Student Loan Blog : State University of New York

Program to Offer NY Students Low-Cost College Loans

Student Loan Girl — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 23:36:00 GMT

Despite New York’s $15 billion budget deficit, Gov. David Paterson announced he is creating a student loan program that would allow New York college students to borrow $350 million in low-cost private student loans directly from the state, reports The New York Times (“Governor to Unveil a Low-Cost Student Loan Program,” Dec. 15, 2008).

State officials say the new student loan program, meant to help the state “retain the best and the brightest young minds,” will offer lower rates than most private student loans — potentially as low as 8 percent. Interest rates will be adjusted annually based on market conditions.

Paterson plans to allocate $50 million in state funds to jumpstart the program and $10 million each year thereafter — a key recommendation of the Commission on Higher Education. The commission studied New York’s higher education system for more than a year and found that the state’s 1 million college and graduate students had taken out $2 billion in private loans, and that those students often paid as much as 12 percent on their loans, double the interest that students paid in states with low-cost student loan programs.

Paterson hopes the loan program will help ease the financial challenges that face students now that lenders have tightened their credit criteria and as public and private colleges consider tuition increases to cope with state budget cuts. To help balance the state budget, Paterson has proposed increasing tuition at the City University of New York and the State University of New York.

“One of the big problems in the student loan program is that it is drying up,” said Jeffrey Gordon, a spokesman for the budget division of the governor’s office. “People who were able to get loans last year can’t get them this year.”

Under the loan initiative, students at two-year colleges would be eligible to take out a maximum of $20,000 in loans, while undergraduates at four-year institutions could borrow up to $50,000. New York students pursuing both an undergraduate and graduate degree would be capped at borrowing a combined total of $70,000 in private student loans.

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New York AG Examines Colleges’ Relationships With Health Insurers

Student Loan Girl — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 23:30:00 GMT

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is investigating the relationships between colleges and the health insurance companies they do business with just two years after he launched a similar investigation that uncovered conflicts of interest between some colleges and student loan companies, The New York Times reports (“Cuomo Investigating Colleges’ Deals With Health Insurers,” Nov. 17, 2008).

Investigators will focus on determining if schools adequately disclose the policy terms and costs of their school-sponsored health insurance plans to their students, as well as whether or not insurers offer schools a monetary incentive to require that their students buy health insurance through a particular provider.

In an e-mail message, Benjamin Lawsky, special assistant to the attorney general, wrote “We are primarily focused on whether insurance companies are paying schools to push students into health coverage they don’t really need and shouldn’t really want.”

“With students and their families being financially squeezed at every turn,” he added, “colleges must ensure that they are looking out for students’ best interest first and foremost as opposed to their own financial bottom line.”

Cuomo has requested health insurance–related documents from six State University of New York schools — Binghamton, Buffalo State, Oswego, Purchase, Stony Brook, and the University at Buffalo. Investigators have asked to see copies of the schools’ requests for proposals from insurers, insurance contracts, and the information given to students about the health plans available to them, as well as statistics on the health insurance premiums paid by students.

Four institutions, Georgetown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, and Sarah Lawrence College, said they had received subpoenas.

Parents have complained that some schools require students to purchase school-sponsored health insurance, even though the student is already insured under a family health insurance policy, said James Boyle, president of College Parents of America, an association of parents of college students.

Although “the vast majority of college students” are covered under their parent’s health insurance, most campus health centers don’t accept insurance plans that aren’t affiliated with the school, Boyle added.

“Instead,” he said, “some schools force the student, as a condition of enrollment, to purchase health insurance policies offered by the school.”

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New York Universities to Give 150 Chinese Students a Free Education

Student Loan Girl — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 23:59:00 GMT

Under a new humanitarian-minded initiative, the State University of New York system will pay for the education-related costs of 150 Chinese students from Sichuan Province for two semesters, according to a SUNY press release (“SUNY Hosts Undergraduates From Sichuan Province, China,” July 31, 2008).

In return for their no-cost SUNY education, the selected students will return to their earthquake-stricken province to help rebuild the region’s economy and infrastructure.

The Chinese students will study at one of 22 participating SUNY schools beginning this fall. Through the SUNY China 150 Program, supported by both the U.S. Department of State and China’s Premier Wen Jiabao, the selected Chinese students, mostly college juniors and seniors, will be individually placed at a participating SUNY campus based on their academic interests.

The students, 10 percent of whom are from ethnic minority groups that live in quake-affected areas, were selected by SUNY academic leaders and Beijing’s Ministry of Education. Students were chosen from among four of China’s national universities for their academic achievements and English-language abilities.

“SUNY will provide these students with valuable leadership training, which will help prepare them to return to China to assist with rebuilding efforts and the aftermath of the earthquake,” said New York Governor David Paterson in a press release. “SUNY’s deep educational ties with China allow our state university campuses to play a global role – and to be at the forefront of international educational experiences.”

The university system has been collaborating with Chinese universities for more than 25 years, said John Clark, SUNY’s interim chancellor.

SUNY plans to raise $5 million from private donors to cover the students’ tuition and living expenses. All visa and travel costs will be paid for by the Chinese government.

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New York May Soon Have Its Own Low-Interest Student Loan Program

Student Loan Girl — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:33:00 GMT

New York is one of the few states in the country where college students do not have access to a low-interest, state-backed student loan program, according to a report by the New York State Commission on Higher Education (“Final Report of Findings and Recommendations,” June, 2008).

The report, the result of a year-long study conducted by a commission appointed by former governor Eliot Spitzer, addresses a number of concerns related to New York's higher education system, including the lack of a state-backed student loan program.

Students enrolled at more than 1,000 public and private postsecondary institutions in New York — including the State University of New York, the largest public university system in the country, and the City University of New York, the nation's largest urban college network — have fewer low-cost financing options than students in many other states across the country.

One commission member estimates that students attending schools in New York pay an average of 9 to 12 percent interest on their loans while those in Texas, for example, pay only 6 percent (“Paterson Set to Embrace Student Loan Plan,” The New York Times, July 21, 2008).

If New York governor David Paterson has his way, the state’s college students may soon be able to complete their degree without being burdened by excessive student-loan debt. Paterson intends to heed one of the report’s chief recommendations, the institution of a low-cost state student loan program, with a petition to state legislators to implement such a program.

Paterson will also consider several other recommendations from the report:

Hiring 2,000 new faculty members
Establishing a $3 billion research fund
Expanding articulation agreements for seamless transfers between colleges by 2011

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