Silly Undergrads, Financial Aid is for Bribery

Recently appointed NYU trustee for life Catherine Reynolds (among the first recipients of whose new $50k fellowship was Bryan Levine, architect of the GAC company union proposal, which ultimately led to the House of Delegates, on which i sit) runs a student loan company which has been charging students extraordinarily inflated interest rates.

A loan company led by NYU trustee Catherine B. Reynolds is being accused of overcharging students and abusing its status as a nonprofit organization, according to the Washington Post.

On NYU's financial aid website, the company was included on a list of financial aid providers until WSN recently asked about the allegations.

The loan company goes by both EduCap and Loan to Learn, and is also closely linked to the foundation. The Internal Revenue Service is examining its business practices, the Post reported, which have made Reynolds rich enough to form the Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation and donate hundreds of millions of dollars to a laundry list of charitable organizations and universities.

But, according to the newspaper, the company was lending money to students with interest rates of up to 18 percent - well above the federal student loan cap of 8.5 percent.

Meanwhile at a "multicultural" forum with freshmen of color, John Sexton brags about how little financial aid NYU students receive.

Sexton responded that because NYU's endowment is only $2 billion, the existence of the university is based on tuition. However, he said that "one in five" get a Pell Grant, a federal loan for students from low-income families, and he praised students for their hard work in order to pay for the tuition.

"Half of our undergraduates work two jobs," Sexton said. "Five hundred undergrads work three jobs. That shows they really wanted an NYU education."

That says it all, doesn't it?