New York ‘SLATE Act’ Signed Into Law, Includes Repercussions For NASFAA Volunteers

Abstract:

Yesterday New York Governor Eliot Spitzer signed the Student Lending Accountability, Transparency and Enforcement (SLATE) Act of 2007, which was passed unanimously earlier this month by the New York legislature at the request of New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. This is the first state legislation that has been signed into law to “protect students and their families from abuses and conflicts of interest in the student loan industry,” according to a statement released by Spitzer. The SLATE Act closely mirrors the code of conduct that 24 schools and five lenders have already agreed to abide by in response to the attorney general’s recent investigations into the relationships between financial aid administrators and student loan providers. Of particular concern to student aid administrators is a provision that would ban college and university employees from receiving any reimbursement from serving on NASFAA’s board of directors or any of NASFAA’s committees.

Originally published in NASFAA’s Today’s News on 5/31/07.