Quick Takes: Sallie Mae Eyes Private Loan Growth, More Scrutiny of Pharmaceutical Ties, Another Student Paper in Trouble, Doctorates That Aren't Doctorates, Concerns on 9/11 Scholarships, Caucus for Black Colleges, Law Profs' Campaign Contributions

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Sallie Mae, frustrated by profit margins it considers too low on federal loan programs, wants to make $10 billion in private loans over the next 16 months, Bloomberg reported. The wire service quoted Albert Lord, Sallie Mae's CEO, as predicting more loans with co-signers. "What we see with these students is an empty credit file, not a weak credit file,'' Lord said at an investors' conference. "We like these students' long-term credit potential. These borrowers have already achieved in their lifetime -- they have a degree and they have co-signers."
Sen. Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, is stepping up his investigation of ties between the pharmaceutical industry and academic researchers who receive federal grants. The Wall Street Journal reported that the Senate Finance Committee, on which Grassley is the ranking Republican, has now requested information from 20 universities, and that Grassley is urging the National Institutes of Health to halt grants to universities that don't comply with existing requirements about reporting researchers' ties to companies that could be affected by their findings.
Another student newspaper is in serious financial trouble. The Missourian -- the pride of the University of Missouri at Columbia's journalism school -- has lost more than $1 million in each of the last two years, prompting university officials to demand a new business model, the Associated Press reported. The news from Missouri follows major cutbacks at such prominent student papers as The Daily Californian and The Daily Orange.
New Jersey's commissioner of higher education has ordered two current administrators and one retired administrator of a school district to stop calling themselves doctors because they obtained their alleged doctorates from an institution that was declared to be an apparent diploma mill and couldn't renew its operating license in Alabama, The Tri-Town News reported. The newspaper also said that the school district had paid tuition for the degrees, which had earned the administrators raises.
Bill Clinton, who helped a scholarship fund for the children and spouses of 9/11 victims raise millions of dollars, is among those concerned about complaints that the fund is not giving out enough money, the Associated Press reported. The Families of Freedom Scholarship Fund raised more than $128 million, the AP said, but some recipients are surprised by small grants and bureaucratic hurdles. Fund officials acknowledged the complaints but said that they were working hard to distribute the funds.
A new caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives will work on behalf of historically black colleges, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson announced Wednesday at a breakfast organized by the United Negro College Fund. Johnson, a Texas Democrat, praised the role of black colleges as the pathway into higher education for many first-generation and low-income college students. Many of these institutions, she acknowledged, face fiscal challenges and require more federal aid. "I don't know any of them that are so financially stable that they can predict what's going to happen after next year," she said. The co-founders of the new caucus include Johnson; Rep. James Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat and House majority whip; and Rep. John Duncan, a Tennessee Republican.
TaxProf Blog is running an analysis of the political parties receiving the most financial support from professors at top law schools. Of the law schools examined, only Northwestern University's leaned Republican. Of course, one party's candidate for president has taught law, and so perhaps has an edge with this portion of the electorate.