INVESTIGATION: It's billed as a last-resort loan for small rural colleges that could help them increase enrollment. But for many, this federal government loan program may be just burying them under new debt.

A Little-Known Loan Program Meant to Help Rural Colleges May Actually Be Hurting Them

For some colleges, the feds are the lender of last resort. Their help may just dig campuses deeper into debt, a <em>Chronicle</em> investigation has found.