New York Times
Why Does New York State Sue Its College Students?
Thousands of SUNY students have been taken to court by the attorney general’s office over tuition debt. And through a quirk in the law, the only way they can defend themselves is by appearing before a judge in Albany.
By Meredith Kolodner
Sept. 3, 2021
Amanda Belony was rushing to work when she saw a fat yellow envelope left for her on her mother’s kitchen table. She opened it and immediately noticed the New York attorney general’s official seal sitting ominously at the top of the page. The state had filed a lawsuit against her for unpaid college tuition.
Ms. Belony had registered for classes at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh in the spring of 2016, when she was 21, but she’d had severe health problems the previous semester and could no longer afford to live in Plattsburgh to finish her degree. Because she missed the withdrawal deadline for the spring semester, she said, she was charged for classes she never took, and now New York State was suing her for $3,705.
The only way she could defend herself was to appear in State Supreme Court in Albany — a four-hour bus trip from her home in Brooklyn. If she failed to appear, the letter stated, a judgment would be entered against her.
Ms. Belony was working 10-hour days as a clerical assistant in a medical clinic at the time, making just enough to pay her bills and help her mother with the rent. Trips to Albany to try to defend herself would be expensive, and she worried she’d lose her job.
“I remember looking at this document, with all this legal jargon that I didn’t understand,” Ms. Belony said. She needed just three credits to graduate, but until she settled the case years later, she couldn’t re-enroll to finish her degree in hopes of getting a better-paying job. “I didn’t have the money. I knew I needed a lawyer, and I knew I couldn’t afford one.”
Ms. Belony is one of close to 16,000 SUNY students taken to court by the state since 2013. Under a little-known state regulation, New York’s attorney general is allowed to sue students if a state public university claims they owe tuition — or overdue library fines or unpaid parking tickets.
Unlike almost all regulations governing the collection of debt, a quirk in the law allows the attorney general’s office to file suit in these cases exclusively in State Supreme Court in Albany, regardless of where the student lives or attended college. If a student from SUNY Buffalo, for example, which is 300 miles from Albany, doesn’t show up in court, a judge will rule in the state’s favor and declare the student in default. The student’s wages could be garnished or tax refund withheld.
A majority of these cases end in default, according to several lawyers who represent students, since most students can’t make the several trips to Albany that would be required before a trial is even set.
Attorney General Letitia James, who took office in 2019, has often spoken out in defense of students struggling with tuition debt; she has advocated for debt relief programs and has suspended SUNY debt collection during the pandemic.
Asked about the law that allows SUNY colleges to refer student debtors to her office, she responded that the attorney general has “a legal obligation to collect student debt.”
Although she did not say why lawsuits had been used so often to do so, she said her office was working on ways to change how debt is collected. Last week, she sent a letter to legislators proposing to work with them on overhauling the system. One suggestion was to give the attorney general’s office more flexibility in reaching settlements.
“This work is far from over,” Ms. James said in an email, “and we look forward to working with legislators and policymakers to reform student debt collection practices in New York so that all students can achieve the goal of higher education without the crushing burden of debt.”
The State University of New York is made up of 64 schools, including community colleges and research universities, spread throughout the state. Nearly 400,000 students were enrolled in the SUNY system last year. Its stated mission of providing a high-quality, affordable education has attracted people from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds. Yet many students struggle to pay tuition, even with loans and scholarships.
New York is one of five states — in addition to Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Louisiana — that permit public colleges to send overdue debts directly to the state attorney general for collection. New York State regulations do not require the attorney general to take up lawsuits against students. A spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office said that before filing suit, it sends the student three letters seeking payment.
“Litigation is an absolute last resort,” said the spokeswoman, Delaney Kempner, “as we give borrowers plenty of time to contest the debt at issue and ample opportunity to demonstrate any sort of hardship.”
Court records suggest otherwise. Between November 2019 and March 2020 alone, at least 110 students were sued within a year of when the college said they had incurred their debts. Some are sued immediately after leaving college. One student from SUNY Potsdam who, according to court records, owed money from the 2019 spring semester was sued for $2,435 in December 2019.
