Emerson College fires dean with ties to lending company

Emerson College has fired its dean of enrollment, who earned $36,000 consulting for a company that the college was recommending to students to consolidate their loans.

Emerson was not aware that Daniel Pinch was being paid by Collegiate Funding Services Inc., or that he was allowing the company to use his name and the college's name in marketing materials, Emerson spokesman David Rosen said. .

Pinch also founded his own private loan company, which he apparently did not tell Emerson about until three years after it was incorporated, Rosen said. It is not clear if the company ever made loans.

Pinch is the first local financial aid administrator to lose a job under the microscope of several high-profile investigations by elected officials across the country, who say the relationship between the student loan industry and many colleges is corrupt.

Officials at other universities, including Johns Hopkins and the University of Texas at Austin, have also resigned or been fired for improper relationships with loan companies.

The relationship between Pinch and CFS came to light in a report released last week by the US Senate's health, education, labor, and pensions committee, chaired by Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts.

Pinch could not be reached this week, but he told the Globe last week that he did nothing wrong.

"I applaud Emerson College's swift action in response to my office's report," Kennedy said yesterday. "These steps demonstrate the college's dedication to students and their education."

Rosen declined to comment on the specific reasons Pinch was let go. He wrote a short e-mail to faculty and staff yesterday saying, "Emerson College has severed its relationship with former Dean of Enrollment Daniel Pinch."

Pinch told the Globe that CFS was not on Emerson's "preferred lender" list, as the Senate report indicated.

Rosen said that was a "semantic issue." Emerson recommended CFS to its students not for loans, but for loan consolidation.

Pinch worked for Emerson for over a decade. He had also put six of his seven children through college, he told the Globe last year.

The Senate report noted that CFS offered to invest $50,000 in Pinch's business, although it appears the deal was never executed.

Pinch's company was registered as Tuition Advantage, LLC, in Delaware in 2003; in 2005, its name was changed to T. Rose Lending ,LLC.

The T. Rose Lending website advertises a loan called the Tuition Lock Program, which allows parents to borrow four years of tuition while locking in tuition at its current level.

The loan was to be offered along with Student Loan Xpress , a much larger company, owned by CIT Group, that has been embroiled in the loan industry controversy for its financial ties to college and government officials. A college financial aid administrator and a Department of Education official owned stock in Student Loan Xpress's former parent company.

"Our partnership with Student Loan Xpress will enable us to provide a cost-saving incentive for families that are currently not eligible for need-based assistance," Pinch said in a press release on the T. Rose website.

As best as officials can determine, Emerson has never had a relationship with Student Loan Xpress, Rosen said.

Pinch last fall told David Ellis, vice president for administration and finance, that he had a loan company that had made no loans and done no business, according to Rosen.

Ellis told Pinch he could not do any business with Emerson students or entities associated with Emerson.

Emerson does not have a policy governing outside employment of college staff, but is working to create one, Rosen said.

Marcella Bombardieri can be reached at bombardieri@globe.com.