ATLANTA --- The nationwide credit crunch triggered by the subprime mortgage crisis might now be hitting Georgia colleges, as banks have begun in recent months to stop offering loans to students at some schools.

Officials with the state's network of 35 public colleges and universities say banks began dropping their ties to some schools in the last year or so. And banks, while declining to name which institutions they no longer serve, confirm that they are removing colleges from their lists.

"The availability of loan resources is not as great as it was before because lenders are, in fact, cutting back lending," said Tonya Lam, the associate vice chancellor for student affairs at the University System of Georgia.

There don't appear to be any patterns in the cutback, she said. For example, both two-year and four-year institutions are being affected.

"I think the whole shakeup in the loan biz has caused that trickle down (effect)," Ms. Lam said. "And people might be a little bit more sensitive to what's happening than they would have before because now they have something to point to."

Debbie Howard, the director of financial aid at Waycross College in southeast Georgia, said the communications from lenders is often short, to the point, and with little or no explanation.

"They sent us an e-mail or letter saying that they would no longer be serving students from our institution," she said. "That's it."

Ms. Howard said five or six companies have dropped Waycross, but the college still has three or four lenders -- enough for now.

"We're not a large institution, so we don't have a lot of loans," she said. "It's fine for our small population of students that gets loan, but for a larger institution, it may not be."

That small population, though, could be one reason that Waycross is vulnerable. The Student Loan Corporation, owned primarily by Citibank, also blames federal cuts in reimbursements to banks making the loans as a reason that lending to some students has become less profitable.

"Due to the impact of both recent federal legislation and continued volatility in the credit markets, The Student Loan Corporation ... has temporarily suspended lending at certain schools which tend to have loans with lower balances and shorter terms, or at which we anticipate processing minimal loan volume," spokesman Mark Rodgers wrote in an e-mail. "We hope to resume lending at these schools as economic conditions for student lending improve."

Lending institutions also say their moves are spurred by market forces.

"As with all of our businesses -- including our student lending efforts -- we are constantly reviewing our product and business mix to ensure it is competitive for clients and consistent with our responsibilities to shareholders," SunTrust spokesman Hugh Suhr wrote in an e-mail. "Consistent with that, we are stepping away from some relationships, but it is not based on any particular type of school."

State officials are hopeful that they can keep the impact from reaching students, Ms. Lam said.

Although students might have to find new lenders when they look to reapply at the beginning of each year, they remain eligible for the loans.

And there are other avenues for getting the loans. Some colleges are considering switching to the federal Direct Loan Program. Under that plan, the U.S. Department of Education lends students money for their college education in the same way a private bank would.

The Georgia Student Finance Commission, a state agency, also provides college loans.