Across from the Larkin at Exchange building, home to Gillibrand’s office, employees wearing matching blue shirts chanted “Save Our Jobs!” and carried signs with similar messages.
Sallie Mae has previously reached out to lawmakers to get the point across, said Jeff Mersmann, vice president of operations for Pioneer Credit. “This takes it to another level,” he said.
Participation in the rally was voluntary, with employees offered the option of signing up to ride a bus to Buffalo, he said.
Conwey Casillas, a Sallie Mae spokesman, said employees have been tracking the reform issue for about a year and were asking for other ways to get involved. “They are concerned about their jobs, and they wanted to communicate that,” he said.
This story should have made the headlines of every college paper in America only to remind students and graduates what we are up against. Student groups should be planning to do the same thing, bussing hundreds of students to protest Sallie Mae in their state's capitol. These scumbags will do anything, pull any ploy they can think of, to stop student loan legislation from being passed. What are students and graduates planning to do about it to counter Sallie Mae's noise machine?
I am so glad I didn't borrow from Sallie Mae when my law school sent students a spreadsheet of private loans to choose from like it was a damn lunch menu. A close friend even had a Sallie Mae teddy bear - goodness knows where she got it from - and had it sitting on her nightstand or propped on her bed whenever I visited her dorm room. She really had no idea what she was getting herself into. She thought Sallie Mae was a decent organization that helped poor families buy homes and poor students attend college. That's why she would always hug that little bear with it's Sallie Mae logo when I wanted to rip its head off.
Here is Grandma Hardknocks' response to the 300 workers who have traded their morals for a dirty paycheck and manage to sleep at night knowing full well that they are helping to prevent legislation that could help save millions of young people from financial ruin:
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"workers who have traded their morals for a dirty paycheck and manage to sleep at night knowing full well that they are helping to prevent legislation that could help save millions of young people from financial ruin"
ReplyDeleteI believe that is how the chamber of commerce describes lawyers.
Hah. Lawyers get a bad rap and some of them do really immoral stuff, but I think a good majority are just trying to make a living and pay off their student loans, especially the ones from my generation. It's the law schools that are sending young people into financial ruin. They deserve the same as the people at Sallie Mae.
ReplyDeleteYeah the government will do a great job running student loans
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that's how you feel. How about paying your bills? When you borrow a student loan you're expected to pay it back just like a car or mortgage. Your education can't be taken from you so action has to be taken. Yes, people fall on hard times but too many people borrow the money and never get around the paying it back because it's not a 'necessity' like electric of food. Sallie Mae collects on the loans once they fall into default, almost a year with no payments being made. There are options of deferments and forbearances as well as income based payments. Generally, people don't look into these things or keep up on them to keep them current. It's their job to be educated about how to keep themselves in good standing, it's all online for them to see. Students are also warned about the risks of falling into default before signing their promissory note, many just don't take the time to read it. Student loans are taken out so students can attend college. They know the amount of money they are paying for the institution they choose, it's not the lenders job to tell them they're going to a school that's too expensive or if after graduating if they'll be able to get a job with the degree of their choosing. College tuition is high, but that's not the lenders fault, they're providing money to a student to get an education so they can pay it back over time and not upfront, since many would not be able to even go to school if that was the only option. And a majority, if not all of the student loans handled by Sallie Mae collection agencies are federally backed. The programs offered to get the loan out of default are federally backed. And means of involuntary action such as wage garnishment and tax offsets are set up by the government to collect on the money they have loaned out to students who are not voluntarily paying the balance. The government will get its money. And tax offsets aren't even handled by the companies, that's done by the IRS, so talk to them if you have an issue with it. Again, these are all things the student is informed of before taking out a student loan, if they take the time to actually realize what it is they are agreeing to. A student loan is attached to your social security number and follows you around almost for life. There is no statute of limitations and most of the time it cannot be discharged by bankruptcy. There are many other negative affects to defaulted student loans other than just garnishments or offsets. That's why keeping student loans in good standing is important. But it's not the collection agencies fault it is in default or that certain means to involuntarily collecting on a debt are practiced. It's their job to collect a debt that has serious repercussions to letting it go unpaid, again, nothing that the student hadn't been warned about in the beginning, before they even signed for it.
ReplyDeleteObviously you have never had a loan with them. They are relentless harassers who don't care if you are up to date on your bills or not. They start calling at 7am and don't stop till 8pm. They call from every state and when you don't answer they start using numbers with YOUR area code to try and trick you. They are nothing but bottom feeding loan sharks and I advise everyone to never get a loan from them. I hope someone parks a Ryder truck outside their office. That's how I feel.
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