Iowa Student Loan Liquidity Corporation, a nonprofit organization many students acquire private loans from, has recently been called into question by the governor and the public on a number of matters.

This scrutiny has come at a time when other student loan companies have been questioned on a national level concerning questionable interactions with colleges.

Gov. Chet Culver recently wrote a letter to Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, asking him to address a number of issues before Culver appointed a board member to Iowa Student Loan, since it is usually the governor’s role to appoint board members for the corporation.

In his letter, Culver questioned whether the corporation has adequate government oversight, and whether it is appropriate that Iowa Student Loan is not subject to Iowa’s open meetings statutes.

Deputy Attorney General Julie Pottorff is assigned to gather information to answer Culver.

“We haven’t reached any conclusions yet,” Pottorff said as to her progress in addressing the issues the governor has raised.

Steve McCullough, executive officer of the corporation, said since Iowa Student Loan is a private corporation, it is not required to follow open meetings statutes, especially since the corporation faces competition from other student loan companies and therefore must keep some information confidential.

However, McCullough said, it is Iowa Student Loan’s policy to be as open as possible with the public regarding most of its procedures.

One of the issues recently brought to light regarding the corporation has been its policy of reimbursing college financial aid offices, which could possibly encourage financial aid employees to steer students toward Iowa Student Loan when there are other private loan companies available.

Iowa State participated in this reimbursement program in the past, said Roberta Johnson, director of student financial aid at Iowa State.

The program is called Partners for Success, and it was created to help financial aid offices with the extra costs accrued by helping connect students to private loans. Iowa State ceased involvement with the program in 2005.

McCullough said the program requires colleges to apply and specify administrative costs for giving students private loans.

The amount of the reimbursements has not been significant enough to affect fees or interest rates for students, he said.

Johnson said Iowa State chose to stop taking reimbursements from Iowa Student Loan because other loan companies don’t offer them.

“We felt that if we were opening the arena for students to borrow from any student loan provider, that it was not appropriate to participate in the Partners for Success program,” Johnson said.

She said the student financial aid office includes a list of nine separate loan providers on its Web site for students to choose from – a list that is not all-inclusive, but one that contains the major players in the student loan business, in order to ensure that students have the ability to choose the loan provider that works best for them.

McCullough said his corporation has recently taken some steps to evaluate their reimbursement program, in light of the public scrutiny they have faced regarding this matter.

“We polled the schools to find out if any of them would be applying for reimbursements in the future,” he said.

McCullough also said the corporation will be holding a meeting Tuesday where it will address whether it is in its best interest to continue the reimbursement program as it is currently run.