By Anabel Correa, University of Central Florida SLAP Treasurer-Elect

Orlando — On April 9, the Student Labor Action Project at the University of Central Florida demanded answers about justice for students and workers on campus from President John Hitt at an open forum. Rather than working with students to make positive change at UCF, President Hitt dodged questions and left important issues, like investing in private prisons and student debt, unacknowledged.[dropshadowbox align=”right” effect=”lifted-both” width=”250px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]Tweet: Join @studentlabor in telling President Hitt that @Aramark workers at @UCF need fair campus labor standards.[/dropshadowbox]

We are most concerned about the non-existent labor standards for contractors, particularly Aramark, the major food distributor on campus and the third largest contract food service provider in the country. Aramark has a history of using scare tactics against its workers when they organize. In 2012, an Aramark Regional Director cut hours and threatened to fire workers who tried to unionize at Western Washington University.[1] Aramark has retaliated against its employees as well when they fired two workers at a Boston convention center for union activity in 2008.[2] In addition to worker intimidation, Aramark has a history of being a bad employer. In fact, workers in Philadelphia filed lawsuits against Aramark for wage theft and alleged the Aramark purposely made pay stubs complex so that workers would not know what they were owed.[3]

When UCF SLAP President-Elect Ofelia Sanchez and Treasurer-Elect Anabel Correa pointed to instances of the company’s wage theft, worker retaliation, and union-busting, President Hitt responded that he has no role in telling Aramark how to run its business.  The Vice President of Administration and Finance, William Merck, stated that this behavior is typical from these national companies and added that he is “pleased with the service that we’ve gotten from Aramark.”

Although students pay as much as $1,875 per semester for individual meal plans, and hundreds of community members and students work for ARAMARK, UCF administrators do not believe that they are responsible for upholding fair labor standards on campus. SLAP is organizing students and workers to pressure President Hitt to make campus a better work environment and to bring the student voice into making substantive improvements in UCF’s  labor standards.

Sallie Mae is supposed to be in the business of making education a reality. Instead the company profiteers off its student borrowers by granting risky loans with high interest rates. And now the nation’s largest private student loan lender has done the unthinkable – it joined ALEC.

Through its ALEC membership, Sallie Mae is throwing money at politicians to ensure the entire higher education system benefits its bottom line. Look at the model legislation below to find out how.
[dropshadowbox align=”left” effect=”lifted-both” width=”200px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]ALEC’s higher education legislation is crafted by its Education Task Force. Until recently, the task force was chaired by a private education corporation. ALEC legislation promotes an extreme ideology in public universities and supports the for-profit institutions of higher education that gouge working students. Their model bills make voting harder for students and stifle academic debate.

At ALEC’s 2012 States & Nation Policy Summit, Sallie Mae—the student lending giant that has been scrutinized for its predatory lending and questionable debt collection practices—held a session titled “Best Practices for Debt Collection and Tax Amnesty.”
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ALEC’s Resolution in Support of Private Sector Colleges and Universities proclaims support of for-profit education institutions and opposes the “gainful employment” regulation that would help stop predatory lending by for-profit colleges.

ALEC’s College Opportunity Fund Act would provide taxpayer-funded vouchers to for-profit and religious higher education institutions.

ALEC’s “Campus Personal Protection Act” would force universities to allow students to possess guns on campus. In 2011 alone, 23 states introduced some form of this legislation.

ALEC’s Voter ID Act is part of a broader effort to make it harder for five million Americans—particularly students, minorities and the elderly—to vote.

ALEC’s Intellectual Diversity in Higher Education Act and Academic Bill of Rights for Public Higher Education Act would prevent faculty from using their professional judgment and create a chilling effect on teaching and academic debate by imposing “balance” on campus events and faculty teachings.

ALEC’s Act to Ensure English Fluency among Lecturers in State Institutions of Higher Education (ALEC now says this bill no longer “fits within ALEC principles”) requires state institutions of higher education to evaluate for fluency in the English language and imposes penalties for noncompliance.

ALEC’s Drug-Free Post-Secondary Education Act (ALEC now says this bill no longer “fits within ALEC principles”) requires all higher education institutions to suspend for one semester (or quarter) any student convicted of any drug offense. The Act further requires the suspension of state financial aid to students convicted of any drug offense.

ALEC’s College Savings Account Act would give tax exemptions for college savings accounts. This policy provides disproportionate help for wealthier families who save to fund their children’s college education.

