As long as we don't get free inkpens...

[Shawnee123]

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo railed against the student loan industry, citing conflicts of interest and deceptive marketing. This accusation sent shock waves through the financial aid community and especially disheartened the thousands upon thousands of hard-working, ethical administrators.

For a time, my boss would not let us accept an ink pen from a lender, for fear of perception of impropriety. Though we knew our practices were ethical (visits from lenders were common, sometimes bringing goodies for the office, but visits did not land a lender on the Preferred Lender List: that was only done through annual RFI's [requests for information] responses which gaged the lender on things such as customer service for active students and those in repayment, student incentives, etc.)

So 14 lenders and three colleges (whose practices may have been iffy) paid 13 million dollars, which Cuomo said would be used to would be used to "educate high-school students and their families about the financial-aid process."

As one comment points out:

If only someone had previously come up with the idea of holding events at high schools to teach students and their families about financial aid! It’s not as though financial aid administrators had been volunteering their time for this for decades or anything…

Two years ago, a series of 4 events in the state of NY were held to enlighten folks on the Student's Bill of Rights and they devised some "tip sheets" on borrowing.

This is information that is provided through many events: from college outreach, personal counseling, and a multitude of other sources.

No one can figure out where the rest of the money went. Cuomo was done with his political agenda, the Chronicle of Higher Education reports repeated calls to Cuomo's office have gone unanswered.

Thanks Andy. We're already squished between the want want want of the students and the political bickerings of the politicians. Though we love our dynamic industry, we really don't need more public finger-pointing when walking the fine line is difficult but done every day by FA administrators all over the country.

Speculation has been that many would rather see all schools go to "direct lending" which means there is no bank liasion: the government is the direct lender and we administer the process. This is good for schools who are financially secure, for some schools it is not financially viable, you'd be amazed at how much money the school eats when the students just disappear.

Now, where's the freaking money?

http://chronicle.com/news/article/64...estion-remains

[xoxoxoBruce]

Administrative costs.

[Shawnee123]

Heh, yeah, while not allowing an administrative cost allowance on many programs to the schools who have to start new programs from the ground floor often with little guidance, not to mention continued implementation and keeping up with ever-changing regs.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Not yours, the state's costs of doling out those millions to the proper campaign contributors... I mean the proper recipients, yeah that's it, recipients.