Rebuilding Trust Between Schools + Students
Reforms and Clean Sweeps in Financial Aid
On May 31st, the New York Times revealed how deep the corruption at Columbia University ran. The financial aid director for Columbia’s undergraduate college and its engineering school, David Charlow, was promoting a student loan company in which he held stock. Columbia dismissed him last week. Now Columbia is giving $1.1 million to a fund to educate students about loans.
The article also announced that the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators would end the practice of turning to bankers and other lenders to sponsor its many conferences and allowing them to court its members through meals and gifts.
When Mr. Cuomo first started investigating student lending problems, the group protested vehemently, accusing him of tearing “the fabric of trust between schools and students.” It said that abuses and conflicts of interest were rare.
Buttoday, Dallas Martin, the group’s president, who was at Mr. Cuomo’s news conference, said he had been wrong.
“I want to apologize,” he said. “We did not have all the facts. We do not condone individuals taking kickbacks.”
He said his association’s directors had expanded its own ethical code, and that the group would in the future bar loan companies from sponsoring its conferences or giving gifts or other payments to its members.
“I hope we can put these issues behind us,” he said, and that students and parents can feel confident in the advice they get from financial aid officers.