ALEC’s Higher Education Transparency Act, Higher Education Performance Audit Act, and Academic Accountability in Higher Education Act impose regulations on colleges and universities that discourage a full, liberal arts curriculum from being available to students by mandating standardized tests for “core collegiate skills” and focusing on outcome-based evaluations for higher education institutions.

Sallie Mae spends considerable resources, staff time and capital trying to influence politicians and regulators, and they’re doing it at the expense of students.

Sallie Mae’s lobbying efforts were recently described by The New York Times as “aggressive”ⁱ  spending $37,490,000 on lobbying from 1998 to 2012.ⁱⁱ  This year, Sallie Mae has already spent $1,230,000 on federal lobbying, working against several consumer protection bills, including the Private Student Loan Bankruptcy Fairness Act of 2013 and Fairness for Struggling Students Act of 2013.ⁱⁱⁱ  Both pieces of legislation call for increased regulation of private banks with a history of bad lending practices.

Sallie Mae’s involvement in the political money game doesn’t end with lobbying. The company spent $5,969,322 on political contributions from 1992 to 2012. During the 2012 campaign cycle, Sallie Mae gave more to House Speaker John Boehner — $92,000 total — than to any other candidate. In fact, Sallie Mae has a long history of courting Speaker Boehner, the former Chairman of the House Committee on Education and Workforce: from 1989 to 2012, they gave $163,250^iv to his campaigns directly, making them the Speaker’s fourth largest contributor of all time. While Boehner served as committee chair, Sallie Mae spearheaded the lobbying around the Bankruptcy Act of 2005, which stripped student loan borrowers of their ability to discharge their student debt.^v

Despite this history of buying influence, Sallie Mae has made a continued effort to hide its political spending under the guise of charity. Following the most recent IRS scandal, Sallie Mae was included on a list published in The Nation of “Five 501(c)(4) Groups That Might Have Broken the Law.” The article pointed to Sallie Mae’s involvement in the “American Action Network” an alleged “non-profit” whose political spending accounted for 66.8% of its budget, well over the legally allowed 49%.^vi  Sallie Mae lobbyist Vin Weber, who helps run American Action Network, which helped fund the election politicians like Senator Ron Johnson from Wisconsin, who voted three times to double the Stafford Loan interest rate in 2012.^vii

In addition to lobbying and political giving, Sallie Mae also belongs to the controversial American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).^viii  ALEC has been widely criticized for promoting controversial legislation such as voter ID laws,^ix “right-to work” laws, and pro-gun “stand your ground” laws , while additionally pushing for laws that hurt the funding of public colleges and universities, such as “Resolution in Support of Private Sector Colleges and Universities.” It faced widespread public attention and criticism in 2012, when hundreds of corporations ended their ties with ALEC — the same year that Sallie Mae joined the extremist group.^x

The numbers speak for themselves: for a company that claims to make borrowers’ education dreams a reality, Sallie Mae spends an incredible amount of money buying the political access and influence necessary to protect its own bottom line.

For more information, contact Ori Korin at okorin@americanrightsatwork.org, or Chris Hicks at chris@jwj.org. Learn more about Sallie Mae and get involved in efforts to end student debt here: http://www.jwj.org/end-student-debt

ⁱ“Lobbying Imperils Overhaul of Student Loans”: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/05/us/politics/05loans.html?pagewantehttp://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.php?cycle=Career&type=I&cid=N00003675&newMem=N&recs=20d=all&_r=0
ⁱⁱ http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000022253&cycle=A
ⁱⁱⁱ http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000022253&year=2013
^iv http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.php?cycle=Career&type=I&cid=N00003675&newMem=N&recs=20
^v http://www.salon.com/2012/04/23/protesters_furious_new_front/
^vi http://www.thenation.com/blog/174458/five-501c4-groups-might-have-broken-law#
^vii http://votesmart.org/candidate/126217/ron-johnson?categoryId=27#.UaVqoZyNCgA
^viii http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/11/11885/after-controversial-year-alec-convenes-washington-damage-control-top-agenda
^ix http://mediamatters.org/blog/2012/03/21/alec-has-pushed-the-nras-stand-your-ground-law/186459
^x http://articles.latimes.com/2012/may/31/business/la-fi-mo-walmart-alec-20120531

BACKGROUND
Throughout the Great Recession, only one type of household debt grew: student debt. In April 2012, student debt surpassed the $1 trillion mark, and now students owe on average nearly $27,000 by the time they graduate. As student debt and student loan defaults escalate at an unsustainable pace, private student loan lenders continue to increase their profit margins. Sallie Mae is the largest private student loan lender and one of the chief profiteers off of student debt, yet it faces minimal public scrutiny and accountability.

