Campus Files Podcast Spotlights For-Profit Colleges and Borrower Stories
This spring, the Project on Predatory Student Lending (PPSL) was thrilled to join Audacy Podcasts on their hit show, Campus Files. Covering all things college admissions, student loan debt, and predatory lending, the podcast dives into the real stories affecting students and borrowers nationwide.
With the opportunity to share insight across four episodes, PPSL President and Executive Director Eileen Connor joined clients, borrowers and experts to talk in detail about their experiences. Listeners get a close look at the deeply emotional and personal journeys of those impacted by predatory schools, alongside facts about the for-profit college industry. We also discuss how PPSL is challenging predatory practices through litigation and advocacy.
Here’s what the podcast episodes covered:
Episode 12: The Trojan Course talks with Evan Ganick, a borrower who attended and was duped by USC’s online Master of Social Work program. The episode also discusses PPSL’s lawsuit Luna v. USC and the prevalence of Online Program Managers (OPMs).
Episode 16: For Profit Part 1: The Pain Funnel interviews Mike DiGiacamo about his experiences at two for-profit colleges, and expert David Halperin breaks down the Pain Funnel—how these schools manipulate students into enrolling.
Episode 17: For Profit - Part 2: Thrown to the Wolves spotlights PPSL client Ashley Pizzuti, who was scammed by Brooks Institute of Photography, and her path to becoming a passionate advocate.
Episode 18: For Profit - Part 3: The Evidence Is Clear features our landmark borrower defense lawsuit, with PPSL President and Executive Director Eileen Connor and lead plaintiff Theresa Sweet telling the story of how borrowers finally won relief.
Read more about each episode and listen below.
Episode 12: The Trojan Course
First, we joined Campus Files to break down one of our pivotal cases: Luna v. USC. Host Margo Gray speaks with Evan, a graduate of the University of Southern California’s (USC) online Master of Social Work (MSW) program, and Eileen Connor.
Evan tells his story, from being elated to join a prestigious USC program to the dawning realization that he had been misled and the inferior online program was actually run by for-profit Online Program Management (OPM) company, 2U Inc.—while still charging the same sky-high tuition as the USC on-campus program.
His experience fell far below what was promised: “We weren’t taught anything on the [state licensure] tests. Why? Because 2U doesn’t know. It's been a bumpy, traumatic experience leaving USC because they didn't prepare me whatsoever.”
Eileen Connor then joins the episode to share how PPSL brought a lawsuit challenging the for-profit predatory model that is turning students into profit centers.
"Looking ahead, higher education is in the crosshairs. We don't want to see these institutions—that I think are so important to civil society and to our democracy—essentially hasten their own demise by making these bad deals, by being greedy, by deceiving students, by choosing what's expedient or clever, over what's right.”
Read more about Online Program Managers, incentive-driven recruitment, and the impact on students on our site here.
Listen to the full story:
Episode 16: For Profit Part 1 - The Pain Funnel
After serving honorably in the US Army, Mike DiGiacomo was ready for a career change and dreamed of making video games. Recruiters at two for-profit schools promised to make his dreams come true, but as the first in his family to go to college, he trusted the system and didn’t recognize the red flags, lies and manipulations until it was too late. The schools had taken out additional private loans in his name without his knowledge, and the debt was insurmountable.
“They would slide the paperwork to you, you know, to fill out like the promissory notes and they would have you leave the amount blank. And they'd say, oh, we'll fill that in for you. That was every semester. So, you didn't really know what you were signing for, which back then, you know, I thought it was a normal process.”
For-profit college expert David Halperin also joins this episode to explain how this industry got so big and the notorious “Pain Funnel” approach they used to manipulate and con students.
“It becomes very manipulative. And many of these schools had some variant of something called the pain funnel, where they would poke the pain of the applicant and their shame and leverage that to get them to buy.”
Listen to the full story:
Episode 17: For Profit Part 2 - Thrown to the Wolves
A longtime advocate with the Debt Collective and a PPSL client, Ashley Pizutti, talks about her journey fighting and working on these issues for more than a decade.
Recruiters at Brooks Institute of Photography aggressively pursued Ashley and assured her this was the path to make her dreams come true. But on day one, she had an experience that left her shaken.
“I enter my recruiter's office where he is hastily throwing all of his personal items into a box and he is angry. And he turns to me and he goes, I am so sorry. These people are liars. I am sorry you are in this situation. You need to watch your back. And then he grabbed his box of stuff and he left the building.”
Her path led her to investigating the school’s parent company on her own, compiling evidence, and bringing it to the Department of Education.
“Let's compile all of the evidence that we have from all of these borrowers and stories and start putting them together in a cohesive way and we'll send them to the Department. And we were invited through the Debt Collective's day of action, and several for-profit borrowers, including myself, were able to land a meeting with the Department of Education.”
Listen to the full story:
Episode 18: For Profit Part 3 - The Evidence is Clear
In this episode, Eileen Connor and lead plaintiff Theresa Sweet talk through the groundbreaking Sweet lawsuit and how the $6 billion borrower defense settlement won relief for borrowers. Eileen also explains why it’s so important to protect borrower defense regulations, which continue to face political attacks.
“That's something that was really striking under the first Trump administration…They didn't have a problem with the fraud. They weren't gonna do anything to make sure that fraud didn't happen and therefore we don't need borrower defense. They just wanted to get rid of borrower defense.”
Theresa Sweet talks about what it meant to her to become a voice for borrowers: “It sunk into me, you made this commitment. This is something that affects tons of people in the same exact traumatizing way that has affected you.”
Listen to the full story:
