College students and the 25 million borrowers holding loans sold or serviced by Sallie Mae scored a major victory at the lending giant’s annual shareholders meeting on May 30. Sallie Mae executives agreed to meet within the next month with student representatives, who want to talk about Sallie Mae’s lending practices and its involvement in politics.
The agreement to meet comes more than a year after Sallie Mae shunned a similar request from leaders of the United States Student Association and instead had 36 students arrested in Washington, D.C.
This year, more than 100 students from all over the United States converged near the Newark, Del., headquarters of the behemoth holder of $162.5 billion of student debt. Joined by faculty, labor and community group representatives, they marched, chanted, shared their debt stories and encamped in 90-plus degree heat, facing down a line of granite-faced state troopers and police dogs.