WE CAN WIN
Right now, the economy only works for the wealthiest one percent of Americans. Corporations are bringing in record profits despite record high unemployment, and now students are taking out mortgage-sized loans just to get an education. Now, students and graduates are fighting back to put education into the hands of consumers, not wealthy corporate lenders.

Our vision is to re-frame the student debt crisis from a burden shouldered solely by individuals and families to one that will take higher education out of the hands of private corporations and put it back in the hands of the public and our government.

THE VILLIAN
As the largest private profiteer of student debt — owning $162.5 billion of student debt and operating on over 1,000 college campuses — Sallie Mae has the power to set industry-wide trends for student loan interest rates, workers pay in call centers, and university lending practices. A publicly traded corporation, Sallie Mae is only accountable to its shareholders – not the government or students.

By targeting Sallie Mae’s relationships, working to remove them from college campuses, and ensure students have a real say in their federal contracts with the Department of Education, we are aiming to minimize their dominance in higher education lending and create stronger regulations in this industry.

LEGISLATIVE INFLUENCE & GOVERNMENT RELATIONS
From 2008 to 2012, Sallie Mae spent $16 million lobbying the federal government and joined organizations like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which pushes anti-public education legislation in every state. To counter this influence, we’ll push for proactive legislation that would make higher education affordable and accessible, and to target the bad policies that have left students trapped in a never ending cycle of debt.

TARGETING THE HIDDEN 1%
The student loan crisis continues to present a real, imminent threat to the economy. In 2012, Sallie Mae’s senior management team, composed of five executives, made more than $20 million off of the backs of students. By challenging that corporate power, we can change the narrative around student debt to target the wealthy executives who profit off it, not the students suffering defaults because of predatory loans and crippling interest rates.

CHANGING THE TRENDS IN HIGHER EDUCATION
By bringing together various constituencies –youth and their grandparents, business owners and unions — we can develop a movement against Sallie Mae that captures the depth and breadth of its negative influence on the economy.

Throughout the Great Recession, only one type of household debt grew: student debt. In April 2012, student debt surpassed the $1 trillion mark,ⁱ and now students owe on average nearly $27,000 by the time they graduate.ⁱⁱ As student debt and student loan defaults escalate at an unsustainable pace, private student loan lenders continue to increase their profit margins. Sallie Mae is the largest private student loan lender and one of the chief profiteers off of student debt, yet it faces minimal public scrutiny and accountability. Below are 10 critical facts about Sallie Mae that exemplify the need for increased regulation in the private student loan industry.

1. Sallie Mae is a publicly traded corporation, accountable to shareholders – not the government or students. Originally created as a government-sponsored enterprise in 1972, Sallie Mae transitioned to operating as a fully-privatized bank lender between 1997 and 2004.^iv Sallie Mae now operates as a massive financial institution with a stake in several states’ 529 savings plans.^v

2. Sallie Mae owns $162.5 billion of student debt,^vi or nearly 20 percent of all student debt in the country. Sallie Mae is the largest private profiteer off of student debt, with more than 25 million customers. Since 2010, the company has increased its private student loan portfolio by 45 percent.^vii

3. Twenty percent of individuals with Sallie Mae loans defaulted from 2009 to 2012 after entering forbearance, and 11.4 percent defaulted after leaving forbearance and trying to make payments.^viii Sallie Mae has a history of hiding its true default rate numbers, and the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) singled out the company for manipulating default rates for students at for-profit colleges.^ix In 2007, company shareholders filed a class action lawsuit over this practice of pushing students into forbearance as a way to delay defaults on loans that were granted despite borrowers’ clear inability to pay them off.^x

4. From 2007 to 2011, Sallie Mae CEO Albert Lord has received more than $35 million in total compensation.^xi Sallie Mae’s senior management team, composed of five executives, received more than $20 million in compensation in 2011.^xii

5. Sallie Mae made $84 million in revenue in 2012 from Department of Education servicing contracts.^xiii Sallie Mae services 4.3 million students’ loans through two U.S. Department of Education contracts^xiv – and gets paid well for doing it. Taxpayers are currently financing a federal student loan system where Sallie Mae gets an 11 percent commission of the entire amount of a loan for every loan it rehabilitates, regardless of the monthly payment size. In recent years, Sallie Mae has enjoyed an even-higher 16 percent commission rate.^xv

