If a stu­dent gets hit and injured by a car on cam­pus, they will not receive free tuition.

“This seems to be a rumor and noth­ing more than that,” said Vice President of Administration and Financial Affairs Jerry Scoby. “My under­stand­ing is that pub­lic safety would be con­tacted to assist the stu­dent with any med­ical needs, inves­ti­gate the acci­dent and con­nect them with an ambu­lance if they needed that kind of service.”

Scoby added, “Sometimes there will be a follow-up by our own FSU pub­lic safety and some­times the Big Rapids Police will han­dle it.”

If a law­suit were to be filed against the dri­ver at fault or the uni­ver­sity in the case of a hit-and-run acci­dent, Scoby explained that the case would “sim­ply be han­dled by the uni­ver­sity coun­cil like any other litigation.”

Students have dif­fer­ent views on this issue. Kristyn Anacker, phys­i­cal ther­apy major, said she always thought if a stu­dent was hit and injured by a vehi­cle here at Ferris, they would receive free tuition.

“I thought it made sense since the peo­ple dri­ving the cars are employed by the uni­ver­sity, then the uni­ver­sity seems kind of liable,” said Anacker.  “I think that should be true, not just for any ran­dom car though.”

Mary Harris, jour­nal­ism major, said she dis­agrees with the rumor.

“Ferris is respon­si­ble for main­tain­ing build­ings, side­walks and other things they are required to upkeep. If a is stu­dent harmed by the fault of another stu­dent, then it is the stu­dent that should be held account­able,” said Harris.

Harris added that if it is Ferris’ fault for not main­tain­ing a piece of equip­ment or any­thing of that nature, they should be held responsible. ν