Tuition Collection Dispute

Hello,
I had registered for graduate classes at a State University. I had applied for and obtained federal loans that would cover the entirety of my tuition (6 credit hours). I had to drop one of classes (before the drop date where you owe them) because I needed to pick up a full time job to support myself through the time I was going to be in school.
I called the university and asked them specifically if by dropping that class (and thereby dropping below FULL TIME) if my loan was going to be taken away. The university told me that as long as I did not drop ALL of my classes I should expect my tuition to be dispersed on time.
My student account said I was still approved but still had not credited my account with the fund for the next week (the day before the drop date where I would not owe the school is I dropped). That week there was a tropical storm that came through the city and wiped out tons of trees and power lines all across the city. Because of this the university pushed back the drop date two weeks.
Two weeks later I received a letter saying that my student loans were cancelled because I fell below full time. So, I immediately dropped the class because I knew I could not afford it. The university said that they would still be charging me for 60% of the total tuition for one full semester because I had dropped on that date...even though they pushed the drop date back. I did not feel that I should owe them 60% tuition when their own people told me I would still be awarded my loan, they then waited 3 WEEKS to tell me that they were canceling it and did so AFTER pushing back the drop date but NOT pushing back the dates where you would owe them a certain % of tuition.

So now they are threatening a law suit (and I know that state school can collect tax refunds) and I don't think I should even owe them this money to begin with.
So I guess my question is, do I have any chance of getting this debt eliminated or even lessened based on the circumstances? If so, what should I do?