Colleges are withholding transcripts and degrees from millions over unpaid bills

BOSTON — Gabriel Toro choked up behind his mask as he described the lengths it took him to complete his bachelor’s degree at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Estranged from his parents and briefly homeless, he took out $50,000 in federal loans. He worked as a mental health counselor, a busboy in a bar, a team member at a Whole Foods and a cashier on the night shift at a diner while juggling a full slate of courses. He skipped meals and shared a studio apartment to save on food and rent. He took a job in a clothing store to get the employee discount on the clothes he needed for his internships.

Then, just when he had polished off the credits required for a bachelor’s degree in management with a minor in psychology, Toro logged on to his university email account and found an unexpected notification from the bursar’s office. The subject: “Degree Withheld.”

In addition to the loan debts he’d incurred, Toro still owed money to the university, including a $200 graduation fee he hadn’t known was mandatory. And until he paid, he would be blocked from receiving the degree and transcript that he needed to get a job.

“I did not have time to cry,” he said, remembering the email that came even as he was struggling to find a job in the pandemic.

Toro, who is 23, is one of 97,145 students, graduates and former students who can’t obtain their transcripts because they owe money to Massachusetts’ public colleges and universities, according to data obtained by The Hechinger Report and GBH News.

Nationwide, 6.6 million students can’t obtain their transcripts from public and private colleges and universities for having unpaid bills as low as $25 or less, the higher education consulting firm Ithaka S+R estimates.

The policy prevents students from being able to take their credits with them if they transfer, and from getting jobs that could help them pay their balances.

Toro learned that he owed $2,715.33 to UMass Boston for reasons he still doesn’t fully understand and said he can’t find anyone to explain to him. “I need my transcript to be able to work in order to continue my education and be able to pay off those debts,” he said, shaking his head. “That’s why we’re there. That’s why we have gone to school.”

A spokesman for UMass Boston, which has 9,848 students, graduates and former students who, like Toro, can’t get their transcripts because they owe money, said only that the university withholds transcripts for unpaid balances in any amount.

Advocates alternately call this “transcript ransom” and “the transcript trap.”

Students “might decide to go back to college, or they might need to get a job, or they might have actually technically finished at a college,” said Bill Moses, managing director for education at the Kresge Foundation, which works to close equity gaps. But when they try to get a transcript to prove that, “it’s held up.”

Unpaid bills can be not only for tuition but also for room and board, fees, parking or library fines and other costs that students sometimes don’t know they owe. In many cases, late charges are added, significantly increasing the original amounts.

“What may seem to be a relatively small amount of money — $10, $25, $50 — for some students is a lot of money,” Moses said. “So what could have been a relatively trivial charge but may be too much to pay at a certain stage in a student’s life could escalate and balloon into something much, much larger.”

More at https://www.domainofexperts.com/2021/03/colleges-are-withholding-transcripts.html
 

llugguss

Member
Of course, for students, even a small amount of money is significant. It's too bad that unscrupulous people create obstacles for regular kids. Moreover, most students already have student loans. When I was a student, I saved on everything I could. I lived in my parents' house near uni. Every dollar I spent only on the essentials. One day I found a way to save a lot of money on electricity. All I had to do was Simply Switch. Because I was able to find a good rate, I was saving a lot of money.
 
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