Vice President Lockridge introduced several staff members that have been working on the audit, Jessica Peete, Sr. Financial Analyst, Vickie Dornbusch who is working in the department on an interim basis and James Presley, Coordinator Collection and Cash Manager.
Vice President Lockridge informed the committee that DeanIDortonlAllenlFord has issued the final NCAA audit report which is required every three years; the report was acceptable.
The committee was informed that Tronconi Segarra & Associates were on campus the week of June 10th to perform general controls reviews in the areas of Purchasing, Accounts Payable, Human Resource Services and Student Financial Aid and will be back later in the year to perform testing.
Vice President Lockridge stated that at the January BOR meeting it was reported that the cohort default rate was at 25.9% and at June 30th it is 13.5%; below the USDOE target of below 15%. This is due to staff contacting students and explaining available repayment options, many of them qualified for forbearance. The university is working with the Department of Education (DOE) to exit the program. They have given KSU a check list that is being used to review each file to assure the elements required for completion are included prior to submitting to DOE.
The renewal of insurance coverage for the university was completed July 1st. The renewals include Primary General Liability, Directors & Officers Employment Practices, Educators Legal Liability, Crime Insurance and Workers Compensation. Vice President Lockridge stated that the university worked with brokers from Neace Lukens and Dr. Telferi Tsegaye to acquire insurance for the research vessel referred to as Kentucky River Thorobred.
Vice President Lockridge stated that management has acquired additional use of rights through a company called TouchNet which offers software whereby students can go online and pay their tuition bills with a credit card. The targeted date for this plan is the end of September. Also, Payment Plan software has been acquired for creating and managing tuition installment plans. Go Live is targeted for October.
The university software vendor Ellucian has been on campus assisting with the loading of the budget, year-end closing and training. On-going training is being planned to assure staff is trained on the functionality of the system.