On Wednesday, the other shoe dropped in a growing investigation of colleges’ ties to the lenders they recommend to their students — and many experts on the loan programs were stunned by the developments.

Administrators at Columbia University, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Southern California were reported to have owned stock in a lender that they placed on their “preferred” list for students. Andrew M. Cuomo, New York State’s attorney general, sent a subpoena to Columbia Wednesday and letters to the other institutions, seeking details. The colleges involved are not disputing the stock ownership, which was reported in public filings.

“We are seeing more and more suspicious practices and dealings between university officers and loan companies come to light,” said a spokesman for Cuomo. “This creates even more questions about the integrity of the student loan industry and the process by which colleges steer students to loans...”

Wednesday’s revelations were triggered by an investigation by the New America Foundation, which has been critical of lender-college ties and which posted details and some of the relevant documents online. The foundation noted that the stock held by the three officials was apparently worth more than $100,000 when it was sold. The foundation also noted personal endorsements of the company made by Charlow to students. “Students going to their financial aid office think they’re getting advice from an impartial, informed intermediary. We’re finding that advice isn’t always impartial and it isn’t always fully informed,” said the foundation’s blog on higher education. (In the spirit of full disclosure, the foundation report was prepared by Stephen Burd, a former colleague of this writer...)

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