2008 Woodie Awards
MU says university not involved in student loan kickback scandal
Megan Milstead
Issue date: 4/24/07 Section: Campus
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After an investigation by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo revealed in February 2007 that loan institutions were offering financial kickbacks and other rewards to universities that recommended their services to students, Dann decided to launch his own investigation.
Brian Laliberte, deputy first assistant for Dann, said that when they looked at their own constituent services office, many complaints had been filed.
"We had 30 to 40 student complaints that had come in and we're in the process of reviewing those," Laliberte said. "That number could be high or low but I think that's in the ballpark. That's when we knew we ought to really take a serious look at lending in the state of Ohio."
Dann informed colleges and lenders in Ohio of his intentions in an April 13 letter, which requested that schools and lenders preserve documents that the attorney general's office may view
as evidence.
Laliberte said that letters were sent to all public colleges and universities in Ohio Monday and that letters will be mailed out to private colleges and universities in the state Tuesday.
"Our document request to the lenders was very specific but it was lengthy," Laliberte said. "We asked more than 20 questions of the lenders and anticipate volumes and literally boxes of information coming in."
Though they have not publicly admitted any wrongdoing, Citibank and Sallie Mae, two well-known lending companies, have been the first to sign off on codes of conduct and pay penalties to various attorney generals. Laliberte calls their behavior suspect.
"It's difficult to understand why they would be paying penalties if they've done nothing wrong," Laliberte said. "They are multibillion dollar companies and they have all the resources in the world at their disposal to litigate."
Miami University recommends Citibank to its students, as well as Wells Fargo, Chase Bank, and Key Bank.
According to Charles Knepfle, assistant provost and director of student financial assistance, Miami has not broken the law or any code of ethics in relation to this issue.
"We stay away from everything like that," Knepfle said. "We've had our office looked at by Miami's internal auditor and Miami's legal counsel and they've given us a clean bill. It's a real high priority for me to stay away from anything that could be viewed
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