Management?s Views and Corrective Action Plan The University implemented two new systems (Student Information System ? Workday, and Financial Aid System ? PowerFaids) that each are an important part of managing our Federal Student Aid. Most of the building and configuring of these systems happened prior to FY22 with the full launch in production taking place for the Fall 2021. Understandably, some of the integrations of these two systems were not able to be tested prior to Fall of 2021 (ex: actual disbursement of federal loans) and therefore, required significant time and effort in the Fall and beyond to ensure everything worked and students were able to receive funding while also building out and documenting required communications, processes, and compliance protocols. Additionally, we had turnover within the Associate Director of Financial Aid and Loan Manager role in March 2022. The implementation coupled with this staffing issue created a one-time set of circumstances that are outside of the standard oversight and management of our Federal Student Aid funds and processes. Please refer to the response to each individual finding as follows: Finding 2022-001: Returns of Title IV Funds Award Information Cluster: Student Financial Assistance Cluster Grantor: Department of Education Award Name: Federal Direct Student Loans Award Year: July 1, 2021 ? June 30, 2022 Assistance Listing Number: 84.268 In implementing PowerFaids we were required to set up our own Selection Sets (set group of criteria) for managing all of the disbursements (positive or negative) for each type of fund. For all of our loan funds, we used criteria that included requiring that the particular term have at least half-time enrollment. We used this selection set to disburse (increase or decrease) both the loan to the Student Account (in Workday) as well as to get on the Books with FSA (through COD). We realized that students who took a Leave of Absence or Withdrew from the University needed their own selection set because they would have been updated to have zero credits in the term they took a leave or withdrew. The two instances where we were late in adjustment, we were in the middle of the staffing situation. Documentation had not been written by the Loan Manager at that time. Once we identified the issue with the selection set for students who were withdrawn or on a leave of absence, we reviewed all students with this condition, corrected refunds as appropriate and ensured this was corrected moving forward. The Director of Financial Aid saw a need to have greater oversight on our Federal Funds. She began a process of restructuring the Office as of February 21, 2022 so that the Loan Manager position no longer had direct reports and their main responsibility is the management of federal and private loan portfolios and the federal Pell grant fund. Processes have been documented and all selection sets and processes are managed by this new Associate Director (Loan Manager) who now reports directly to the newly created Director of Financial Aid Systems, Reporting and Compliance April 21, 2022. We do not foresee further issues with return of funds within the required 45-day timeline. The Assistant Vice President, Enrollment Student Services & Director of Financial Aid, Amy Staffier, who can be reached at amy.staffier@simmons.edu, is responsible for the implementation of this corrective action plan.