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Published on: 6/17/2007
Last Visited: 6/17/2007
The next fall, another company that provides student loans, Massachusetts-based Citizens Financial Group, flew college financial aid directors, including Jeff Daniels of the University of Dayton, to an elaborate stay in Philadelphia.
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The purpose of these trips, according to a statement from Citizens Financial, which spent $43,000 on the one to Philadelphia, was so Daniels and colleagues could give advice on developing the best loans and services for students.But the student loan company didn't stop there.
It followed up the next year by sending Daniels to Disney World, where he and colleagues on an "Education Finance Advisory Board" could choose to golf, go to the area's theme parks and, the records show, end the trip with dinner at Emeril's Orlando.
And eight months later, Daniels was off to Portland, Maine, where Citizens again picked up the tab for college aid directors to give advice, according to the records.
The directors went to a spa, dined on seafood and drank Absolut vodka and Jack Daniel's whiskey at the Portland Harbor Hotel.
Citizens, Chase (a division of J.P. Morgan Chase), other lenders and universities contacted for this article insisted through interviews or statements that the travel, tickets and various other gifts and financial contributions were proper, though some have ended these practices amid recent scrutiny.
Calls to Daniels were referred to John Hart, the University of Dayton's general counsel.