Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

Loan company removed from Columbia U. preferred lender list
By Jacob Schneider
Columbia Daily Spectator (Columbia U.)
04/06/2007

(U-WIRE) NEW YORK — A student loan company with connections to suspended Executive Director of Undergraduate Financial Aid David Charlow has been removed from Columbia University's list of preferred lenders.

The news was announced in an e-mail sent to undergraduates within Columbia College and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and their families Thursday afternoon from Columbia College Dean Austin Quigley and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Dean Zvi Galil.

Charlow held stock in Student Loan Xpress, the suspended company, from 2002 to 2005. During this time, he directed students to take loans from the company, constituting a possible violation of Columbia policy.

Columbia has placed Charlow on paid leave pending an internal investigation as well as one by the state of New York. Financial aid advisers at the University of Southern California and the University of Texas were also implicated in the allegations.

In the e-mail, Quigley and Galil sought to reassure students that Columbia is taking the matter seriously.

"While we have not confirmed all of the details, the case here appears to involve a single official who may have violated our policies, and we believe that this has had no adverse financial consequences for students and their families," the e-mail said.

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