Binghamton High School’s auditorium was filled last Thursday night as approximately 500 people, at least 30 of them Binghamton University students, attended a community forum held by State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.
Cuomo said that the forum was part of what he wanted the new attorney general’s office to represent. He explained that the attorneys within his office would be using the forums, taking place at various locations throughout the state, to better meet the needs of various local communities.
‘We’re here to help you,’ Cuomo said as he was greeted by applause. ‘We’re your attorneys.’
Elected into office last November, Cuomo has made getting to know the people that his office represents one of his top priorities, and Thursday’s forum was the first in what is planned to be a series of regional forums held by his office.
During his speech, Cuomo focused on five major topics he felt were affecting New York residents: consumer fraud, civil and labor rights, New York health care, environmental conservation and the college loan scandal that his office uncovered last year. After his presentation the forum broke up into five smaller question and answer sessions, one for each topic.
‘This is exactly the kind of concept that all politicians need to understand,’ Student Association President David Bass said of the forum. ‘Only by going directly to the people they serve can they truly understand the issues for which they need to be fighting.’
The student loan question and answer session held after Cuomo’s main presentation was led by Ben Lawsky, Cuomo’s deputy counselor.
‘We started hearing reports from certain small companies having trouble breaking into the business [of student loans],’ Lawsky explained at the beginning of the session.
Last year Cuomo’s office exposed a student loan scandal in which large loan companies offered vacations, money and other perks to universities and individuals working at universities in exchange for a placement on the schools’ preferred lenders list. Colleges across the country came under scrutiny following the discovery ‘ including all 29 of the State University of New York’s four-year campuses.
‘At many, many schools,’ Lawsky emphasized, ‘Lenders were on the list for the wrong reasons, and the list was very short.’
After uncovering the practice of the bribes and their rewards, Cuomo’s office worked for legislation to be passed to ban the behavior. It passed unanimously in Albany and became a model for similar legislation now sitting in Washington, D.C.
In both Cuomo’s main presentation and the smaller sessions, consumer education was emphasized.
‘This is no longer just an easy loan,’ Lawsky advised of student loans. ‘It is an education mortgage.’
For more information about Cuomo’s office or to review the Student Bill of Rights for lending, visit www.oag.state.ny.us.