As university administrators nationwide continue to receive a hailstorm of criticism for their cushy connections with lending companies, Graduate School of Business (GSB) Dean Robert Joss told The Daily that his position on the board of directors at Wells Fargo does not create an inappropriate conflict of interest.

“I have no involvement in any issue of financial aid,” Joss said. “I don’t even know all that much about who’s involved.”

In a New York Times article earlier this month, Joss was one of three officials named as serving on the management board of a major lending firm in addition to holding a top administration role at a university.

Joss, who earned his MBA and Ph.D. from the University in 1967 and has been dean of the GSB since 1999, defended his position at Wells Fargo as ethical because he does not have any control over financial aid at the GSB or at the undergraduate level.

He also told The Daily that he maintains full disclosure with the University about all of his business relations and that administrators have not objected to this arrangement.

“They’re certainly aware that I am a board member and that I don’t have any involvement with financial aid or lending decisions,” Joss said.

He added that he was surprised that the connections between university administrators and student lenders had gotten so much attention in recent weeks.

“I mean, who would have thought that something like student loans would be so controversial,” Joss said. “I think it kind of shocked us all.”

The scandal erupted four weeks ago when New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo found that lenders had illegally bribed steering committee members at several universities and requested more information from several others — including the University of Southern California and New York’s Columbia University.

That inquiry led to investigations across the nation and has forced many schools to more closely evaluate their lending processes.

Students who request federal student loans are typically required to seek an outside private lender. To help students in this process, many universities designate as ‘preferred’ a small number of lenders; they then recommend these preferred lenders to students.

The GSB’s Financial Aid Office maintains a list of five recommended lenders, which it says are selected based on a set of criteria ranging from interest rates to customer service.

“The GSB has a competitive process for recommended lenders and Wells Fargo was not selected in the most recent round and has not been a recommended lender in the GSB program for at least six years,” Director of University Communications Alan Acosta said in an email to The Daily.

After a series of legal settlements and Congressional investigations into improper arrangements between several universities and student loan companies, The New York Times publicized Joss’ connections with Wells Fargo in an Apr. 14 article.

Robert Shireman, executive director of The Project on Student Debt — a group that works to increase public understanding of student loans, — said that it is not uncommon for business school administrators to simultaneously serve on the board of a lending company.

And though ‘preferred’ lists have the potential to facilitate corruption, Shireman said, it is still necessary for financial aid offices to help students narrow the list of possible lenders from the more than 2,000 available companies.

“I think it is going to be necessary for financial aid offices to have an answer to the question of ‘Where do I go to get my loans financed?’” Shireman said.

In addition to his roles at the GSB and Wells Fargo, Joss is also a director of Shanghai Commercial Bank, Agilent Technologies and the Bay Area Council.