Finding Text
2022-004 Significant Deficiency: Return to Title IV Funds (U.S. Department of Education, William D. Ford Direct Loan Program, CFDA #84.268; Federal Pell Grant Program, CFDA #84.063; Federal Supplemental Opportunity Grant Program, CFA #84.007; and TEACH Grant Program, CFDA #84.379) Criteria: In accordance with 34 CFR 668.22(c), if the student ceases attendance without providing official notification to the institution of his or her withdrawal, the withdrawal date to be used for calculation of return to Title IV may be the mid-point of the payment period or a student's last date of attendance at an academically-related activity provided that the institution documents that the activity is academically related and documents the student's attendance at the activity. An institution must document a student's withdrawal date determined in accordance with this guidance and maintain the documentation as of the date of the institution's determination that the student withdrew. Statement of Condition: During the audit, the University was unable to provide supporting documentation for the withdrawal date used in calculating the return to Title IV funds for several students who unofficially withdrew. Questioned Costs: Such information is not applicable for this finding since it did not result in a monetary error. Perspective Information: The audit included a detailed testing of 40 student files, of which this significant deficiency applies to 9, indicating an error rate of 22.50%. Cause and Effect: The University transitioned tracking and reporting software multiple times during the 2022 year. Through these transitions, information submitted for unofficial withdrawals of students was lost and could not be obtained at the time of testing. No other supporting documentation was available to verify the reasonableness of dates used in calculating the return to Title IV funds. In the case that invalid dates had been used in this calculation, there could be resulting monetary errors. Recommendation: The University should ensure that information received and utilized in the withdrawal process is sufficient and retained. View of Responsible Officials: The University concurs with this finding. Due to system conversions, the ability to produce data was limited. Now that the institution is back in Colleague, the institution will be able to properly provide proper documentation for unofficial withdrawals. To properly document unofficial withdrawals, the professor/registrar will input the last date of attendance into the system at the same time that they input the grade for the course. Financial aid will then regularly run the RGER report out of Colleague which provides the last date of attendance along with the letter grade. Using the RGER Report, the financial aid office will then perform the R2T4 and will subsequently print the RGER report for the student to add to the R2T4. If any questions should arise when notified of an unofficial withdrawal, financial aid will reach out to academic advisor/professors for clarification.