Home » NY will Launch Program to Alleviate Student Loan Debt

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UPDATED: Sep 24, 2012

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The State University of New York (SUNY) System said that it will launch a five-point system wide plan to prevent student borrowers from defaulting on their college loans, reported Inside Higher Ed.

This announcement comes in the wake of countless student loan debt stories hitting the internet, pleading for the government and our nation’s higher education institutions to make a change to the college financing system.

SUNY’s effort, which will launch as a pilot program on six campuses this year, is expected to expand to all 64 community colleges, four-year colleges and universities across the state by next fall.

The five-point plan consists of the following components:

  • Creating an online hub that houses student loan financing information
  • They will begin sending out financial aid award letters
  • Expanding college financing service centers to all campuses
  • Forming a partnership between the university and the U.S. Education Department, designed to share data about borrowers and student loan debt
  • Establishing an “early warning” system that will alert officials when certain students are more likely to default on their student loans.

In order to create that early warning system, SUNY plans to review each individual student in order to identify red flags.

“We know from our data that there are some students who are more likely to default, and we want to help our students who are in delinquency and default,” said Patricia Thompson, vice chancellor for student financial aid, to Inside Higher Ed. “In addition to that, we want to work to avoid students getting to that place at all.”

Some of those warning signs SUNY will consider include whether a student is a first-generation college-goer, the total amount of student loan debt a borrower is taking on, how many classes a student drops, and whether or not a student bounces frequently between majors.

The first round of results from the SUNY student loan debt program will not be available for at least a couple of years, reported Inside Higher Ed.