Student Aid Commission to Meet on Iowa Student Loan Changes

A vote on who should oversee Iowa Student Loan Liquidity Corp. could take place Wednesday.

The debate is over whether a state official should remain on Iowa Student Loan’s board of directors, and whether a state college aid agency should have authority over Iowa Student Loan’s future changes to its article of incorporation.

The state agency that must approve or disapprove these two issues, the Iowa College Student Aid Commission, is now scheduled to discuss the issues during a telephone conference call at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Iowa Student Loan is a nonprofit corporation whose actions have been criticized by state watchdogs for college students. The aid commission is a state agency.

Gov. Chet Culver agrees with Iowa Student Loan that an aid commission representative should no longer sit on the Iowa Student Loan board to avoid any possible conflicts of interest.

The state’s top ethics official, Charlie Smithson, agrees with the governor that the aid commission representative should be removed from Iowa Student Loan’s board.

It seems like an inherent conflict of interest to have a regulator on the board of a regulated entity,” Smithson, executive director of the Iowa Campaign Ethics & Disclosure Board, said today.

He added: “Please keep in mind that I am not commenting either way on whether or not ISL should be regulated or what role the student aid commission should play in that regulation.” He said he’s simply saying that having someone from the aid commission serving on the ISL board is a potential conflict of interest.

Source:
http://www.desmoinesregister.com