Finding 1167966 (2025-001)

Federal Program - Student Financial Aid Cluster, U.S. Department of Education, Program Year 2025 Criteria or Specific Requirement: Special Tests and Provisions - Return of Title IV Funds Condition: The College did not disburse funds required to be returned to the Department of Education within 45 days. (Material Weakness in Internal Control Over Compliance and Other Instance of Noncompliance). Context: During testing for compliance with Special Test and Provisions - Return of Title IV Funds, 1 out of 6 selections resulted in errors. From a population of 51 students, 6 were selected for testing. Error related to the initial return of funds calculation identifying the amount to be returned being completed incorrectly for a graduate student. The error was identified by the College and the additional amount to be returned was processed, however, this occurred more than 45 days after the graduate student withdrew from the College. Effect: The Return of Title IV funds was not completed within the required 45 days. Cause: The Office of Graduate Studies completed the first Return of Title IV Funds (R2T4) process. Once the Office of Student Financial Services began to manage all financial aid processing (including graduate studies), errors in the calculations were discovered and the Office of Student Financial Services submitted the corrected amount to the Department of Education. Unfortunately, the 45 required day window had lapsed. Name of the Responsible Party: Garnet Tipton, Director of Graduate Student Services Heather Buhr, Executive Director of Student Financial Services Corrective Action Planned: All future R2T4 processes will be conducted by the Office of Student Financial Services and reviewed by one additional staff member in the office before submission to the Department of Education within the required 45 days. Graduate Studies will also be implementing a formal withdrawal/dismissal form that will be sent to the Office of Student Financial Services so there will not be a delay in the notification process. Anticipated Completion Date: Will immediately put these processes into practice.