Perkins Promissory Notes – Assistance Listing No. 84.038
Recommendation: We recommend that the College put a procedure in place to ensure that all students have a promissory note prior to disbursing of funds. Also recommend a procedure be put in place to ensure proper record retention documenting the completion of promissory note.
View of responsible officials: There is no disagreement with the audit finding.
Action taken in response to finding: The process Union College follows to ensure promissory notes are signed is coordinated through Student Financial Services (SFS). SFS
determines eligibility of awards and adds them to the student financial package. Once a loan has been accepted SFS has the student sign the promissory note. The loan is disbursed once the paperwork has been completed and reviewed. Perkins loans followed this procedure in the time they were available. The Perkins program is no longer active so there are no new promissory notes going forward.
Student accounts is currently reviewing student files to ensure promissory notes, or documentation deemed appropriate by the Department of Education, are available for the Perkins loans that will be assigned to the Department of Education. Unfortunately, previous employees did not keep accurate records; this was brought to light when a new employee took over student accounts in August 2021. While the new employee has worked hard to track down all MPNs, we know that there are some that will never be found. As a result, this will likely be a repeat finding until all Perkins Loans are assigned or liquidated. It is our hope that this process will be completed by May 31, 2025. Promissory notes or documentation will be retained until the loans are either assigned or liquidated.
Name(s) of the contact person(s) responsible for corrective action: Steve Trana, VP for Financial Administration
Planned completion date for corrective action plan: We hope to assign or liquidate all Perkins loans by May 31, 2025. Until then, it is likely that this will be a recurring item on our corrective action report.