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The other shoe in Columbia’s financial aid boondoggle dropped in Bwog’s inbox this morning: a few weeks after jettisoning former Dean David Charlow, the University has recieved its comeuppance from New York State, which threw the book at us harder than any other school. “We believe Columbia’s employee was acting illegally,” said Attorney General Andrew “Enforcer” Cuomo. “A corporation must police its employees.” As such, Columbia will pay up a cool $1.1 million, and sign the College Loan Code of Conduct–but only because they wanted to, not because they had to. Or at least that’s how Low Library is framing it.
“Columbia University does not admit, and expressly denies, that it has violated any law in connection with its student loan practices,” read the statement from Public Affairs director Robert Hornsby. “Columbia is not paying a fine or making any restitution as part of the settlement, but will contribute $1,125,000 to the Attorney General’s national fund for educating and assisting students and their parents about the financial aid process.”
One tipster opines: “You know that somehow the increased oversight is going to result in more paperwork for students. Thats what happens everytime Columbia gets busted for poor oversight- they pass the new ‘rules’ on.”
Spec got to the story first, while Bwog was having technical difficulties. Look for more backstory from them imminently. UPDATE, 2:15 EST: Sexy details in expanded article!
– LBD
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@Spec-o The Spectator needs to shit-can those stupid fucking Citibank cartoon commercials ASAP
@well... Think about it. If Columbia admits that their employee acted illegally, then they could be held responsible. Students would be able to argue that they did not have full disclosure from the school at the time they were advised about their student loans and Columbia would find itself handing over a lot of cash to cover the questionable loans. $1.1 million is pennies compared to the landslide of cash that would have followed an admission of guilt from the school.
@Dismayed So here we are over a year after Dean Charlow was canned. Banks are defaulting. Student loan rates are up over a point. Columbia is attempting to steal property through eminent domain.
Whatever Dean Charlow did I don’t think he was the problem. The fact that he was a star employee and then fired on page one of the Times should make anyone fear working for this school
@Summer Lovin' When you’re as cynical and snarky as BWOG editors, you get seasonal disorders in the summer.
@watcher Is it just me or are the summer bwog editors more bitter than the normal ones?
@sym I kind of like bitter…
@Lydia Just FYI: although we’ve brought on a few more editors, summer Bwog has mostly the same staff as school year Bwog, so any bitterness is probably due to mood swings, or something.
@Bitter Bwog They’re still taking the Fox speech success pretty badly.
@Oh boy! Good thing, because I was actually thinking to myself, as I was filling out paperwork for financial aid, “Gee, Columbia, this is starting to get real easy. You better step it up and complicate things a bit more; you know how much I love my red-tape bureaucracy.” My prayers, they have been answered!
@dude Isn’t lots of paperwork and grants still a whole hell of a lot better than some paperwork and loans?
@help I know I’m an inferior human being for using ie7, the most popular browser in existence, but could someone please fix the bwog code so the menu bar doesn’t cover everything written? thanks.