That seems hard to believe. Didn't you have your actual diploma as proof? Oh wait, I don't think it mentions major, does it? Just the specific college you graduated from.
If a university is withholding transcripts based on past-due student loans, they should have some sort of policy where something can be worked out to get you back in good standing. With Direct loans, there's that 25 year repayment plan where I believe if you have under $20k income/year, it's effectively $0. With Perkins loans, there are deferrals that can be done. And as I've heard on TV, private loans are "poison".
Here are some ideas...
1. 0% interest on Direct loans if all payments in the 10 year plan are on-time.
2. Triple the aggregate amount that can be borrowed from Direct subsidized loans and Direct unsubsidized loans. This should result in less need to do private borrowing.
3. First two years of tuition at accredited not-for-profit colleges paid for by the federal government. Limited to the average tuition rate in the region/state.
4. A new loan option to pay like 6% of your taxable income over 20 years with no opt-out option if opted in. Can only be opted in within the first two years after graduation. Once opted in, the 20 year countdown begins.
5. Federal block grants to public universities in order to help lower tuition rates.
I'd prefer we seek the creative path opposed to the war/neo-imperialism path. So if we could cut "defense" spending, enough said.
That's only part of the problem. The other part of the problem lies with k-12 schooling. Not just the lack of funding, but the type of schooling. Another commenter in this article mentioned something I'm essentially going to repeat. We need to teach the "why" and "how" rather than "rote memorization". Some history teachers teach history, while others teach us the lessons of history. Some math teachers teach us how to do math, while other teach us why it works.