SHANNON KELLY
Editor-in-Chief
Following an internal review of student loan practices, the university released a “Financial Aid Statement of Ethical Principles and Code of Conduct” — part of Pepperdine’s response to a recently completed commissioned report intended to evaluate its financial aid procedures.
The report found that while some changes and improvements could be made it did not reveal “any material concerns about the integrity of the University’s student loan process,” according to a statement Provost Darryl Tippens sent to faculty and staff Tuesday.
“We constantly strive to meet our ethical expectations and place student needs at the center of the decision making process,” says a statement preceding more than 20 points for aid officers to follow for ethical conduct. It lists 13 codes of conduct and borrows additional “guiding principles” from the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.
The statement follows last spring’s national media attention surrounding New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s accusations of “questionable loan practices” by more than 100 colleges — a large group with which Pepperdine was cited by some media outlets such as CBS News.
Cuomo alleged that the schools were engaging in deceptive lending practices including receiving kickbacks from loan companies for placing them on the universities’ preferred lenders list.
“Upon reflection, we found that we can do things better,” Vice President for Advancement and Public Affairs Keith Hinkle said referring to the auditor’s “best practices” proposals cited in the report.
“Many of the suggestions are things our financial aid offices already follow,” Hinkle said. “But throughout the review, we went back and looked at some of the improvements we can still make.”
Hinkle says the administrations response to the report and the subsequent ethics statement for Pepperdine’s financial aid officers will lend improvements including more transparency regarding preferred lenders lists and better organization among the five schools’ aid offices.
Some of those improvements, he said, include designating a chief overseer for all university financial aid issues and implementing a more universal way for Pepperdine’s five financial aid offices to conduct more uniform practices. This role, Hinkle said, would likely be filled by somebody already on staff.
Hinkle says he looks forward to closing the book on the media-sparked attention surrounding Pepperdine’s loan practices, especially since the report found no serious indications of wrongdoing.
09-06-2007
