Greenfield Community College

This is a state audit of Greenfield Community College’s federal student financial aid programs for the 2009-2010 fiscal year.

“In accordance with Chapter 11, Section 12, of the Massachusetts General Laws, the Office of the State Auditor has conducted an audit of GCC’s Federal Student Financial Assistance programs funded through the United States Department of Education (ED) for the period July 1, 2009 through June 30, 2010.”

The audit was part of Massachusetts’ statewide review of federal funds and checked whether the college followed student aid requirements.

“We conducted our audit in conjunction with the Single Audit of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2010.”

These rules matter because student aid affects students’ class time, loans, enrollment records, and access to federal money.

“A student’s enrollment status determines eligibility for in-college status, deferment, grace period, and repayment schedules, as well as the government’s payment of interest subsidies; therefore, enrollment reporting is critical for effective administration of Title IV programs.”

If you are a student or parent, this affects whether loan notices are clear, whether student records are updated on time, and whether work-study jobs interfere with class.

“Students who work during scheduled class hours are losing valuable time in class that is needed to complete their course work.”

The audit did not say the whole system failed, but it found five areas where GCC needed to tighten procedures and documentation.

“AUDIT RESULTS”

GCC said it would update procedures, improve notices and reporting, and revise its internal control plan.

“Over the course of the next year, the Comptroller will update the Internal Control Plan to include the eight components of Enterprise Risk Management (ERM).”

The findings are significant because they involve compliance with federal student aid rules and were also included in the statewide Single Audit.

“The audit results contained in this report are also reported in the Fiscal Year 2010 Single Audit of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Report and OMB Circular A-133 Report, as mentioned above.”

Federal Work Study means federally supported student jobs; Direct Loans are federal student loans; NSLDS is the federal student loan data system; an Internal Control Plan is the college’s written system for managing risks and procedures.

“For the ICP to be considered an effective high-level summarization, all eight components of the ERM must be present as described in the OSC Internal Control Guide: Internal Environment, Objective Setting, Event Identification, Risk Assessment, Risk Response, Control Activities, Information and Communication, and Monitoring.”