6. Sallie Mae spent $16 million on federal lobbying from 2008 to 2012.^xvi The New York Times described Sallie Mae’s federal lobbying efforts as “aggressive,” and detailed how the corporation tried to block student loan reform by influencing federal regulators and Congress.^xvii

7. Sallie Mae had 63 registered lobbyists in nine states between 2005 and 2011.^xviii This influence can be quantified in states across the country that have continued to divest in public higher education, with only two states increasing funding for higher education since 2008.^xix A lack of state funding has driven students to be more dependent than ever on private lenders, including Sallie Mae.

8. Sallie Mae is one of the newest members of the controversial American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).^xx In November 2012, Sallie Mae gave a presentation at an ALEC conference called: “Best Practices for Debt Collection and Tax Amnesty.^xxi” ALEC has been widely criticized for promoting controversial legislation such as voter ID laws, “right-to work” laws, and pro-gun “stand your ground” laws.^xxii It faced widespread public attention and criticism in 2012, when hundreds of corporations ended their ties with ALEC – the same year that Sallie Mae joined the extremist group.^xxiii

9. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has received more than 1,500 complaints about Sallie Mae.^xxiv Sallie Mae alone totaled nearly half of the 3,485 total complaints submitted about student loans to the agency since March 2012.

10. Sallie Mae has faced class action lawsuits nearly every year since being privatized. The suits have accused the corporation of racist^xxv and discriminatory predatory lendingxxvi practices against minorities and low-income borrowers. Sallie Mae settled all of these cases outside of court, and is now facing a new class action lawsuit for providing loans that their executives described as “predictably uncollectible.”^xxvii

ⁱ“Too Big to Fail: Student debt hits a trillion”: http://www.consumerfinance.gov/blog/too-big-to-fail-student-debt-hits-a-trillion/
ⁱⁱ “Average Student Debt Climbs to $26,600 for Class of 2011″: http://projectonstudentdebt.org/files/pub/Release_SDR12_101812.pdf
ⁱⁱⁱ “Meet 5 Big Lenders Profiting From the $1 Trillion Student Debt Bubble (Hint: You Know Some of Them Already)”: http://www.alternet.org/story/153200/meet_5_big_lenders_profiting_from_the_%241_trillion_student_debt_bubble_%28hint%3A _you_know_some_of_them_already%29?page=0%2C1&paging=off
^iv “Treasury Announces Successful Privatization of Sallie Mae”: http://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/js2173.aspx
^v Sallie Mae website: https://www.salliemae.com/529-plans/default.aspx
^vi Sallie Mae 2012 10-K, page 29: https://www.salliemae.com/assets/about/investors/shareholder/annual-reports/201210K.pdf
^vii Sallie Mae 2012 10-K, page 7: https://www.salliemae.com/assets/about/investors/shareholder/annual-reports/201210K.pdf
^viii Sallie Mae 2012 10-K, page 71: https://www.salliemae.com/assets/about/investors/shareholder/annual-reports/201210K.pdf
^ix “For Profi t Higher Education: The Failure to Safeguard the Federal Investment and Ensure Student Success”: http://www.help.senate.gov/imo/media/for_profit_report/PartI-PartIII-SelectedAppendixes.pdf
^x SLM Venture v SLM Corporation and Albert Lord: (Part 1) http://higheredwatch.newamerica.net/sites/newamerica.net/files/articles/sallie%20mae%20private%20loan%20case%20part%201.pdf
/ (Part 2) http://higheredwatch.newamerica.net/sites/newamerica.net/files/articles/sallie%20mae%20private%20loan%20case%20part%202.pdf
^xi Sallie Mae proxies, 2007-2012: https://www.salliemae.com/about/investors/stockholderinfo/secfilings/default.aspx
^xii Sallie Mae proxy, 2011: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1032033/000119312512161831/d286524ddef14a.htm
^xiii Sallie Mae 2012 10-K, page 9: https://www.salliemae.com/assets/about/investors/shareholder/annual-reports/201210K.pdf
^xiv Sallie Mae 2012 10-K, page 9: https://www.salliemae.com/assets/about/investors/shareholder/annual-reports/201210K.pdf
^xv “Obama Cuts Student-Debt Collector Commissions to Aid Borrowers”: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-19/obama-cuts-student-debt-collector-commissions-to-aid-borrowers.html
^xvi Open Secrets: http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?id=D000022253&year=2012
^xvii “Lobbying Imperils Overhaul of Student Loans”: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/05/us/politics/05loans.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0xviii National Institute on Money in State Politics
^xix “Recent Deep State Higher Education Cuts May Harm Students and the Economy for Years to Come” http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=3927
^xx “After a Controversial Year, ALEC Convenes in Washington; Damage Control at Top of Agenda”: http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/11/11885/after-controversial-year-alec-convenes-washington-damage-control-top-agenda
^xxi Agenda, ALEC Nov. 2012 Conference: http://www.prwatch.org/files/TFPTF.jpeg
^xxii “ALEC Has Pushed The NRA’s “Stand Your Ground” Law Across The Nation”: http://mediamatters.org/blog/2012/03/21/alec-has-pushed-the-nras-stand-your-ground-law/186459
^xxiii “Wal-Mart latest to leave conservative advocacy group ALEC” http://articles.latimes.com/2012/may/31/business/la-fi-mo-walmart-alec-20120531
^xxiv CFPB Consumer Complaint Database: https://data.consumerfinance.gov/dataset/Student-loan-complaints/c8k9-ryca
^xxv Rodriguez vs. Sallie Mae: http://www.newamerica.net/files/sallie%20mae%20lawsuit.pdf
^xxvi “An Unsettling Settlement in Class Action Lawsuit Challenging Sallie Mae’s Subprime Lending Practices”: http://higheredwatch.newamerica.net/blogposts/2012/an_unsettling_settlement_in_sallie_mae_class_action_lawsuit-68684
^xxvii “Firm Files Suit Against Sallie Mae On Behalf of For-Profit College Students” http://www.wolflegal.com/wolf-legal-sues-sallie-mae/

