Finding 35877 (2022-003)

Finding 2022-003 Enrollment Reporting Grantor(s): Department of Education Program: Student Financial Aid Cluster Assistance Listing#(s): Various Title: Student Financial Aid Cluster Award Year: 7/2021 ? 6/2022 Award #: N/A Pass-through Number: N/A Criteria Per the 2022 OMB Compliance Supplement, institutions are required to certify enrollment, including changes in students? enrollment status, at a minimum of every 60 days. Institutions are responsible for timely reporting, whether they report directly or via a third-party servicer. Condition Through testing a sample of 25 students for enrollment reporting of Pell and Direct Loans, we noted 3 students were reported to the NSLDS outside of the required 60-day window. Each of these 3 students were reported 66 days after their status change. Additionally, for 3 other students in our sample of 25, there was no evidence to support their ?graduated? status or date of the status change within the NSLDS. Cause The cause of the delay in reporting to the NSLDS for the first 3 students mentioned above is due to timing with graduation and resource constraints at the University. For the second 3 students, the cause was due to the fact that these students had multiple status changes in a small period of time. The students were ?full-time? until 12/31/2021 when they graduated the undergraduate program, then began the graduate program as full-time students in February 2022. The quick change in status was the cause of the NSLDS enrollment status not being supported for these students. Effect NSLDS was not updated timely for the first 3 students mentioned above. For the second 3 students, their enrollment status could potentially be inaccurate in the NSLDS system if their graduation was not processed. Questioned Costs None. Recommendation Management should enhance their resources within the office of the registrar to be able to accommodate status changes during the graduation period and ensure timely status change submission to the NSLDS. Management?s View and Corrective Action Plan Management?s response is included in ?Management?s Views and Corrective Action Plan? included in this report.