Just before Christmas, an economics student in Utah figured out a way to help the environment by messing up the mechanics of an auction. The Bush administration had Bureau of Land Management auction offer a last minute auction to sell off 150,000 acres near Arches National Park.

Tim DeChristopher, 27, just started bidding when the government tried to auction off the land. That threw a wrench into the whole auction. He went home -- after a brief visit with police -- owning 22,000 acres of land and owing $1.7 million. But he also pushed the price up for oil developers. So much so that the whole auction results are now in question. The AP says buyers were given 10 days to decide if they paid too much. I don't think that offer applies to DeChristopher himself. They may have to have a do-over for the whole auction -- but that would be under the Obama administration.

DeChristopher didn't start off his day hoping to stand in the way of Bush's last minute sale to the oil industry. Instead, he went to his scheduled final exam. Amy Goodman reported in the Seattle Post Intelligencer that one of his exam questions was whether this very auction was fair since only the oil companies were bidding. That got him thinking.

Two-thirds of students have to borrow to attend colleges, according to FinAid. They leave campus on graduation day 2004 with an average $19,237 in debt, but some owe far more. About one-quarter borrow at least about $25,000, and one in 10 borrow more than $35,000.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were recently taken down for (among other things) taking advantage of the all the market had to offer for returns while meanwhile cashing in on a government backup for its loans. But their cousin Sallie Mae and lots of other private student loan lenders are still playing that game.

While some rates, even on existing student loans, have come down, many have not. My husband consolidated his law school loan shortly after graduating. He's stuck paying 9% for the rest of the loan.

Don't miss the rest of our series on Makeovers Needed!

Sallie Mae is a huge student loan company, and often times it can be difficult to get routed to the correct department to straighten out your loan issue.

Earlier this week I shared a simple plan for using your congressman to resolve student loan issues at any company, but today I'd like to share a way to get satisfaction if your issue is with Sallie Mae. The executive customer service department at Sallie Mae is known as the "Consumer Advocate Unit" and from my experience, is staffed with small group of knowledgeable and friendly people.

Both our congressman and our attorney general referred us to the consumer advocate unit, where we were given one point of contact. If this person was out of the office, whoever took our call would literally walk over to his desk and grab our file in order to help us out. On more than one occasion they called another lender on our behalf to arrange for the consolidation of loans away from Sallie Mae!

You can reach the consumer advocate unit at (888) 545-4199. Please use this number responsibly, and remember these people are empowered to help you. Treating the caller with respect and kindness, no matter your previous experiences with Sallie Mae, will greatly benefit you in the long run.

Isn't it time you started reaping the benefits of your local congressman's clout? Not yet ready to ask for a letter of recommendation for West Point? Have no fear because if you are the bearer of student loans and your loan company is shafting you, your congressman may be the key to a happy ending.

Getting some satisfaction with the help of your congressman or woman is so easy anybody can do it. Granted, like all problems and lending issues, it helps if you are in the right and have been paying your lender what the terms state. But this strategy may work even if you are close to being handed off to a collection agency.

As a little background: My wife had all of her student loans through Sallie Mae, affectionately referred to around our house as the devil. Several of these private loans which Ms. Mae was holding on to were pulling in 13.25% interest! We had included some of these loans in an initial federal consolidation which never worked out. Apparently the incoming fax line at Sallie Mae was hooked right up to a paper shredder because they never received our requests to consolidate. We tried again to consolidate my wife's private loans with Wells Fargo, who, just like our federal consolidator, never received a response from Sallie Mae. Fed up with the problems we were having, I did what any rational person would, I called my local news stations call for action. This is where I found out I could contact my congressman to get some satisfaction.