Where have ALL the lenders gone?

Last year I had the privilege of listening to a Senior Vice-President of Western New York's largest bank explain how "his" bank felt it was a public responsibility to participate in the college lending marketplace.

I received phone calls today from two families who placed college loans with this bank last year, and they informed me that this bank now says that they "no longer participate" in college lending.

What happened to the sense of public responsibility that was expressed last year??

OR----has this bank decided (like most American colleges) that families can bear the burden of college on their own.

With the nationwide credit crunch AND lending interest rates under intense scrutiny----all of a sudden responsibility to (and concern for) borrowers has disappeared.

Isn't it about time for families to cease submitting to colleges (which appear to be the LAST NON-regulated industry in the USA)??

Compared to colleges and lending institutions, the oil industry looks like the Pillsbury Doughboy!!