Levitt hopes the lawsuit could be a catalyst for change.

"I'd like to think this lawsuit will encourage the California universities to step up and do the right thing," he said.