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Student debt forgiven for 2,000 TSU students
FOX 26 Reporter Damali Keith explains after some TSU students returned to a nice gift.
HOUSTON - Some area college students have received quite a gift. Their outstanding school debt has been forgiven at Texas Southern University.
"Students may have owed anywhere between $100 all the way up $10,000," explains TSU Provost and Sr. VP for Academic Affairs Carl Goodman, but now they don’t.
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Texas Southern University has cleared, wiped out, forgiven every penny of outstanding balances for more than 2,000 students, totaling almost $2.4 million.
"When you look at minority students and us being an HBCU, a minority serving institution, and you look at why students aren’t progressing or why they aren’t graduating in a timely fashion, it is because of financial reasons," Goodman explained.
"I’m so grateful. I don’t have to worry too much about how I’m going to budget for it because I know it’s covered. It’s not going to take away from me having to decide whether bills have to be paid," says TSU Doctoral student Saul Zarco, who owed TSU $10,000 and now he doesn’t.
"It means that I don’t have to take out any loans. As a dissertation student, we only take one class, so we don’t qualify for financial aid," Zarco says.
He is one of about 1,800 students who are returning to TSU who may not have been able to continue their schooling this semester due to unpaid tuition, but this debt forgiveness eliminates that worry.
"This has been a huge help. I don’t have to take out loans and my tuition and my books are covered. So it’s been an amazing help," smiles Zarco.
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Remaining federal COVID dollars is funding the student debt forgiveness.
About 500 TSU students, who’ve had their balances cleared, graduated in the spring and summer of 2023 and can begin their futures free of that debt.
"It’s one less thing that’s stressing you out, you know," Zarco adds.