The decision to file the lawsuits in State Supreme Court in Albany has been a considerable barrier for students who don’t live nearby. Buffalo, which is home to two SUNY universities that enroll close to 30,000 undergraduates combined, is at least four hours by car from Albany and six hours by bus. SUNY Fredonia, on the shore of Lake Erie, is five hours by car and more than seven hours by public transportation.
In 2014, New York State enacted a consumer protection law that requires that debtors be sued in the county where they live. But medical debt and student debt are exempt from the law, despite objections by student advocates.
Still, the attorney general could decide to sue in counties other than Albany, which could make it easier for students to defend themselves.
“There’s no due process if they’re suing you in Albany,” said Johnson Tyler, a Brooklyn Legal Services lawyer who says he gets at least one call a week from someone who wants to finish a degree but can’t because of student debt. “How can you have due process when you have to get on a bus and travel hundreds of miles away, and you have to go again and again and again?”
Earlier this year, Assemblyman Harvey Epstein, a Democrat from Manhattan, introduced a bill that would require the attorney general’s office to sue students only in the county or city where they live.
“It’s ridiculous that students are being sued in Albany,” said Mr. Epstein, who also questions the practice of lawsuits as a means of collecting student debt. “It may be more convenient for the A.G.’s office, but it makes it almost impossible for low-income students to defend themselves. They can’t get to Albany, they can’t get a lawyer. We are really disadvantaging people who are already disadvantaged.”
Ms. Kempner, speaking on behalf of the attorney general, said that students who are sued have the initial option of disputing their cases electronically or by mail. But if the attorney general’s office decides to proceed with the case, the student or his or her lawyer must appear in Albany.
After several inquiries from The New York Times about why students are sued only in one Albany courthouse, Ms. Kempner said this week that the office planned to change the practice and file cases in different counties in the future.
The decision to sue in Albany has, over the years, put many students into default. Data provided by the attorney general’s office shows the high likelihood of default judgments: From 2017 through 2019, about 3,000 lawsuits were filed every year, with an average of 2,500 ending in default.
In fact, many students say they were unaware that they had even been sued. Carlotta Summers, who attended SUNY Fredonia, came to realize she had been sued only when the tax refund she was expecting in 2019 never appeared. Her refunds were also taken in 2015 and 2018, but she said she had assumed she made a mistake in filing.
Why Does New York State Sue Its College Students?
Thousands of SUNY students have been taken to court by the attorney general’s office over tuition debt. And through a quirk in the law, the only way they can defend themselves is by appearing before a judge in Albany.
By Meredith Kolodner
Sept. 3, 2021
Amanda Belony was rushing to work when she saw a fat yellow envelope left for her on her mother’s kitchen table. She opened it and immediately noticed the New York attorney general’s official seal sitting ominously at the top of the page. The state had filed a lawsuit against her for unpaid college tuition.
Ms. Belony had registered for classes at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh in the spring of 2016, when she was 21, but she’d had severe health problems the previous semester and could no longer afford to live in Plattsburgh to finish her degree. Because she missed the withdrawal deadline for the spring semester, she said, she was charged for classes she never took, and now New York State was suing her for $3,705.
The only way she could defend herself was to appear in State Supreme Court in Albany — a four-hour bus trip from her home in Brooklyn. If she failed to appear, the letter stated, a judgment would be entered against her.
Ms. Belony was working 10-hour days as a clerical assistant in a medical clinic at the time, making just enough to pay her bills and help her mother with the rent. Trips to Albany to try to defend herself would be expensive, and she worried she’d lose her job.
“I remember looking at this document, with all this legal jargon that I didn’t understand,” Ms. Belony said. She needed just three credits to graduate, but until she settled the case years later, she couldn’t re-enroll to finish her degree in hopes of getting a better-paying job. “I didn’t have the money. I knew I needed a lawyer, and I knew I couldn’t afford one.”
Ms. Belony is one of close to 16,000 SUNY students taken to court by the state since 2013. Under a little-known state regulation, New York’s attorney general is allowed to sue students if a state public university claims they owe tuition — or overdue library fines or unpaid parking tickets.
Unlike almost all regulations governing the collection of debt, a quirk in the law allows the attorney general’s office to file suit in these cases exclusively in State Supreme Court in Albany, regardless of where the student lives or attended college. If a student from SUNY Buffalo, for example, which is 300 miles from Albany, doesn’t show up in court, a judge will rule in the state’s favor and declare the student in default. The student’s wages could be garnished or tax refund withheld.
