By Munashe Kwangwari/WMBD
NORMAL – A recent resignation in the White House is causing concerns about how the Trump administration is overseeing student loans.
The man who oversaw student loan practices at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau left his post this week, saying current leadership is turning its back on young people and their financial futures.
Local colleges and universities say they do many things to educate students about loan habits. Illinois State University Associate Vice President of Enrollment Management Jana Albrecht pointed out that students are told about a variety of ways to pay for college.
“We really like students to be informed before they commit to coming to Illinois State University,” Albrecht said. “We have lots of brochures that tell them here’s how you go about paying for college and here are your options, and we always like to talk to them about getting scholarships. So we push home hard how important it is for them to search for scholarships and for them to apply for the scholarships that we have at Illinois State University.”
Albrecht says ISU provides information to students about repayment, borrowing and defaulting.
“The part that we find is more difficult is that there are so many options for students to repay their student loans,” Albrecht said, “but the most important part is that the student know who they are supposed to pay their student loans to and that they keep in contact so if anything does happen that is prohibiting them from making those payments that they know there are options out there to help them through the process.”
Albrecht said ISU has full-time staff members that go through the loan process with students on options for paying for college. She said it’s good to be cautious about student loans because no one wants students to borrow more than they actually need for college.
