Finding Text
Assistance Listing Number, Federal Agency, and Program Name - Student Financial Assistance Cluster (Federal Pell Grant Program - 84.063, Federal Direct Student Loans - 84.268)
Federal Award Identification Number and Year - 84.063 and 84.268
Pass through Entity - N/A
Finding Type - Significant deficiency
Repeat Finding - Yes
2023 003
Criteria - Under the Direct Loan programs (Direct Loan, 34 CFR Section 685.309) and Federal Pell (Pell, 34 CFR Section 690.83(b)(2)), changes in a student's status are required to be reported to the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) within 30 days of the change or included in a student status confirmation report sent to NSLDS within 60 days of the status change.
Condition - Of the 40 students selected for enrollment reporting testing, 1 student did not have their program level status change updated appropriately and another student was not updated from less than half time to withdrawn by the University's third party administrator.
Questioned Costs - None
If Questioned Costs are Not Determinable, Description of Why Known Questioned Costs were Undetermined or Otherwise Could Not be Reported - N/A
Identification of How Questioned Costs Were Computed - N/A
Context - Of the 40 students selected for status change testing, 1 of these students did not have a program level status change and another was reported to the third party administrator but the third party administrator did not update the student's status from less than half time to withdrawn.
Cause and Effect - A control was lacking to ensure status change reporting, which resulted in 1 student not having their program level status updated and another not having their status changed from less than half time to withdrawn.
Recommendation - The University should establish a review and follow-up procedure to ensure that enrollment status changes are being sent to NSLDS in order to report status changes in a timely manner.
Views of Responsible Officials and Planned Corrective Actions - Clearinghouse reporting process has been reassessed, and error reporting will be completed weekly. Training will be done for registrar staff on process and how to verify information has successfully been accepted by NSLDS. The registrar's office will work closely with financial aid to verify enrollment updates and complete error resolution.