A majority of these cases end in default, according to several lawyers who represent students, since most students can’t make the several trips to Albany that would be required before a trial is even set.
Attorney General Letitia James, who took office in 2019, has often spoken out in defense of students struggling with tuition debt; she has advocated for debt relief programs and has suspended SUNY debt collection during the pandemic.
Asked about the law that allows SUNY colleges to refer student debtors to her office, she responded that the attorney general has “a legal obligation to collect student debt.”
Although she did not say why lawsuits had been used so often to do so, she said her office was working on ways to change how debt is collected. Last week, she sent a letter to legislators proposing to work with them on overhauling the system. One suggestion was to give the attorney general’s office more flexibility in reaching settlements.
“This work is far from over,” Ms. James said in an email, “and we look forward to working with legislators and policymakers to reform student debt collection practices in New York so that all students can achieve the goal of higher education without the crushing burden of debt.”
The State University of New York is made up of 64 schools, including community colleges and research universities, spread throughout the state. Nearly 400,000 students were enrolled in the SUNY system last year. Its stated mission of providing a high-quality, affordable education has attracted people from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds. Yet many students struggle to pay tuition, even with loans and scholarships.
New York is one of five states — in addition to Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Louisiana — that permit public colleges to send overdue debts directly to the state attorney general for collection. New York State regulations do not require the attorney general to take up lawsuits against students. A spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office said that before filing suit, it sends the student three letters seeking payment.
“Litigation is an absolute last resort,” said the spokeswoman, Delaney Kempner, “as we give borrowers plenty of time to contest the debt at issue and ample opportunity to demonstrate any sort of hardship.”
Court records suggest otherwise. Between November 2019 and March 2020 alone, at least 110 students were sued within a year of when the college said they had incurred their debts. Some are sued immediately after leaving college. One student from SUNY Potsdam who, according to court records, owed money from the 2019 spring semester was sued for $2,435 in December 2019.
The decision to file the lawsuits in State Supreme Court in Albany has been a considerable barrier for students who don’t live nearby. Buffalo, which is home to two SUNY universities that enroll close to 30,000 undergraduates combined, is at least four hours by car from Albany and six hours by bus. SUNY Fredonia, on the shore of Lake Erie, is five hours by car and more than seven hours by public transportation.
In 2014, New York State enacted a consumer protection law that requires that debtors be sued in the county where they live. But medical debt and student debt are exempt from the law, despite objections by student advocates.
Still, the attorney general could decide to sue in counties other than Albany, which could make it easier for students to defend themselves.
“There’s no due process if they’re suing you in Albany,” said Johnson Tyler, a Brooklyn Legal Services lawyer who says he gets at least one call a week from someone who wants to finish a degree but can’t because of student debt. “How can you have due process when you have to get on a bus and travel hundreds of miles away, and you have to go again and again and again?”
Earlier this year, Assemblyman Harvey Epstein, a Democrat from Manhattan, introduced a bill that would require the attorney general’s office to sue students only in the county or city where they live.
“It’s ridiculous that students are being sued in Albany,” said Mr. Epstein, who also questions the practice of lawsuits as a means of collecting student debt. “It may be more convenient for the A.G.’s office, but it makes it almost impossible for low-income students to defend themselves. They can’t get to Albany, they can’t get a lawyer. We are really disadvantaging people who are already disadvantaged.”
Ms. Kempner, speaking on behalf of the attorney general, said that students who are sued have the initial option of disputing their cases electronically or by mail. But if the attorney general’s office decides to proceed with the case, the student or his or her lawyer must appear in Albany.
After several inquiries from The New York Times about why students are sued only in one Albany courthouse, Ms. Kempner said this week that the office planned to change the practice and file cases in different counties in the future.
The decision to sue in Albany has, over the years, put many students into default. Data provided by the attorney general’s office shows the high likelihood of default judgments: From 2017 through 2019, about 3,000 lawsuits were filed every year, with an average of 2,500 ending in default.
In fact, many students say they were unaware that they had even been sued. Carlotta Summers, who attended SUNY Fredonia, came to realize she had been sued only when the tax refund she was expecting in 2019 never appeared. Her refunds were also taken in 2015 and 2018, but she said she had assumed she made a mistake in filing.