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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (March 28, 1995)
SCHOOLS Continued from Page 1 I tu> session "politically charged.” ’‘volatile" and ''poten tially intimidating." Nadler denies he was exerting undue pressure "This was a constituency problem, and I was try ing to gel a bureaucracy to interpret their rules reasonably." he said He had no leverage oyer the depart ment's budget, and made no threats, Nadler said, although he acknowledged being forceful "What in New York is regard ed .is mild discourse, here is regarded as heavy pressure Mayt>e it's cultural,' he joked Ultimately, the takeover bid failed and the media school folded. David l.onganei ker. the department assistant secretary who oversees student aid, said he sees the pressure ns part of the normal give-and-take between the department and Congress Most of it is "wholly appropriate," he said, although he acknowledged it can feel threatening to enfon emend per sonnol. lie said only once during his two-year tenure has he felt truly uncomfortable ys ith .1 reipiest from a member of Congress, "where a person suggested retri bution. 1 thought the overture from the congress person was out of line There yv.is clearly .1 sort of quid pro quo suggested." Other recent cases demon strate just how much pressure lawmakers can apply on the {education Department when it comes to enforcement of finan cial aid rules For instance — Former Rep. Donald I.ukens, R-Ohio. was indicted last month on charges he at copi ed bribes in return for interned ing with the Kducation Depart ment on behalf of a Cincinnati based chain of trade* *<hoot* The indictment charges In* e:on (acted the department to in*Ip keep student loan and Pell grant money flowing to the si hoot*, despite their failure to meet department requirement* 1.ukens has pleaded innnt ent A main focus of the mo t hearings was millions of dollars that had flowed to certain ortho dox Jewish schools in and around New York City for inelt gihle programs or students When the department began to investigate by visiting some of the aid rw ipients at home. Sens Alfonse D'Amato, K N Y Darnel Patrick Movnihan. D N Y , Joseph Ueberman. If Conn , and Arlen Specter. R Pa . wrote Kducation Set ret ary Richard Rilev asking him to hat k off. Kilev refused, saying the interviews had uncovered "serious violations " Officials of some of the schools had made ■ .imp ugn < ontrihutions to New York lawmakers — for years. Sen. Carl I.evin, I) Mu h.. has defended Jordan College in his home state from a cutoff of student aid despite its high loan default rates Depart ment officials say default rates are their best tool for policing whether student aid dollars are well spent l evin argues that the school serves mostlv poor and minority students, and shouldn't he penalized for edu cating the disadvantaged The department now savs it will ter minute Jordan's aid eligibilitv March When asked by senators tit the October 1't‘K) hearing about con gressional pressure, Kducation Department officials made no reference to the Nadler meeting though it had occurred just a few months earlier JJ Wiu.it in Vr» )i>rk is regarded ns mild discourse, here is recorded m heavy pres urn \fayhe it's i ultur ill - JERROLD NAOLER House R«tyes*olabv« 0 NY They also failed to product* Sedicum's memo under a Kiw dom of Information Act request mad** 15 months ago It finally was obtained from n source out side the department But lam gam*. ker did address the problem when asked at the hearing whether Congress was to blame for rampant abuses of Fell grant and loan money "Every congress person I have talked to wants us to manage this program more tightly." Lon* garter ker replied "On the other hand, wheat It i prana down to an institution that happens to be in their general jurisdiction, it is a different story To observers, the problems enfon tug student financial aid rules are emblematic of Con gress' broader difficulty in disi i plining spending particularly when every dollar is spent in some lawmaker's state or di.x trie! "Constituent service is not an uunused blessing." said Dennis Thompson, a political ethics professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government "By pay ing attention to partic ular cases, they may distort the general polu y It does turn into another form of pork-barrel pol itii s Too often, they don't examine the merits of a con stituent’s complaint Off-Campus Students Get to Know Us — y(v4<r Before you Need Us. Student Health Center x4441 Ever wonder why dogs attack mailmen.7 • it % Ktv aum tivry virUvrt BO ■' AmrtK 4it» c.h n yrat. ,m*l t< « * niitit;. 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