Audit of Berkshire Community College

This is a state performance audit of Berkshire Community College covering July 1, 2015 through June 30, 2017.

“In accordance with Section 12 of Chapter 11 of the Massachusetts General Laws, the Office of the State Auditor has conducted a performance audit of Berkshire Community College (BCC) for the period July 1, 2015 through June 30, 2017.”

The audit checked whether the college was meeting certain disability-access and equal-opportunity requirements.

“In this performance audit, we examined BCC’s compliance with certain requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education’s Policy on Affirmative Action, Equal Opportunity & Diversity for community colleges.”

The audit focused on whether students with disabilities could be safely evacuated, get learning supports, and avoid unfair barriers in college policies and facilities.

“Has BCC taken appropriate measures to ensure that students with disabilities have timely and user-friendly access to supplemental learning aids, services, and alternative testing formats?”

If you are a student, parent, employee, or taxpayer, the report says the reviewed systems for disability accommodations and related policies were working as expected during the audit period.

“Below is a list of our audit objectives, indicating each question we intended our audit to answer and the conclusion we reached regarding each objective.”

For every audit question listed, the auditor’s conclusion was yes.

“Has BCC developed an emergency evacuation plan that takes into account the needs of students with various disabilities, made it known to all relevant parties, and trained faculty members on the plan?”

The report does not list corrective actions; it says the auditor discussed the report with college management.

“My audit staff discussed the contents of this report with management of the college.”

The finding is significant because it covers a public community college with three campuses and 1,235 full-time students in the 2016–2017 academic year.

“Enrollment for the 2016–2017 academic year at all three campuses was 1,235 full-time students.”

A performance audit is a government review that checks whether an organization is doing specific things it is supposed to do, using evidence tied to stated audit questions.

“Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives.”