Student loan company Sallie Mae flew more than 100 sales team employees to Hawaii earlier this year to celebrate $5 billion in student loans, as the student debt crisis has reached $1.6 trillion.

In August, Sallie Mae brought the employees to Maui’s luxury Fairmont resort on Wailea beach as it celebrated a record-high year in sales, NBC News reports.

The $5 billion in student loans went to 374,000 borrowers, totaling nearly $13,400 per person.

“We said, ‘Hey, look, Maui is a pretty nice spot.’ And so if you wanted to stay a few days or want to bring your family, that’s up to you,” Sallie Mae CEO Ray Quinlan told NBC News.

He added that the venture was not an “incentive trip” but instead a “sales get-together for all of our salespeople.” The company has taken similar retreats since it was founded in the 1970s, NBC News reports.

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When it was founded, Sallie Mae offered federal education loans, but it has since split into two parts, with Sallie Mae Bank servicing private loans. These private loans often give money to people who probably can’t pay it back — an issue that mostly affects minority students and students of color.

Social media users blasted the news, with one person tweeting that Sallie Mae’s borrowers were being “exploited by the terms of student loans.”

Another knocked the company, tweeting, “this bitch, sallie mae, needs to get slapped.”

Student loan debt and the cost of college have continued to climb, leading to lawmakers and advocates pushing for solutions to the crisis.

2020 Democrats, including Sen. Elizabeth WarrenElizabeth Ann WarrenHillicon Valley: GOP lawmakers offer election security measure | FTC Dem worries government is ‘captured’ by Big Tech | Lawmakers condemn Apple over Hong Kong censorship Sanders seeks spark from Ocasio-Cortez at Queens rally On The Money: Supreme Court takes up challenge to CFPB | Warren’s surge brings scrutiny to wealth tax | Senators eye curbs on Trump emergency powers MORE (D-Mass.) and Sen. Bernie SandersBernie SandersSanders seeks spark from Ocasio-Cortez at Queens rally On The Money: Supreme Court takes up challenge to CFPB | Warren’s surge brings scrutiny to wealth tax | Senators eye curbs on Trump emergency powers Biden seeks to fundraise off fact he’s running out of money MORE (I-Vt.), have pushed for proposals that would allow for tuition-free college.

In a recent poll, a majority of voters reported that they support the idea of free state college and canceling student debt.

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