Finding Text
Finding 2022-004: Significant Deficiency - Return of Title IV Funds Calculations Program: Student Financial Assistance Cluster CFDA Number: Various Federal Agency: U.S. Department of Education Federal Award Identification Number: Various Federal Award Year: June 30, 2022 Criteria: 34 CFR 668.22 requires that when a recipient of title IV grant or loan assistance withdraws from an institution during a payment period or period of enrollment in which the recipient begins attendance, the institution must determine the amount of title IV grant or loan assistance that the student earned as of the student's withdrawal date in accordance with Federal regulations. Condition: For 3 students selected for testing, the amount of the title IV refund was calculated incorrectly. Questioned Costs: The total amount that was remitted to the government that should not have been was $195. Context: Errors were noted in the calculations for 3 of the 8 students selected for testing. There were a total of 71 students who withdrew during fiscal year 2022 that received Title IV aid. The sample was not considered statistically valid. Effect: The amounts refunded to the Department of Education may be incorrect. Cause: The end date of the fall and spring terms were entered incorrectly into the University's software. As such, the total number of days used for the calculations were incorrect, which caused the total amounts calculated to be refunded to also be incorrect. Recommendation: We recommend that University personnel review the calculations generated by the University's software system. A manual review should also be performed by someone other than the person who enters the information into the software in order to verify accuracy of the calculations. This should also include a review of the beginning and ending dates of each term that were entered into the software system. Management's Response: The errors were made because the incorrect terms dates were entered into Colleague by the Registrar's Office. Moving forward, the Financial Aid office will work with the Registrar's Office to ensure the term dates are entered correctly in Colleague. After the Registrar's Office enters the term dates in Colleague, the Associate Vice President of Student Financial Systems will review the entries for accuracy.