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After months of investigation from the State Attorney General's office, Columbia University has finally fired the director of undergraduate financial aid David Charlow yesterday. Charlow had been suspended last April when his "questionable financial ties" to a student loan company were revealed: Charlow was an adviser to Student Loan Xpress, owned stock in the company, and actively encouraged students to use Student Loan Express as a lender. Then the Post printed this excerpt from an email from Charlow to Student Loan Express's CEO Fabrizio Balestri yesterday: "I want by its design to lead the students to [the] best decision in an idiot-proof way." The best decision being Student Loan express.
The financial aid director at Johns Hopkins, Ellen Frishberg, who also had ties to Student Loan Express, resigned yesterday as well, and State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said, "While our investigation has uncovered many dirty secrets of the college loan industry, the stock and money that Student Loan Xpress funneled to Charlow and Frishberg were among the most flagrant. At times, it seems that Charlow and Frishberg were working more for Student Loan Xpress than for their universities.”
The AG's office isn't very happy with Columbia's inability to "answer a number of our significant concerns and questions" and said the criminal investigation was ongoing. Well, add the AG's office to thousands of students who are wondering why they were encouraged to use Student Loan Express. We wonder if Columbia will offer any sort of reimbursement. The Times also has more details from emails between Charlow, Columbia class of '85, and Balestri - apparently Charlow asked Student Loan Express for Allman Bros. tickets at the Beacon - and then "questioned whether the seats were good enough."
Also, from AG Cuomo, here's a brochure about "Student Lending and some fact to consider" (PDF).
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Months? He was suspended in April 2007. It's May. That's one month.
I was referring to how the AG's office has been investigating the student loan scandal for a while.
"AG is not happy with Columbia's inability to answer questions..."
As a Columbia student, I can tell you they're not deliberately avoiding this. The administration is simply so pathetically incompetent that this probably represents the best they can do.
I'm not expecting a penny in reimbursement - they just don't care, as long as they can call themselves "the only Ivy League in New York City."
The same thing happened to me at NYU (years ago, before gov't consolidation was an option). Anyone remember Merlin Loan? Although this investigation is LONG overdue and will not reverse the heartache and suicidal thoughts associated with never getting out of debt (with no option for bankruptcy) over the years, I hope this prevents other similar situations.
Hey kids: it's lawsuit time.
What's that? Can't afford a lawyer:? I know some affordable loans.....
I'm being hounded by no less than three collection agencies/lawyers for the same student loan I took out 25 years ago. They already got a judgement and they're still going after me. BTW, I'm using the public internet in libraries and burger king, not to mention free wifi.
They must have more faith in me than even I do, if they think I can pay it back.
How many judgements can they get on one loan? They already got the marshal's execution. I have nothing.
I hope something good comes out of this. God help me if they do anything, God help those who try.