Mount Holyoke should introduce student debt forgiveness

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BY REILLY DENNEDY ’23 

Despite being a generally supportive college, Mount Holyoke’s tuition and fees place undue stress on students and their families. While tuition at Mount Holyoke is expensive for any family, less wealthy students are affected considerably more than their wealthier counterparts, in part due to the U.S.’ aggressive federal loan system. Mount Holyoke claims to value inclusion and equal access, so our student body should stay true to these ideals. 

Debt forgiveness would decrease the effective cost of college and change the way students view their loans. Today, when a student takes out student loans, they must spend their college years worrying about how they will repay them. 

“I constantly think about how I’m going to pay off my tuition,” Arianna Ortiz ’23 said. This places Ortiz and other students like her at a substantial academic disadvantage, considering they must expend more energy focusing on student debt than wealthier students. 

Debt forgiveness would also keep students away from unethical loan servicers. After taking out student loans from the Department of Education, students are placed with a private loan servicer. Students can neither choose nor change their placement. Many people who take out student loans are placed with Navient, the nation’s largest student loan company. 

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) filed an ongoing lawsuit against Navient in 2017, alleging that Navient encouraged people toward a forbearance rather than an income-based repayment plan. 

An income-based repayment plan is a plan which allows a borrower to pay in smaller increments over a longer course of time due to a low income, whereas a forbearance gives a borrower more time, but requires them to pay significantly more in the future. 

Navient made $40 million in interest from forbearance between 2010 and 2015. This does not account for other fees associated with the loans of borrowers pushed to take a forbearance. 

Loan servicers intentionally push people who are financially struggling to make choices which force them to pay more money. 

Many students work hard to avoid loans, instead enlisting help from scholarships, financial aid and parents. 

“My mom is refusing to let me get student loans.” Tamara Duvnjak ’22 said. “What that means is if I’m paying off my loans, then there isn’t a lot of money to help me with the small things.” 

While wealthier students can afford to make small purchases easily, others are forced to work a job in addition to going to school. Duvnjak says she will likely have to work 12 hours each weekend in addition to studying for her degree in biology. 

Debt forgiveness would minimize the issue of unethical lending and will help minimize the disadvantages many less wealthy students face. It is obvious how this debt forgiveness plan would affect current Mount Holyoke students. It will also positively affect the racial and economic breakdown of Mount Holyoke (and other similar institutions in America) for generations to come.