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Source: The Register-Guard, Eugene, Ore.迷利倉Oct. 01--Former Lane Community College student Mario Parker-Milligan took a national stage on Monday to blast his alma mater for outsourcing the job of distributing student financial aid to private financial firm Higher One.The "collusion" between the college and the New Haven, Conn.-based firm, he said, results in students paying higher banking fees, more student loan debt and a sense of betrayal."First, Higher One helps itself to fees from our loan dollars," Parker-Milligan said. "And second, the college is letting this happen."Parker-Milligan was a speaker at the Banking on Campus Forum in Washington, D.C., organized by the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to gather comment as it develops financial regulations.Lane Community College signed a five-year contract last year with Higher One to place student grants and loans into bank accounts the company establishes for each of the college's nearly 12,000 students.Higher One debit cards serve as the LCC student identification card.LCC has defended its arrangement with Higher One, saying the contract helps LCC curb its costs.LCC Financial Aid Director Helen Faith said Monday that students are informed that Higher One charges students debit card swipe fees -- in some instances -- and additional fees when students use noncompany ATMs to get a hold of their student aid dollars."We haven't had any major (student) complaints recently that I'm aware of with the Higher One service," Faith said, "So I think, by and large, they're satisfied with what they are receiving from Higher One."Faith declined to comment on Parker-Milligan's contentions, saying the college has not had enough time to understand the context of his comments.A Register-Guard request for comment from Higher One Spokeswoman Shoba Lemoine got no reply on Monday.Parker-Milligan, who served as LCC student body president from 2010 to 2012, said the Higher One debit card looked like a good idea several years ago, when the company's posters -- bearing LCC's logo -- first started appearing on campus."The pitch: An easy way to access your financial aid," he said. "I thought this was a pretty cool idea."Students technically have a choice of using the Higher One account or having Higher One deposit the money into the student's own bank or credit union account.The money is disbursed into the company's account instantly; students have to wait a number of days for Higher One to move the money into their own bank account.Eighty to 90 percent of students choose the Higher One route, Faith said.Although Parker-Milligan had his own bank account as an LCC student, he said the Higher One option sounded an easier and more efficient way t自存倉 keep track of his loans and grants, so he signed up."Because it had the college logo on it, I trusted the account was serving my interests," he said.But Parker-Milligan soon became acquainted with Higher One's assorted fees, which is where the company makes a lot of its profits.So the next term, Parker-Milligan took his student aid out of the Higher One account, and he deposited it into his own credit union account.A few months later, he got an overdraft notice from Higher One. He logged onto his account and found he was charged a fee for inactivity, and that placed the account in overdraft status."I couldn't believe that. I chose not to use the account and was getting penalized for it," he said. "The barriers to getting out of Higher One continue to mount. My experience wasn't unusual."Parker-Milligan -- now working as legislative director for the Oregon Student Association -- said 72 percent of first-year students take out federal loans and 63 percent receive federal Pell grants.Faith said LCC has tried to mitigate the cost of Higher One fees. The college has a $1,000 per-term fund that it can use to reimburse students for fees, if the students apply to the college for a refund.Information about how many students have been reimbursed or whether the fund covers all requests was not immediately available.The college must use strategies such as outsourcing administrative functions and their costs, Faith said, because of the budget squeeze brought on by a state government that for years has crimped its spending on higher education, and especially community colleges. Having Higher One do the loan disbursement and tracking work saves staff costs LCC previously incurred on those functions.Higher One charges students fees in order to cover its costs and make a profit.That's not a good excuse for signing up Higher One, Parker-Milligan said.Parker-Milligan and several other speakers said there's an inherent conflict of interest when a college farms out work in this way."Colleges can't be trusted to make the best or most ethical decisions on behalf of the students," Parker-Milligan said.The solution, according to several participants in Monday's forum, is for colleges to set up direct deposit with bank accounts that students already have -- just as any private employer does with paychecks and the Social Security Administration does for seniors.The University of Oregon uses that method of disbursing financial aid.It wasn't immediately clear Monday what it would take for Lane Community College to develop the capability.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 The Register-Guard (Eugene, Ore.) 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