My employer is involved in the campus financial aid scandal.
I think it all started when one of the lenders was complaining that they didn't have enough money to bribe the universities like another lender did, and so reporters started investigating the other lender. They found that several financial aid officers had accepted gifts from this company and had listed it as a preferred loan provider.
My employer was one of the first three universities discovered. I was surprised in three ways.
1) You are not supposed to use university resources in any way that helps for-profit companies. You can't even hold weight-watchers meetings on campus. So I was shocked that we even had a preferred provider list.
2) I always thought that you weren't allowed to accept gifts over $50. It turns out that you are not allowed to accept any gifts that look bad, even if they aren't influencing you in any way, and that you can assume that a gift that is under $50 doesn't look bad.
3) Our financial aid guy got basically $14,000 in stock profits, which sounded to me like a very cheap price for your character.
Today an amazing story came out in the school paper, "Gifts Were Factored into UT's Ranking of Preferred Lenders." It sounds like typical journalistic exaggeration.
No one is using the term "bribe," but that's what it sounds like to me. If you don't bribe the office, and sufficiently, especially if you're a small company, even if you offer zero-fee loans, you don't get to be on the list.
I'm wondering if the rank-and-file financial aid workers knew they were getting bribes. All I've known about them before is that they tend not to get merit raises because their area is too poor.
I am wondering how our president is going to respond. The head financial aid guy is currently getting a salary for doing nothing, the second in command is currently running the show, though he's not looking so great either. Currently the president is saying that he doesn't know anything and maybe is not allowed to:
Let's just say that currently I'm not too proud of my employer. Or of my credit union, which definitely contributed some restaurant dinners. They contribute to all kinds of causes, though; really I don't know what to think.
Later today when someone asked why something didn't work, and I figured out that
I created a new solution and got a "You rock!" email from the client followed by a comment from my boss that the e-mail was just stating the obvious, followed by another e-mail explaining how this plan didn't work either.
It turns out the rule has another limitation which even the programmer doesn't understand. I really don't like being so incredibly incompetent and went for another short walk, during most of which I was wanting to just quit. It's pay day, though, and I don't really know any better ways to get thousands of dollars, insurance, and retirement benefits in only a month, so I decided to stay.
Then I thought of another solution which involved splitting the requirement into two rules. This one worked (although I may find out differently tomorrow), but my client was disappointed she couldn't measure it in one rule.
At least we didn't have to resort to branching. That would have required many more rules and done an extremely poor job of showing the situation during the period when the student had only partly satisfied the requirement.
Then I also sat in on yet another meeting where people tell you that the way to move up in your career is to take on additional tasks and make it clear to the powers that be that you are doing so. I can't even do my current tasks without my head exploding.
I think it all started when one of the lenders was complaining that they didn't have enough money to bribe the universities like another lender did, and so reporters started investigating the other lender. They found that several financial aid officers had accepted gifts from this company and had listed it as a preferred loan provider.
My employer was one of the first three universities discovered. I was surprised in three ways.
1) You are not supposed to use university resources in any way that helps for-profit companies. You can't even hold weight-watchers meetings on campus. So I was shocked that we even had a preferred provider list.
2) I always thought that you weren't allowed to accept gifts over $50. It turns out that you are not allowed to accept any gifts that look bad, even if they aren't influencing you in any way, and that you can assume that a gift that is under $50 doesn't look bad.
3) Our financial aid guy got basically $14,000 in stock profits, which sounded to me like a very cheap price for your character.
Today an amazing story came out in the school paper, "Gifts Were Factored into UT's Ranking of Preferred Lenders." It sounds like typical journalistic exaggeration.
UT's lender-list analyses measure lenders by criteria that include loan volume, student customer service and whether they offer zero or reduced fees, according to the documents. One category titled, "OSFS visibility," is "based on the number of lunches, breakfasts and extracurricular functions for entire OSFS staff." Lenders are rated in this category as either poor, average, good or very good.But there are many memos and e-mails, copies of which are linked to from that article, which make a convincing case.
No one is using the term "bribe," but that's what it sounds like to me. If you don't bribe the office, and sufficiently, especially if you're a small company, even if you offer zero-fee loans, you don't get to be on the list.
I'm wondering if the rank-and-file financial aid workers knew they were getting bribes. All I've known about them before is that they tend not to get merit raises because their area is too poor.
I am wondering how our president is going to respond. The head financial aid guy is currently getting a salary for doing nothing, the second in command is currently running the show, though he's not looking so great either. Currently the president is saying that he doesn't know anything and maybe is not allowed to:
Powers said he wasn't sure if he would be able to view the documents at this point, because he is supposed to be the final judge in any potential disciplinary actions taken as a result of the investigation. Powers said he may have to wait until the UT System gathers and presents all the information to him.I trust that quote less than the previous one. Today's paper also had an editorial attacking his discretion, at best, in an unrelated matter.
Let's just say that currently I'm not too proud of my employer. Or of my credit union, which definitely contributed some restaurant dinners. They contribute to all kinds of causes, though; really I don't know what to think.
Later today when someone asked why something didn't work, and I figured out that
- it wasn't because the questioner was misinterpreting anything
- it wasn't due to the student not taking the right combination of courses
- it wasn't due to the missing course being used previously instead
- it wasn't due to the missing course having too low a grade or any other disqualifying factor
- it wasn't because the course was accidentally not included in the list of courses the program was looking for
I created a new solution and got a "You rock!" email from the client followed by a comment from my boss that the e-mail was just stating the obvious, followed by another e-mail explaining how this plan didn't work either.
It turns out the rule has another limitation which even the programmer doesn't understand. I really don't like being so incredibly incompetent and went for another short walk, during most of which I was wanting to just quit. It's pay day, though, and I don't really know any better ways to get thousands of dollars, insurance, and retirement benefits in only a month, so I decided to stay.
Then I thought of another solution which involved splitting the requirement into two rules. This one worked (although I may find out differently tomorrow), but my client was disappointed she couldn't measure it in one rule.
At least we didn't have to resort to branching. That would have required many more rules and done an extremely poor job of showing the situation during the period when the student had only partly satisfied the requirement.
Then I also sat in on yet another meeting where people tell you that the way to move up in your career is to take on additional tasks and make it clear to the powers that be that you are doing so. I can't even do my current tasks without my head exploding.