Georgia college graduate's degree withheld by New York university over health insurance charge

What was supposed to be a celebratory milestone for a Georgia college graduate has instead turned into a frustrating financial roadblock.

Dylan Merrell of Alpharetta spent two years on the field playing football for Long Island University (LIU) in New York. After graduating this past spring, he learned that his diploma and official transcripts were being withheld due to a medical hold on his account totaling $6,824.

"I found out that I had a medical hold on my record for insurance reasons, which completely blindsided me and caught me off guard," Merrell said. "I was told that my diploma was being withheld from me if those fees weren't cleared."

Like many collegiate athletic programs, LIU requires all student-athletes to maintain active primary health insurance before participating in practices, conditioning, or games. According to the university's student-athlete handbook, players must upload their primary health insurance details and front-and-back copies of their insurance card into the athletic medical portal for pre-participation clearance.

Merrell says he complied by submitting his existing Blue Cross Blue Shield policy and waiving the school's insurance. However, university administrators are saying otherwise.

"The school is telling me that even though I uploaded my own insurance, I didn't waive the school's insurance off," Merrell said. "So that insurance was automatically applied anyway, which means I would have to pay that fee."

The financial dispute has created immediate real-world consequences for Merrell's career prospects. He says employers frequently request official documentation to verify degrees, leaving him at a standstill.

"It's extremely frustrating. I've been in multiple job interviews where they asked for my official transcript, or they asked for my diploma, and I haven't been able to provide it," Merrell explained, estimating that at least 15 job applications have been stalled because of the hold.

His mother, Carla Merrell, has spent months trying to resolve the dispute through phone calls, emails, and an in-person visit to the New York campus.

"He finished, he graduated, and so this is your reward?" Carla Merrell said. "With AI being in place and young graduates looking for a job in this economy, competing with people with years of experience, to know that this is yet another hurdle that he has to get over is quite frustrating and disappointing."

She emphasized that the family should not be on the hook for double coverage.

"I pay insurance every two weeks out of my payroll check, and so I should not have to turn around and pay because of their lack of bookkeeping," she said. "They know for a fact that he has insurance."

Student navigation advocates say automatic insurance enrollment is a newer expense for families across the country.

Reginald Shareef with The E.D.G.E. Foundation, an organization that helps college students navigate campus challenges, notes that health insurance fees are routinely bundled into tuition bills unless an explicit waiver is filed each term.

"Every student nowadays is required to have health insurance, and the school automatically puts it in the bill," Shareef said. "It's one of the top reasons why people owe balances to universities because of unexpected charges that people don't foresee, or a lack of communication."

For families or recent graduates currently facing an unexpected balance that prevents access to transcripts or diplomas, Shareef suggests looking into external aid resources. Many nonprofit organizations, student advocacy groups, and institutional alumni associations offer emergency micro-grants and relief funds designed specifically to help clear final account balances.

In a statement to CBS News Atlanta, Long Island University says it has sent reminder emails about the waiver policy since last August.

The university also disputes withholding credentials, telling us it will provide transcripts and confirm degrees to graduate schools or employers who inquire, regardless of any outstanding balances.