Note- I was contacted by Maya Pope-Chappell, a news editor at LinkedIn overseeing education content, to write a blog post for LinkedIn concerning students reusing to pay back student loans/ ascking the Department of Education to forgive their loan payments, based on false reporting on graduation/job placement on the part of Corinthian Colleges, my former employer. I have no idea if blogging is included in my LinkedIn profile, but this was a great chance to get out years of opinions and frustrations. The link to the actual post is here.
My name is Cameron Hawkins. I am
a Finance Planner at the Everest Institute in Austin, TX. My campus was a
subsidiary of Corinthian Colleges Inc. until February 2nd, 2015. I've
worked at this campus, in this position, since March 2nd, 2009, the
majority of my adult life. I did as much growing up in this particular
office as I ever did in college, or high school before that. I include a
bit about myself only to help show why my opinions, and strong feelings, are
those of a person that came into this position with ignorance, and innocence,
and has probably become a bit hardened of the course of six years.
The campus had been
opened under the "National Institute of Technology" name for years
before I started. When I came on board, it was thriving. The
student population was large, vibrant, and people from all walks of life were
coming to school to further their educations. In my first week or
training, I heard the story of a man who had spent a good part of his adult
like in prison, and wanted to change the path of "going nowhere fast"
as he coined it. At this point, I'm 23, and education hardship isn't
something I knew much about. I'd just finished college, where some people
were rich, some broke, but on an intellectual and social level, we were more or
less the same.
As time went on, the
stories got more and more interesting. You had people that were going to
school to no longer have to rely on abusive partners, people that were recently
divorced and had no income of their own, people with asylum form other
countries, pretty much the full scope "what else could happen?" came
across my desk. And for each of these people, the goal was to find a way
to get them into school, one way or another.
In just about every
case, regardless of income, our students walked out the door having to pay back
some portion of the cost of education. For example, in 2011-2012, it's
fair to say the cost of education, on average, was $17,500. So if Susie
Smith, who works at Best Buy, and has one kid, wants to attend school?
Here's how things would break down for her:
1 person household,
$25,000 per year income, eligible for financial aid -
$5550.00 - Pell
grant (does not have to be repaid)
$3500.00 -
subsidized Stafford loan (3.4% interest rate)
$6000.00 -
unsubsidized Stafford loan (6.8% interest rate)
So this would be
standard to a person eligible for the full amount of financial aid offered
during their time here.
What complicated
this was that in most cases, they also had a private loan they had to pay back
to make up for the difference in costs. So, that gap of $2000-$3000 that
wasn't accounted for by government aid? That became a private loan based
on Susie's credit, that at one point had an interest as high as 17% if the
credit report didn’t favor her. So for that $2000, she'd be paying $40/mo
in school to cover the interest, and then $200/mo between her federal and
private loans. It never seemed fair, but to many of us, that was the
price you paid, quite literally, for OUR education.
Whether it was a
requirement or not, it was STRONGLY suggested that anyone working in financial
aid, or admissions, had at least an Associate’s degree, or was working towards
their Bachelor's in order to work in those positions. I'm not sure if it
was by design, but it did make talking about using student loans an easier
conversation with a prospective student.
"That's a lot
of money to pay back."
"Well I went to
school too. I think of it as necessary, in that without using loans to
help fund your education, you may not be able to get one until you're in a
position to pay out of pocket. Most of us weren't in that position, and
it's something we pay back now, but it's worth it."
I never felt, and
still don't feel, I ever talked someone into doing something that wasn't their
intention. It's my understanding that a school needs students to operate,
but the idea of stressing how to make a payment each month doesn't help a student
focus. But student loan debt is something I'd have in common with just
about every student, and in just about every case, the dollar amount I was
paying back was triple the amount they were facing, so it never seemed like
"that much" from my side of the cubicle.
Now, Admissions and
Financial Aid are really the entry points to our industry. The other half
is of course, the classroom, and career services. "Are y'all going
to help me get a job (this is Texas) after I'm done?" was a frequent, and
necessary question. I always told students that we have a department
specifically geared toward just that. Career Services, in my estimation,
was created specifically to separate trade Education from your standard college
experience. I wasn't given information on what jobs to go after, or who
to talk to, once I graduated. Corinthian sought to account for creating
good will by hiring people specifically to help with resumes, find externship
sites (most classes require a month of unpaid work in the field to graduate) and
develop job leads so graduates would not finish and have nowhere to go.
On occasion, a
prospective student would lean in during an appointment and ask, "so, do
they REALLY help find jobs, and how can I make sure I'm ok." I could
only speak from what I saw, as that wasn't my department. I always told
students to make themselves known to Career Services, and not to wait until
their final month or two to do so. I never saw job placement as
favoritism, but it's far easier to find a place for a student who not only does
good work, but makes it a point to be known, and be forthcoming about their
goals. Many students already had a feel for a particular site or company
they wanted to work for, so they didn't really need that department, but very
rarely did I see someone qualified, with a good attitude, get lost in the
shuffle.
I've seen students
who were kicked off of extern sites complain about not getting hired at a place
they were interested in. While this certainly wasn't the majority, they
make it hard for people to recommend them based on a past performance.
I've never heard a conversation end with "I’m not going to find this
person anything" but I'd assume that in order to maintain goodwill with
certain employers, you'd have to limit who you'd recommend based on prior
knowledge. Another thing that made job placement hard was criminal
history. For some occupations, like the medical field, anyone with a
felony conviction was almost immediately steered into something else that would
be a bit more forgiving, like a skilled trade (Heating/Air, Electrical Tech).
