OCCUPY STUDENT DEBT

For students just entering college, it must be a stressful time. In addition to adjusting to their new surroundings, many are also probably wondering how they will afford to pay for it once they graduate.

It seems like everyday we hear of new statistics about the cost of college and the ever-increasing amount of money students have to borrow to attend college today. This spring, it was reported that the  average student debt for 2014 graduates is an astounding, $33,000. This amount is nearly double what borrowers had to repay 20 years ago, even after adjusting for inflation.

The student debt crisis is not just impacting lower-income students either. Earlier this month, the Pew Research Center released data showing that the largest increase in borrowing over the last 20 years has actually been among the more affluent students.

It also showed that over the same period, the typical total student debt for recent graduates who borrowed, more than doubled.

For reasons such as these, this Tuesday, October 14, George Washington University will host “Taking On the Student Debt Crisis,“ an event combining performance, discussion and activism in an effort to increase the dialogue about our country’s student debt crisis. This free event will feature a moderated discussion with CNN’s Van Jones as well as the performance of Aaron Calafato’s monologue, For Profit.

.@aaroncalafato and I are taking on the #studentdebtcrisis in #DC. Join us for this free discussion. https://t.co/FUN2eUTxzB

— Van Jones (@VanJones68)

October 11, 2014

In addition to co-hosting CNN’s Crossfire, Van Jones is also President/co-founder of Rebuild the Dream, an organization that champions innovative solutions to fix the U.S. economy. One issue the organization has focused a great deal of attention on, is the student debt crisis.

Calafato has performed his play, For Profit, at more than 100 college campuses and community events across the country. Calafato’s play chronicles his experiences working as an admissions counselor at a for-profit college as well as the predatory nature of his former work.

Event Details:

Where: Marvin Center Amphitheater, Third floor

When: October 14th, 7:30 pm

Presented by Rebuild The Dream, GW Not For Profit, the Student Association at The George Washington University (SA) and GW College Democrats

As Chair of the Education and Workforce Committee, Kline has made it apparent who he feels he represents – those that shower him with campaign cash. Even at a time when countless for-profit colleges face lawsuits and investigations for fraud, Kline has remained this industry’s biggest ally, leading the fight against gainful employment regulations.

Below is a list of the for-profit colleges bankrolling Representative John Kline:

This past Monday, more than 3,000 protesters flooded Wall Street demanding that policies standing in the way of clean energy solutions end. This followed a day after the People’s Climate March, which drew over 300,000 from all over the world, making it the largest environmental rally in history.

The visuals below look at how the United States compares to other countries on greenhouse gas emissions, and it’s not so pretty.

In early September 2014 WikiLeaks released its last batch of leaked Spy Files -  which it had started releasing in 2011. To mark this anniversary, one of Silk’s data journalists Alice Corona cleaned and structured the data to build an interactive database combining the three Spy Files releases. 

Currently, there are 559 leaked company documents, and 15 location tracking reports from WikiLeaks Counter Intelligence Unit (WLCIU). The 559 files disclose to the public internal documents from more than 100 companies specialized in intelligence and (mass) surveillance technologies. These technologies are sold both to Western governments and to dictators, and have been used by the Syrian government. The 15 documents from WLCIU reveal the timestamps and locations of 20 members of these companies, whose whereabouts WikiLeaks has decided to track in order to show where the main surveillance contractors are sending its people. But what does the Spy Files database actually contain? Which are the most recurring intelligence companies and what systems do they target? How to download exactly the leaked document your research calls for? To answer these questions, we’ve decided to import WikiLeaks’s DB into Silk, to combine it with semantic technologies, a powerful query engine and a user-friendly interactive visualization interface. 

#OutWithStudentDebt Video Project

Don’t you think it’s time to come out about your student debt?

StudentDebtCrisis.org and an incredible coalition of partners think it’s high time that all of us who are suffering with student debt have an outlet to come forward and share our personal stories. The more of us that “come out” and share our student debt stories, the better our chances of turning the dial and, hopefully, create the impetus for some real, concrete change.

