The Otey Scruggs Memorial Lecture

Why Do 45 million
Americans Owe $1.8
trillion in Student Debt
Many insist that today’s student debt crisis is the unintended
consequence of programs started with the best of intentions. But
Democrats and Republicans intentionally created a student loan
program, which has disproportionately left students of color,
especially women, drowning in college debt.

Elizabeth Tandy Shermer is an associate professor of history at Loyola
University Chicago, where she teaches courses on labor, capitalism, and
politics. She has written about those topics in op-eds, academic articles, and
scholarly books, including Sunbelt Capitalism (2013) and The Right and
Labor.

The Otey Scruggs Memorial Lecture
honors a long-time, former member of
the Maxwell history faculty, and is made
possible through the generous support of
Jeffrey Scruggs (the honoree’s son) and
Jeffrey’s wife, Robbin E. Mitchell

This lecture will later be viewable via
maxwell.syr.edu/hist.