2024-001 Reporting (Financial)
Student Financial Assistance Cluster:
U.S. Department of Education
Federal Direct Student Loans (ALN 84.268)
Federal Grant Numbers and Years: P268K240460, (9/1/2023-8/31/2024)
Finding Type: Material Weakness and Noncompliance
Responsible personnel: Alyssa Timko, Di...
2024-001 Reporting (Financial)
Student Financial Assistance Cluster:
U.S. Department of Education
Federal Direct Student Loans (ALN 84.268)
Federal Grant Numbers and Years: P268K240460, (9/1/2023-8/31/2024)
Finding Type: Material Weakness and Noncompliance
Responsible personnel: Alyssa Timko, Director of Financial Aid, act2156@tc.columbia.edu, 212 678-3654
Corrective Action Plan:
In September 2023, the College identified a technical issue with the manual reporting process for student loan disbursements to COD and determined the existing solution was only partially functioning at that time. While some loan activity was timely and properly reported to COD, other student disbursement transactions were stalled and reported after the 15-calendar day requirement. At that time, the College’s ERP, Banner, job submission process for disbursement reporting to COD was manually initiated by the Office of Financial Aid. The resulting reports were then uploaded through the DOE’s EDconnect, a Windows based software application, using WinSCP file transfer (the same process was used for return files from COD).
After an evaluation, it was determined that a new solution and process was required to ensure proper, complete and timely reporting under the regulations. The reporting process was redesigned in October 2023 as part of a plan to automate loan origination and now functions through Automic, a workload automation software. Instead of manually generated files and upload / receipt through EDconnect, student loan disbursement records are now automated to/from COD using TDClient, which is a command software for sending and receiving student aid related information through the DOE’s Student Aid Internet Gateway (SAIG). The new process regularly transfers loan disbursement data to COD. However, the College also determined that a prescheduled pause in the Automic loan origination process at the end of the fiscal year 2024 academic year (in August 2024), which was established in accordance with the regulations, also inadvertently paused loan disbursement reporting and resulted in late submissions. The Office of Financial Aid has also remedied this issue by adding non-standard reporting days to the standard calendar.
Along with more frequent and recurring reconciliations of Banner to COD loan disbursement data and ensuring the continuation of disbursement reporting after loan originations are paused at the end the academic year, the College does not anticipate any further late reporting matters and expects all future disbursement data to be reported within 15 calendar days.