The Crisis that brought us together
Student debt has passed the $1 trillion dollar mark. It has overtaken credit card debt and auto-loan debt. Two-thirds of students walk across the graduation stage with a diploma in one hand and a bill in the other, at an average of $26,600. When they get home, they’ll most likely be met with a call from a debt collector (whose wage is a dollar or two away from the minimum wage). For recent graduates who start making payments on their loans, nearly one in ten will enter default within two years. Imagine trying to save for a house with this burden on your shoulders.

But at a time when it seems like higher education is in complete crisis, there is still room for hope. Students have continued to organize and mobilize against tuition increases, winning tuition freezes and increased state funding. Adjuncts have successfully run unionization campaigns to protect wages and ensure that the quality of an education isn’t sacrificed. Community members have begun to think of creative and inspiring ways to stand with students, such as Rolling Jubilee or creating community scholarships.

All these fights show us that winning increased access to education and the American Dream is possible today.

A Passport to Broken Promises
Since the Reagan Era, a fundamental shift has taken place in how the public funds higher education at both the federal and state levels. When President Reagan entered office a Pell Grant could nearly cover three-fourths of the cost of a higher education, but today it covers less than a third of the cost for a student. Many students that receive the Pell Grant are additionally taking out private student loans to cover the cost of attending college.

At the same time, the burden of funding a public education is being shifted from the states onto the students and their families. In 2010 nearly half of four-year institutions depended more on student funds (via student fees and tuition) than state funds to operate for the first time ever. This shift has given University Presidents and Boards of Regents and Trustees the ability to use tuition increases as an alternative to having to lobby for more allocations of state funds, which have “strings attached” making state funds seem arduous. As tuition and class sizes increase, universities are attacking teachers unions by hiring more temporary professors and contracting out campus jobs.

The combination of stagnant financial aid and decreases in state funding of higher education has led to students to become more reliant on student loans than ever before. These changes have made it so that student debt doesn’t just impact students, but also their parents and grandparents who are co-signing their loans. What was created to be the great equalizer in ensuring everyone had a fair opportunity at a better life now perpetuates the cycle of poverty.

Turning Debt into a Lucrative Industry
In 1999, student debt was on the verge of exploding to levels that no one could predict except for one government sponsored enterprise that had begun heading down the path of privatization: Sallie Mae. Between 1999 and 2011, student debt grew 511% as the industry became less regulated and as Senator Elizabeth Warren put it: “Student-loan debt collectors have power that would make a mobster envious.”

