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Charlie Hurtt
South University

Charlie Hurtt
Manager for Loan Services

When Charlie Hurtt, Manager of Loan Services for South University, decided to move from California to Georgia almost 12 years ago to be closer to her son, she left California without having a job. She took it on faith that her past experience in student loan servicing would help her find a job, but she did not expect to get a job offer before she arrived in Savannah. But South University knew a good thing when they saw it, and offered her a job while she was on the road. She immediately accepted the job and has never regretted it.

South University is a proprietary university offering associate and/or bachelor degrees in business, paralegal studies, information technology, medical assisting, physical therapy assisting, nursing, and accounting as well as a graduate degree in Physician Assistant studies and the Doctor of Pharmacy degree. Charlie has primary responsibility for default prevention activities for campuses in Savannah, GA, Columbia, SC, West Palm Beach, FL, and Montgomery, AL. Rather than being employed directly by South University, she works for a subsidiary company set up by South University which is dedicated to loan collection.

Charlie started working in student loans in California in 1976 and has spent most of her career in collections and default prevention. Since coming to South University, she has graduated Cum Laude from the school in 1999 with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration.

As Loan Services Manager, Charlie supervises five staff members and works with several collection agencies. Her group collects Perkins and institutional loans, works with bankruptcies, performs ledger analysis, and works to keep their Federal default rate down. She has been very successful in these areas. When she first began working at South University, the default rate on institutional loans and Perkins loans approached 50%. Now, the rate hovers at 3% to 10%.
Charlie attributes her group’s success to the knowledge and attitude of her staff. “We like what we do. We are very knowledgeable and borrower friendly. We want to help borrowers and will work with them to set up special payment arrangements.” She credits employees like Donna Canish, who is a collector in her office, with keeping their default rate low.

She also cites Campus Partners as a big help to her in her work. “I love the company, and the people there are fantastic. I can ask them any question and get an answer.” She especially enjoys working with Sharal Duncan, her Customer Service Representative, as well as the rest of the Customer Service team at Campus Partners. “They’ve never let me make a mistake!” she says with a laugh. She especially likes on-line processing, which helps her save on postage and time. She has worked with our company since she has been at South University, a customer since 1973.

Despite advances in technology, which helps her do more in less time, one of the biggest challenges in debt collection remains the same. She continues to encounter parents and friends of borrowers in default, who shield the borrower from collection calls. “They do not understand that we want to help the borrower clear up their debt. Ignoring us will not cause the problem to go away. We talk to borrowers about deferment options and try to arrange payment plans that they can live with.”

Charlie has true compassion for the borrowers she works with and will not hire anyone who is not a caring individual. She is especially concerned about students who borrow too much money and graduate with a large debt or who drop out of school before obtaining their degree. She counsels her own grandchildren to start looking for scholarships early in high school and not to depend on loans alone to pay for college.

Charlie clearly loves her job and could not image doing anything else. The most satisfying part of her job is helping people. Sometimes borrowers will thank her for being one of the few debt collectors of any kind who will listen to them and explain options to them.

When she is not working, she enjoys spending time with her family, which includes eight grandchildren who live in Georgia and California. She also keeps her mind engaged at all times, believing in the expression, “Use it or lose it,” when it comes to brainpower. She loves to read mysteries, science fiction, and fantasy novels.

When she retires, which she is not planning to do anytime soon, Charlie may return to Tennessee, which she considers home. Charlie was actually born in North Carolina, but lived in Virginia as a young child and later lived in Minnesota for 18 years and California for 23 years. Although she has never lived there for any length of time, she considers Tennessee home because that is where her mother lived and where many of her relatives still live. But for now, if home is where the heart is, her home is at South University.