Settling a debt with original creditor [student loans]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone could help me out with this.

For the last six months or so I have been trying to contact the company I used to take out my student loan, TERI. I knew that I owed them several payments, but I had not heard anything from them in months and months regarding my debt or how much I owed. I tried calling them for months but I was never able to talk to anyone, I just kept getting voicemails in their customer service. I even sent them a fax and got no response at all.

So yesterday I get a letter from a debt collection agency telling me that they have my TERI debt and I have to pay everything to them. Of course I can't pay the whole sum, and I read online how I set up a payment plan with the debt collector. I can do that.

But what I would REALLY like to do first of all is talk to someone at TERI and hopefully work out a payment plan with THEM instead of with the debt collectors. However I am now reading at the TERI webpage and in news that TERI has declared bankruptcy.

Is that why I haven't been able to talk to anyone whenever I call the TERI offices? Can I still even settle this with TERI? How does my debt work with an agency that has declared bankruptcy? Will I still be able to even talk to TERI?

THanks and sorry for