By 2004, Sallie Mae was completely privatized and the industry leader in originating and servicing federal and private loans, as well as developing out their campus solutions package (electronic billing for over 1,100 campuses) and taking over states’ 529 College Saving Plans. Today they continue to be the largest profiteer off of student debt, and have begun expanding to K-12 family education loans and insurance plans. To truly illustrate Sallie Mae’s power in this industry, when they began offering fixed-rate loans to better compete with federal loans, Wells Fargo and Discover (their top two competitors) responded by offering their own fixed-rate loans within the same summer.

No stranger to controversy, Sallie Mae has faced class action lawsuits around violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and racial discrimination on predatory loans (both settled out of court). In the past three years, Sallie Mae has spent $15 million lobbying on federal issues that relate to student debt, higher education funding, and debt collection practices and have over 60 registered state lobbyists. In the past year they’ve joined the American Legislative Exchange Council, most recently presenting a workshop called “Best Practices for Debt Collection and Tax Amnesty.”

Truly defining the 1%, Sallie Mae has managed to turn the college experience into a gold mine off of the backs of students. CEO Albert Lord received a total compensation of $225 million between 1999 and 2004, which he used to build a private 18 hole golf course just outside of Washington, D.C. while claiming there was no student debt bubble.

Turning Individual Crisis into a Collective Fight Back
We have a vision on how we can re-frame the student debt crisis from one experienced solely by the individuals and families burdening the recklessness of the 1% to one that will take higher education out of the hands of private corporations and put it back in the hands of the public via our government.

Imagine students and community accessing the power of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to renegotiate their loans with Sallie Mae. Imagine the CEO of Sallie Mae having to take calls defending their business practices to University Presidents as students fight to have them removed from hundreds of campuses. Imagine the Department of Education creating thousands of new jobs and providing real student aid, ending the trend of privatization in higher education. Imagine private student loan lenders having to tell the damage they’ve done to states and public schools by disclosing their political lobbying and membership in groups like ALEC. Imagine the Federal Government passing a package of bills that makes higher education affordable and accessible to everyone, regardless of race, gender, documentation, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status.

The power of this story is the students and families that create it. After being lied to and betrayed by these One Percenters, students always have an option: make payments and hope for the best or take on the corporations, the lobbyists, and the politicians. Students aren’t willing to be the victims of the story, instead choosing to be the heroes of it – connecting all the dots of those impacted by the misdeeds of a few along the way to build a future that includes us all.

We Can Win
We have an opportunity to right a wrong that has been placed on a generation of students, and impacted the lives of millions. By bringing together different sectors and different individuals impacted by this crisis, we can develop a movement that captures this transformational moment and build political power for working class families.

By targeting corporate actors like Sallie Mae and Wells Fargo, by calling on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Department of Education, by “de-privatizing” college campuses, and engaging thousands of leaders in the streets and state capitals, we will win.

SLAP is excited to use this as an opportunity to kick off “Debt-for-Diplomas” – where students will attach cardboard shaped like a price tag to their tassel with how much debt their graduating with. This is a simple, no-cost graduation action that we know we can get a lot of press for, but we know that you all have some creative plans up your sleeves.

Tell us what you have planned in this form, and be sure to write up a report on how it goes!

Whereas, [College Student Government] represents the students of the [college] and has an interest in building a sustainable and just future; and

Whereas, [Bank] is one of the largest profiteer off of student loans; and

Whereas, [College Student Government] supports affordable housing and small business; and

Whereas, the [Student Government] finds that many major banks, including [bank currently used by student government] has been involved in predatory lending practices is the holder and/or servicer of mortgages that have been foreclosed or are currently at risk for foreclosure; and that [bank] has demonstrated a lack of willingness to engage in good-faith efforts to negotiate sustainable permanent mortgage modifications; and

Whereas, the [Student government] has deposited [student government] funds into [bank] banking accounts, and / or has used [bank] as a contractor for a range of financial services and transactions

Whereas, the [Student government] does not wish to support nor do business with any company that substantially engages in predatory practices and does not support building the local economy in [city of college]

Now Therefore Be It Resolved that the [person/group who administers money] is directed to divest all [student government] funds from [bank] in a timely fashion; and

Let It Be Further Resolved that the [person/group who administers money] select financial institutions based on their practices in the local community, preferring, if possible certified Community Development Financial Institutions, labor banks and/or otherwise certified federally insured financial institutions, and if necessary, other community banks; and

Let It Be Further Resolved that as the selection of financial institutions are reviewed as written in the policies of [student government] the criteria outlined herein be taken into account.