Proper shielding techniques for chassis grounded equipment located 30 feet apart
Have a look at this tutorial made by Analog Devices.  You can also go to Analog's and Kiethley's web site and search for shielding.  You might find more white papers.

Your colleague was correct that the shield that's grounded at the host end can inject noise into the ground.  Typically, the shield is grounded at the remote end.  You could also connect the shield to the chassis ground.

Grounding scheme of the USB cable shield is not a good example, IMO.  USB is designed to work with many different gadgets.  Most of the USB gadgets aren't grounded by themselves.  Perhaps, a trade between EMI immunity and versatility was made.