Finding 963403 (2023-001)

Loan Disbursement Notifications Federal Program Student Financial Assistance Cluster (ALN #84.268) Federal Agency U.S. Department of Education Federal Award Years and Federal Award Number July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023 ; P268K232193 Criteria or Requirement Per 34 CFR section 668.165, if an institution credits a student's account with a Direct Loan, the institution must notify the student or parent, no earlier than 30 days before the disbursement and no later than 30 days after the disbursement, in writing of the anticipated date and amount of the loan disbursement, the student's right or parent's right to cancel all or a portion of that loan or loan disbursement and have the loan proceeds returned to the holder of that loan, and the procedures and time by which the student or parent must notify the institution that he or she wishes to cancel the loan or loan disbursement. Condition and Context For 40 out of 40 students, while the students have access to their student accounts that show disbursement activity and the institution has posted to their website the required terms of loan disbursements, the federal direct loan disbursement notification was not sent to the student or parent within the required 30 days before or 30 days after the disbursement was credited to the student's account and did not include the necessary information regarding the student's right or parent's right to cancel as noted in the above criteria. Cause and Potential Effect The University's internal controls for determining that a loan disbursement notification was sent for each disbursement made was not operating effectively. Accordingly, the University did not send a loan notification for disbursements within the required timeframe nor with the required information. Questioned Cost There were no questioned costs associated with the finding. Statistically Valid Sample The sample was not intended to be, and was not, a statistically valid sample. Identification of Whether the Audit Finding is a Repeat of a Finding in the Immediately Prior Audit No. Recommendation We recommend the University enhance the precision of the controls over loan disbursements to ensure that all loan disbursements through the Federal Direct Student Loan Program have a written notification, inclusive of all required information as noted in the criteria above, sent to the student/and or parents within the required timeline of within 30 days before and 30 days after the disbursement date. View of Responsible Officials Management of the University takes no exception to this reported finding. We have implemented the remedial actions as outlined in our Corrective Action Plan.