I was disturbed over the news story, “Audit finds faults at Chicago State” (Sept. 2).
The paper reported our past student-loan default rate as high, but failed to present the circumstances of the situation as given by university officials in the auditor general’s report. More importantly, the story failed to report the current rate of 17 percent, which is a 10 percent reduction over last year. This information was made available to your paper.
It is worth pointing out that Chicago State University administers in excess of $8 million in Title IV federal financial aid programs each year. Within the last year, controls were enhanced for the loan processing of 3,000 disbursements. A default prevention management office was created and all loan counseling requirements are being followed.
In addition to these measures, I have directed a task force to evaluate the financial aid office operations.
