CAMPUS/AREA
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Tuesday, March 28, 1995
3A
Schools commit financial aid fraud with senators' help
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON—At 1993 hearings on student financial aid fraud, senators wondered why the Education Department had failed to crack down on ineligible schools that continued to receive millions of federal dollars.
Part of the answer was right under their noses.
Interviews and government documents show that members of Congress themselves often make it hard for the department to enforce the rules on home-state schools. Losses to defaulted loans and wasted grants run into the bill.
lions of dollars each year
A stark example had come a few months before the hearings when Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D.N.Y., called department officials to a meeting on Capitol Hill.
The purpose was to lobby the department to unconditionally approve Mercy College's proposed takeover of the bankrupt Center for Media Arts in New York.
Other recent cases demonstrate the pressure lawmakers can apply on the Education Department when it comes to enforcement of financial aid rules. For instance:
Every congressperson I have talked to wants us to manage this program more tightly.
— Former Rep. Donald Lukens, R-Ohio, was indicted last month on charges he accepted bribes in return for interceding with the Education Department on behalf of a Cincinnati-based chain of trade schools. The indictment charges he contacted the department to help keep student loan and Pell grant money flowing to the schools, despite their failure to meet department require-
The college wanted to use CMA as a satellite campus but wished to avoid having to repay $000,000 in federal tuition refunds due CMA's students. The department was insisting the students — and the taxpayers — be protected as a condition of the takeover.
David Longanockerr Education Department assistant secretary
"The amount of political pressure exerted against the department was truly extraordinary in this case," department official Diane Seducum wrote in a memo a few days after the April 28, 1993 meeting. She called the session politically charged and potentially intimidating.
in the Rayburn Room, just a few steps from the House floor, Nadler, Rep. Ben Gilman, R-N.Y., and six aides to other New York lawmakers lectured the bureaucrats for nearly four hours, not letting them go until 8:15 p.m., according to a written summary of the meeting.
Nadler denies he was exerting undue pressure.
Ultimately, the takeover bid failed and the media school folded.
"This was a constituency problem, and I was trying to get a bureaucracy to interpret their rules reasonably," he said.
David Longanecker, the department assistant secretary who oversees student aid, said he saw the pressure as part of the normal give-and-take between the department and Congress. Most of it is appropriate, he said, although he acknowledged it can feel threatening to enforcement personnel.
ments. Lakens has pleaded innocent.
— A main focus of the 1993 hearings was millions of dollars that had flowed to certain orthodox Jewish schools in and around New York City for ineligible programs or students. When the department investigated by visiting some of the aid recipients at home, Sens. Alfinse D'Amatou, R-
N. Y., Daniel Patrick Moynihan, N.J., Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn, and Arlen Specter, R-Pa., wrote Education Secretary Richard Riley asking him to back off. Riley refused, saying the interviews had uncovered serious violations.
— For years, Sen Carl Levin, D-Mich., has defended Jordan College in his home state from a cutoff of student aid despite its high loan default rates. Department officials said default rates were their best tool for policing whether student aid dollars are well spent. The department said it would terminate Jordan's aid eligibility March 28.
When asked by senators at the October 1993 hearing about congressional pressure, Education Department officials made no reference to the Nadler meeting, which occurred a few months earlier.
They also didn't produce Sedicum's memo under a Freedom of Information Act request made 15 months ago. It finally was obtained from a source outside the department.
But Longanecker did address the problem when asked at the hearing whether Congress was to blame for rampant abuses of Pell grant and loan money.
"Every congressperson I have talked to wants us to manage this program more tightly," Longancker replied. "On the other hand, when it comes down to an institution that happens to be in their general jurisdiction, it is a different story."
Campaign causes chaotic living
Peaceful lifestyle will soon return
By Ian Ritter
Kansan staff writer
"The number of times I've answered the phone per day has increased from three to 30," Livingston said. "The number of residents has increased from three to
But it wasn't always that way at the Wichita junior's house. Livingston's roommate, David Stevens, Wichita junior, is running for student body president with the REAL coalition.
At Jeff Livingston's house the phone doesn't stop ringing, and a flow of people constantly come and go.
30 as well."
He said that members of the coalition were always hanging around his house, and he sometimes comes home to his bed and finds an unexpected person occupying it.
"You get used to it after a while," he said. "I'm a pretty easy-going guy, so I don't mind it too much."
But the commotion hasn't made Livingston completely crazy.
Livingston knows that the added commotion is only temporary. Student Senate elections are April 12 and 13.
Apparently, Livingston doesn't mind it as much as his other roommate, Bob Asher, Kansas City, Mo., junior.
"He is a little more concerned," Livingston said about how Asher deals with the situation.
Livingston said that Asher usually ends up dealing with his living arrangements well, but occasionally rants, raves and gives the cold shoulder.
As far as working on the REAL campaign, Livingston is obligated. He's running for a Liberal Arts and Sciences senator seat with the coalition.
Life at Kim Cocks' apartment isn't quite as tense.
Cocks, Lee's Summit, Mo., senior, who is running for student body president with the United Students coalition, got her own phone line
for the campaign.
Deborah Hammer, Overland Park junior and a roommate of Cocks, said that even though they still occasionally spent time together, Cocks was very busy.
"She's not home often," Hammer said.
Hammer and Cocks' other roommate.
Maureen Wener, Vernon Hills, Ill., junior, said that they were excited to have a roommate running for student body president.
"We know she's really excited about it, and we support her," Hammer said. "We're there for her."
Wener said that she attended all of the United Students coalition meetings.
"I're really into politics," she said. "it's neat to watch Kim run for student body president."
Browsing for bracelets
Carrie Greenwood, Chesterfield, Mo., junior, eyes the bracelets being sold in front of Wescoe Hall. Jewelry and small statues will be sold the rest of the week.
Kathleen Driscoll / KANSAN
Continued from Page 1A
LEVINE: The fight continues
ordinance as well as creating more parks and recreational areas in west Lawrence.
with Levine and said that the high finishes of candidates in opposition to the ordinance
did not reflect widespread community opposition to the change. Those against it merely got out and voted, he said.
Levine also has proposed ensuring that industries brought to the area provide health care and other benefits for their employees
"What was clear from the election is the groups in town who are stridently opposed to adding the words "sexual orientation" to the ordinance got their
supposed to protect their citizens."
Allen Levine candidate for city commission
The theme of Levine's campaign has been to maintain the quality of life in Lawrence. He said he hopes to do that through expanding protection under the human relations
people out to vote." Doden said.
so the local health care system would not be swamped with low-income patients.
Doden said he would vote for Levine because he had reasonable positions on issues facing the city.
He wants to ask the right kinds of questions," Doden said. "I think in a lot of aspects he is a true conservative. He wants to to keep Lawrence the same as it is, not turn it into some bedroom community for Johnson county."
"He wants to ask
ALLEN LEVINE
The following will be Levine's top three priorities if he is elected to the city commission.
- Improving the city's infrastructure by replacing bad sewers in older neighborhoods and building more sidewalks.
Maintain city ownership of Lawrence Memorial Hospital
Create green space in the city through the addition of more parks and other recreation areas.
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