CIT Group said yesterday that the president of its Student Loan Xpress unit, which has been the focus of investigations into allegations of influence peddling in the $85 billion-a-year college-loan industry, has left the company.
The executive, Fabrizio Balestri, had been placed on leave in April and is “no longer with the company,” said Curt Ritter, [...]

A federal grant worth $810,000 will support construction costs for a new Transportation Technology Center on the campus of Davidson County Community College.
The grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce will fund about half the anticipated costs of constructing the new single-story, 9,100-square-foot building. The college will provide the balance of the needed money. [...]

Despite a growing number of options to finance a college education, students and parents are increasingly turning to loans.
Not only are students borrowing more money, but more of them are borrowing, according to data compiled by Nebraska’s Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education.
The news doesn’t sit well with Carna Pfeil, the commission’s associate director, who is [...]

University of Wisconsin campuses would be barred from accepting payments from student loan companies in exchange for recommending them to borrowers under a proposal that will be considered for approval this week.
The policy aims to reassure the UW System’s students, who took out a record $592.7 million in loans last year, that campus administrators are [...]

The race for the brawniest and brainiest is on.
Ontario universities — the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier among them — are breaking new ground in their efforts to attract top-rated student athletes. Come September, for the first time ever, they will offer athletic scholarships of up to $3,500 to qualified freshmen.
Currently, such scholarships are [...]

In the most unified effort yet by colleges to reform student-loan practices, the national trade group for financial aid officers has agreed to a far-reaching code of conduct that encourages school officials to reject cash and gifts from lenders.
Also Thursday, Columbia University agreed to abide by a similar code of conduct and to pay more [...]

The federal Education Department, criticized for lax oversight of student loans, released proposed rules on Friday that would set new standards for universities and ban lenders’ marketing practices that have resulted, in some cases, in loan company payoffs to university officials.
The 225-page package of rules represents a change in direction by the department, which for [...]

The Bush administration, fending off criticism that it has failed to provide adequate oversight to the student loan industry, proposed regulations yesterday that would prohibit lenders from showering universities with gifts to drum up business.
The rules, announced by the Education Department, amount to the administration’s strongest response so far to a nationwide investigation of the [...]

The federal Education Department, criticized for lax oversight of student loans, released proposed rules on Friday that would set new standards for universities and ban lenders’ marketing practices that have resulted, in some cases, in loan company payoffs to university officials.
The 225-page package of rules represents a change in direction by the department, which for [...]

The U.S. Education Department has proposed new rules to police the $85 billion student loan industry, it was reported Saturday.
An inspector general, Democratic lawmakers and even some loan-industry officials have criticized the Education Department for lax oversight of student loans.
Under new rules proposed Friday, universities would have to include at least three loan companies on [...]