Columbia's financial aid director gets busted

Colleges and Universities A-Z Columbia University
1

<p>Columbia's financial aid director, David Charlow, has been suspended after it was revealed that he made over $100,000 on shares he owned in a student loan company. Student Loan Xpress, which sold Charlow the shares in 2003, became a "preferred lender" at Columbia in 2005 and now handles over 39 percent of federal loan volume there, nearly three times as much as their nearest rival.</p>

<p>Financial aid officers at the Universities of Texas and Southern California had smaller holdings in the company.</p>

<p>Stories in this morning's New York Times
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/education/05loans.html?hp%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/education/05loans.html?hp&lt;/a>
and Columbia Spectator
<a href="http://media.www.columbiaspectator.com/media/storage/paper865/news/2007/04/05/News/Director.Of.Financial.Aid.Suspended-2825218.shtml%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://media.www.columbiaspectator.com/media/storage/paper865/news/2007/04/05/News/Director.Of.Financial.Aid.Suspended-2825218.shtml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

2

<p>Ouch. Maybe I'll be getting some of my loans changed into grants now?</p>

3

<p>What a loser.</p>