A student loan lender has filed a lawsuit to keep certain documents from being released to The Des Moines Register.
Iowa Student Loan Liquidity Corp. filed the lawsuit Thursday seeking to keep the documents, which are in the state's possession, from being made public.
The Register requested the records as part of its examination of Iowa Student Loan, a nonprofit corporation created by the state nearly 30 years ago and is now one of the largest student loan lenders in Iowa.
The newspaper filed a request under the state's open records law with the Iowa Board of Regents. It wants certain e-mails of former regents executive Greg Nichols while he was a member of Iowa Student Loan's board of directors.
Assistant Attorney General Diane Stahle, who represents the regents, met with officials from Iowa Student Loan to discuss the Register's request.
"We told Iowa Student Loan that the Board of Regents was prepared to release the documents because the Board of Regents believed they were, in fact, public records," she said.
The regents provided the newspaper with about 700 pages of documents Wednesday, but gave Iowa Student Loan an extra day to decide whether it wanted to release an additional 150 pages.
Steve McCullough, Iowa Student Loan's chief executive, said the corporation had "very little time to review these documents and believe it's in the best interest of our stakeholders, borrowers and employees for us to seek additional time to review the documents and consult the court."
He said attorneys for Iowa Student Loan have indicated that the additional information is not subject to the state's open records laws.
"We believe inappropriate exposure of certain personnel issues and competitive business strategies would be damaging to the corporation and our employees," he said.Labels: financial aid, student loans, study abroad |
