Financial Aid Official at Hopkins Resigns

May 22, 2007 - 5:39am

BALTIMORE (AP) - A financial aid official at Johns Hopkins University resigned and Columbia University announced it had dismissed an aid official, both snared in a probe by the New York Attorney General's office, which said Monday that the two appeared to be working more for a loan provider than their universities.

Ellen Frishberg, the director of student financial services at Johns Hopkins University resigned after being placed on leave by the school over ties to a student loan company that paid her consulting fees and helped pay her graduate school tuition, the university announced.

Frishberg had been on paid administrative leave since April 9, the day Hopkins learned that CIT Group Inc., the parent company of Student Loan Xpress Inc. paid her $65,000 in fees and tuition payments. Her resignation is effective immediately, the university announced.

Columbia University, meanwhile, announced it had dismissed David Charlow, an associate dean of student affairs who had previously been suspended because of his ties to the loan company.

The transactions involving Frishberg were uncovered as part of an investigation by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and took place between 2002 and 2006. During those years, SLX was included on lists of preferred lenders that Frishberg's office distributed. Columbia University said it was cooperating with Cuomo's office in the investigation.

Cuomo issued a statement saying "David Charlow and Ellen Frishberg had relationships with Student Loan Xpress that were, to say the least, filled with conflicts of interest. While our investigation has uncovered many dirty secrets of the college loan industry, the stock and money that Student Loan Xpress funneled to Charlow and Frishberg were among the most flagrant.

"At times, it seems that Charlow and Frishberg were working more for Student Loan Xpress than for their universities," the statement said. "Students and their parents expect and deserve financial aid officers who work for them, not for lending companies."

Johns Hopkins said its investigation did not find any evidence that any student or parent borrower was harmed financially because of any arrangement between Frishberg and a lender.

Frishberg had been the head of student financial services since 1989, directing financial aid matters for full-time undergraduate and graduate students in the university's schools of arts and sciences and engineering.

The investigation found that she did not submit written reports disclosing the SLX consulting or tuition payments, according to the university. Failing to disclose that relationship and accepting the tuition payments "was inconsistent with the university's ethics and conflict of interest policies," the university said.

The university also found Frishberg worked as a consultant 2002 with another lender, American Express, at a time when her office recommended American Express as a lender. Based on the evidence the university reviewed, it said Frishberg didn't disclose that relationship "in a manner consistent with the university's conflict of interest policy."

Since April 9, the university has adopted a code of conduct proposed by Cuomo to govern the relationship between universities and student loan companies. The university has also cooperated with Cuomo's investigation and with that of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.

Hopkins has canceled all lists of suggested lenders compiled for students and their families by Frishberg's office and by six other financial aid offices around the university. It will not resume issuing such lists until "there is a national consensus on standards for lists that are free of conflict of interest and serve the best interests of students," the university said.

Columbia University issued a statement saying the university has been working to provide Cuomo's office with documents and materials related to Charlow's position as head of financial aid for the undergraduate Columbia College and the university's School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Columbia University, meanwhile, announced it had dismissed David Charlow, an associate dean of student affairs who had previously been suspended because of his ties to the loan company.

Johns Hopkins said its investigation did not find any evidence that any student or parent borrower was harmed financially because of any arrangement between Frishberg and a lender.