Student debtors across the country are coming out! Will you join the movement?

Submit your video TODAY at StudentDebtCrisis.org.

My name is Alejandra, and I am a 26-year-old, single woman still living at home. Why? Because I am overwhelmed with my Sallie Mae loans I took out to attend college at Full Sail University.

The Financial Aid officer told me that I could only take out a private signature loan because I could not get any scholarships since I was not a Florida resident. (I am from New Jersey.) They had a Wells Fargo loan and a Sallie Mae loan, but the Financial Aid officer said I would have more benefits with Sallie Mae than Wells Fargo. So as a new 18-year-old passionate student ready to learn, I signed the Sallie Mae form to help toward my tuition and living expenses. I have a loving, hardworking single Mom, who is a phenomenal teacher, brought up my sister and me by herself and faced her own challenges along the way to make ends meet. My mom helped me out as much as she could with living expenses, such as food and small bills. 

Upon graduation, I received the information at my exit interview for financial aid, and I was in shock! I knew I had to pay my bill, but I never dreamed how they took advantage of me. I have paid $30,897.00 since 2008 and my balance has only gone down a few thousand dollars. Between the capitalized interest and interest on top of this entire balance is a killer! I have never been late, nor have I taken out forbearance when I was laid off because the interest would have been worse. My unemployment went to pay the loans. I still owe $66,000.00. I work full time, earning  33K so most of my salary goes to my student loans, both private (Sallie Mae) and public (Federal Government).  Now, I do not even have health insurance because I just turned 26 on July 4th and I am now off of my mother’s policy.  Now I am going to have to take out insurance at work, which will take out more money.  

Seriously!? After interest, my debt has DOUBLED. I don’t know what to do! I’m so lost and it seems like there’s no help. And these are just my federal loans! Any advice or help would be appreciated, I’m so stressed and lost.

Below is a breakdown of the student loans I have.   The first is a loan that I knowingly applied for before my first semester at college.   The other two loans shown were loans that were applied for and cashed by my mother without my knowledge.   After my first semester at school I returned home to find my family falling apart.  I decided to stay home and enroll in community college, which I paid for out of pocket.   About a year later, my sister called me and said she noticed some issues with her credit report and that she thought my mother may have taken out loans in her name.  After checking my own credit, I saw the same issues on my credit report.  My mother had taken out private student loans in both of our names, and I later found out that this was an attempt to pay off tens of thousands of dollars of debt that she had secretly racked up against my stepfather’s name.   Obviously this created a very messy situation.  After a lot of discussion and a lot of work by everyone involved to try and maintain our family, it was decided  

that my mother and stepfather would work to repay the loans in both of our names as soon as possible until the debt reached the amounts that my sister and I had originally borrowed.   Everything was going okay until my mother and stepfather divorced a couple of years later.   Since that point, I’ve fought tooth and nail to get payment from my mother every month, and most of the time in delinquency.   Months when I’ve made the payment in order to try and preserve my credit, she’s simply disregarded her end of the bargain.  I’ve recently engaged to my girlfriend, and I have mounting fear that this will end up falling on the both of us until I take over this entire debt on my own.   I have talked to attorneys and bankers and financial advisers to try and get advice, and I’ve held out on taking legal action because of the obvious problems it will cause 

in my relationship with her, but I’ve had enough of it.   Can someone who’s been in this situation help me, or explain to me what my best options are???  

Loan Details

Balance Overview

Type of Loan BalanceLoan Balance AmountLoan Balance QuestionsCurrent Principal Balance:$27,367.28

Late Fees:$0.00

Unpaid Interest:$131.62

Total Current Balance:$27,498.90

Loan Details

Print All Loan Details

DateLoan TypeStatusBalanceAction02/18/2005AlplnDelinquent$9,410.38View Detailsfor this entry10/19/2004AlplnDelinquent$5,286.39View Detailsfor this entry07/13/2004AlplnDelinquent$12,670.51View Details