Howard University students protested after the announcement that six former employees misappropriated $369,000 in financial aid from 2011 to 2016.

According to The Washington Post, “investigators discovered that some employees who received tuition benefits to cover the cost of taking classes were also receiving university grants. [This] exceeded the cost of tuition and resulted in employees receiving refunds for the excess aid.” This means they were earning more money than their education cost and pocketing the difference. This was later confirmed by University President, Wayne Frederick. These revelations sparked outrage and student protests, who criticized Frederick for not disclosing the issue sooner.

Amid the scandal, one student in particular faced public scrutiny when his financial documents were leaked. According to The Post, Tyrone Hankerson, a third-year law student, quickly became the symbol for the scam and was trending on twitter with memes under #Tyrone and #FinesseGod. Since the leak of financial records,  Hankerson is now suing Howard University for $10 million, accusing the institution of not doing enough to protect his financial documents.

Senior Abby Mueller said that it is “unfortunate that some people lost out on getting financial aid” and that “college is expensive as it is.”

Senior Malik Janson who was planning to attend Howard University before committing to Bowie State, said that “students should be able to trust where and what their money is used for.”