University of Central Oklahoma
THURSDAY February 29, 1996
The Student Voice Since 1903
Audit uncovers problems in UCO's financial aid program By Mary Reinauer Staff Writer The UCO Student Financial Aid (SFA) department has lost or misfiled documents, given inefficient service to students and allowed unexplained employee absences, stated a recent special audit report. The audit and report prepared by the Board of Regents of Oklahoma Colleges (BOROC) produced 12 pages of problems and suggestions to correct them. It stated that students were inconvenienced by poor service and dropped from classes as a result of the university's policy of canceling classes if tuition is not paid in advance. Lost - documents threatened UCO's ability to receive federal funds. Therefore, two additional student workers were hired to help with filing, said the report. Auditors found fault with the
SFA policy of closing for two hours every Tuesday morning for meetings. The report said SFA discontinued the practice. Kendra Henthorn, associate director, said she was not familiar enough with most of the findings to comment on them. There has been no official meeting to discuss the audit, she said. However, the report states Henthorn reviewed it along with Sheila Fugett, SFA director and Richard Burpee, UCO's former interim vice president for administration. Henthorn said questions should be referred to Fugett , but Fugett had taken the afternoon off, and was not available for comment until Monday. In some instances recommendations were followed, according to the report. But in other instances, the report said the only management response
was to review the problem. Reported deficiencies in personnel policy that allowed employees to arrive late and leave early, unexplained absences and past due performance evaluations as late as four years were corrected, according to the report. A phone bank, staffed with temporary employees that had to be hired and retrained every semester had answered 55,000 phone calls for SFA in the 199495 school year. The audit said calls went unanswered and students were inconvenienced. Henthorn said SFA responded to the problem by starting installation of an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) that will start in August. Henthom said 99 percent of the problem of lost and backlogged files was due to requests for additional V See AUDIT, Page 3
Testing microbes... Senior biology major Derek Jonson performs a carbohydrate analysis on microscopic organisms in a Howe/ Hall lab room. The analysis allows him to determine the types of sugars the organisms are digesting. (Staff photo by Laurette Graham)
Newly proposed faculty conduct policy under construction "As it stands now the policy is only targeted to faculty; it must be revised to apply to all faculty, The UCO faculty has some staff and administration," said qualms about the university's Dr. James Bidlack, assistant recently proposed professional professor of biology and the faculty senate representative on conduct policy.
By Gayleen Langthorn Staff Writer
the Professional Conduct Task force. "It's not fair to have a policy on this just for faculty," he said. Dr. Clyde Jacob, vice president for academic affairs and the chairman of the
committee, said President Nigh language of what faculty asked him to develop a policy misconduct is, then followed by for faculty, since "that's where specific examples," he said. the greatest need for a policy lies The new policy will address right now." issues ranging from falsification "The intent (of the new of data and plagiarism to a more policy) was to provide generic V See CONDUCT, Page 3
INSIDE TODAY INDEX Editorial 2 Sports 5,6,7 Entertainment 8,9 Around Campus ... 11 Campus Crime 11 Classifieds 12
SPORTS Jerry Best leads the top-ranked Broncho wrestling team in Midwest Regional.
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ENTERTAINMENT The Vista's Entertainment Pages preview and review four new movies.
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WELCOME Get to know UCO's new equity officer, alumnus Rick
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