But even a tamer history complicated job placement. In a school
looking to be a positive alternative to traditional education, I certainly
understand wanting to give people a chance regardless of past transgressions,
but I'm sure there were people, if given the chance to see what would happen at
the end of their programs, would have chosen not to incur the debt associated
with their education.
When Corinthian came
under fire, the chief accusations were misleading students about their job
prospects, as well as the actual number of people that completed the programs.
It's hard to speak to specifics, as the accusations were primarily
lobbied at California campuses. Whenever you complete the FAFSA form, it
gives you graduation and retention numbers for whatever school you choose to
send the information to. our campus in particular has around a 75%
graduation rate. Working in financial aid, it's difficult to say if that
number is on the nose. I'd say it's not far off, based off of re-entries
and drops. A re-entry is a student that quits the program, and comes back
as later point. Sometimes, a re-entry can be gone for full years, and
still be able to pick up where they left off at a prorated tuition amount,
Even though we see re-entries regularly, it pales in comparison to the
amount of new students we enroll on a daily basis.
(While writing, I took a break to go to our primary file room -
in the section designated "drops" from 2011 to the present, I counted
roughly 28 filing cabinets and 64 stacked boxes. The rest of the room was
either current student or graduates. With the space that took up, I'd
suggest the numbers are on point, if not very close.)
With all that said,
I do have very strong opinions about former senior management/employment, and
the role that should play in former students repaying their costs of education.
We've had students sit in class for a few days, decide that it wasn't for
them, and leave. They were able to be "reversals", meaning they
weren't charged for the time they sat in class. With students who did
what I believe was longer than ten days, they were considered drops, they'd
have to pay back the tuition earned while they were here, which varied by
program. Typically, a student who stays for 4 months of an 8 month
program was responsible for around 50% of the cost, less depending on what
books they'd received to that point. Now, this was all prior to the fears
of the school closing. As emails/ articles started to be read, student
would pop in with questions on what would happen to them, and what would happen
to their loans. The most common idea out there was that if they'd
started, the school would be around long enough to do a "teach out",
where they would be able to finish the program with the certificate awarded for
completion. And that since they finished the program, they'd have to pay
back their loans. If their school in particular was a not a "teach
out" school, their federal loans would be refunded in full. We didn't
have any word on if they'd have to repay their 3rd party loans or not.
Our campus in particular
didn't close, as we were purchased by the non-profit company Zenith, but that
didn't stop a flood of phone calls:
"Since y'all
are closing, do I have to pay back my loans?"
"Who do I need
to talk to about loan forgiveness since you won't be able to place me in a
job?"
"I heard the government
is shutting you down, do I still owe you guys money?"
All of those
questions were answered more or less the same way: If you attended here,
you're still responsible for your loans. Now, if we had closed, like many
other schools, here's how I would interpret repayment:
As a school where
the back end is geared SPECIFICALLY to help student find employment, if an
entire "Start", or generation of students cannot be placed due to
circumstances outside of their control, the school has failed them. As an
employee, I'd leave a closed school with the job experience, and monetary
compensation, to go somewhere else and maybe not miss a beat. I think the
big secret about trade schools that is communicated, but not really explored,
is that the credits RARELY transfer there isn't one curriculum shared by all
schools. So Susie can't come here for 4 months, have the school close, and
pick up somewhere else that isn't under the Corinthian Umbrella, and most
cities under that umbrella only have a single campus. So a student that
went to a Corinthian school for 7.5 months then had the school close, they
likely paid for the entire cost of an education they can't produce proof of!
In instances where a student devoted time, and energy to an education
stripped from them, I don't think they should have to foot any portion of that
bill unless the program can be completed.
Student that were able
to finish, but don't have a career services department to go through, that's a
tougher situation to tackle. On one hand, they were given all of the
knowledge in the field they were pursuing. On the other, a very strong
portion of what was promised to them is gone. Much like student loan
forgiveness exists for other careers/ walks of life. That should be handled on
a case by case basis. Plenty of students bypassed that aspect of we
offer, and were just fine in the long run. I still concede that without
that, it hinders some student from attaining employment, because not everyone
has the same access/ connections to find employment.
The question of who
should help to pay for these students has come up. I'm always slow to put
that burden on people that have nothing to do with the errors in judgement on a
situation. The buildings/ campuses the company held? Once those are
sold, that money should go to repaying the debt students incurred. The
individuals making huge sums of money while all this was falling apart?
They should have money taken from them to aid those individuals they
misled. This isn't a faceless issue - the people who made poor choices
have been outed, and in many cases let go, but that doesn't make them any less responsible
to the people they hurt. When you have a company headed by people that
can't even remember their dedicated employees' names, and work across the hall
from them, you can't expect those same people to value students they've never
even met. These are the people that should have to atone for students
worrying about their next step in life, when all they've done is try to better
themselves.
Being employed by a
new company, with in many cases new leadership, there's no personal axe to
grind with Corinthian Colleges. In some cases, their name is still on the
paperwork. But when you have to look at a room full of grown men and
women, and you can't tell them if the lights will be on tomorrow, you can't
help but want those responsible to make it right, whether it's voluntary, or
forced on them. To any student left out there, you've got lots of people
that know your struggles, and hardships, and know that you deserve to be heard,
to be respected, and vindicated for any hardship this caused you.
