Representative Rashi Vasisht from Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs spoke to parents of the Stuyvesant Chinese Outreach Program about the college loan process in the fifth floor cafeteria on Thursday, March 3 at 7 p.m.

The event began with presentation about the college loan process prior to 2007. Cuomo’s office conducted an investigation of the college loan process on July 2007 after parental accusations of corruption. The investigation exposed “deceptive practices that were not the student’s best interest,” Vasisht said.

It was revealed that companies paid kickbacks to colleges or bribed them to place students on the preferred lenders list. College financial officers were also found to be employees of the lending companies.

As a result of this investigation, over three million dollars was refunded to students and 13.7 million dollars was allocated by lenders to the National Education Fund.

Cuomo also created a student lending Code of Conduct on Wednesday, April 30, 2007, which eventually became New York State law as the Student Lending Accountability, Transparency, and Enforcement (SLATE) Act of 2007. SLATE was created in order to protect students and parents from deceptive college loan practices. A federal law that is based on SLATE was passed and signed by the United States Congress and President George W. Bush in 2008.

The presentation was followed by a brief movie based on actual student experiences with college loans and information on how students can obtain the best possible loan.

“The purpose of the event was to educate parents about their new rights and protections under law and ways to use them to get the best college loans at the best terms,” Vasisht said.

The Stuyvesant Parents’ Association Chinese Outreach Chairperson Eleanor Chang coordinated the event. She “contacted representatives from Cuomo’s office and invited them to speak to Chinese parents,” Chang said. “It was very useful, especially for junior and senior parents.”

Maggie Yu, mother of senior Norman Yu, responded positively to the presentation. “A lot of parents don’t have older children who graduated from high school or entered a college so [the presentation] was very helpful,” she said.