And possibly busted. Last time the New York attorney general paid Fair Alma a visit, he forced (or perhaps guilted) us into paying a $1.1 million fine for the school’s less-than-scrupulous preferred lending practices—a paltry sum, considering the untold millions David Charlow and Student Loan Xpress made through their pathetically transparent price-fixing scheme. Expect no similar comeuppance this time around. Lucky for Low Library, the AG’s accusations are subjective, and, from the looks of it, based on a pretty questionable premise: that there’s a core similarity between the loans debacle and the alleged rigging of study abroad options. From the article:
“The goal ultimately is to develop a code of conduct that would govern the programs and the ties between colleges and study abroad providers, similar to the code of conduct Mr. Cuomo’s office developed that governs relationships between colleges and lenders, the lawyer said.”
In a post-Ahmadinejad world, it would be reasonable to view this as an overzealous AG attempting to reign in out-of-control private universities with whatever legal and rhetorical means possible. But that’s giving him too much credit: with so many study abroad options, it would be close to impossible for a school as large as Columbia to point students in a single, financially advantageous direction. While this might not be the case at say, Hobart and William Smith, I’ve a sneaking suspicion that Cuomo name-dropped Columbia in an attempt to, as they say, keep us honest–yet another chapter in the uneasy give-and-take between Morningside and Albany.