Miami Student

Issue date: 8/21/07 Section: Editorials

The disclosure of a financial arrangement between the Miami University alumni association and Nelnet, a college loan consolidation company, is deeply troubling for all current Miami students and recent graduates. The deal brokered between the alumni associaton and Nelnet dictated that the alumni association would receive $25,000 a year plus $100 per student that signed up for Nelnet's services.

Despite assurances from the Miami alumni association that they partnered up with Nelnet to offer helpful financial resources for recent graduates, the blatant reality is that the supposed partnership was designed primarily to profit off Miami graduates who trusted the resources being provided by the alumni association. Miami University and its alumni association can and should do much better. Rather than devise schemes to profit off cash-strapped college graduates, the alumni association should provide a variety of resources that help recent Miami graduates make informed and wise financial decisions concerning their college loans. The fact that Nelnet was the only loan consolidation listed on the Web site is unsettling for Miami students and graduates.

While it is very commendable that Miami came forward with the loan partnership, it is still concerning that Miami does not view the partnership as a potential conflict of interest. The presentation of Nelnet's loan services is disingenuous in that it was presented as an objective resource but in reality it was an advertisement that the alumni association profited from handsomely.

Another troubling aspect in the rationale provided by Miami is the implied division between Miami University and the alumni association. Portraying the two as separate and independent entities is simply a conveinance. The alumni association and Miami's Office of Development are figuratively attached at the hip - even working out of the same office. And when Miami students graduate, their last link to Miami will be the alumni association. Attempting to treat the alumni association as separate from Miami does not excuse this partnership nor excuse Miami from culpability in allowing this relationship to continue since 2003.

While no specific laws were violated by this financial arrangement between the alumni association and Nelnet, the alumni association certainly has violated the trust and confidence placed in it by Miami students and graduates. Miami and the alumni association should strive for an image of objectivity and resourcefulness-not filtered access sold to the highest bidder. Hopefully the alumni association will realize that these arrangements are disingenuous and will stop marketing resources that they benefit from financially.

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