Post by title1parent on Aug 11, 2011 6:12:51 GMT -5
Lawmakers rip CSU after limited state aid given to failing students
BY KARA SPAK
Staff Reporter/kspak@suntimes.com
Last Modified: Aug 11, 2011 02:15AM
Nearly 450 failing students at Chicago State University — including 106 students with 0.0 grade point averages — received state grant money through the Monetary Award Program though they shouldn’t have been enrolled at the university, according to testimony at a state hearing Wednesday.
State Sen. Edward Maloney (D-Chicago), chair of the Senate higher education committee, questioned CSU leaders on why their failing students received funds that could have gone to other low-income students in the state during the 2008-2009 school year. He also questioned if these students received federal Pell grants, money they could pocket for education expenses if it exceeds their financial aid.
“It actually is an emotional battle to maintain this MAP money for deserving students,” he said. “The fact that people were getting this money and not making progress and keeping it from more worthy students ... is a tragedy.”
Citing figures from the Illinois Student Assistance Commission, Maloney said during the 2008-2009 school year, 449 of CSU’s 2,941 MAP grant recipients shouldn’t have been enrolled because of poor grades, according to CSU policy. Qualified MAP applications across the state far exceed the amount of money available annually.
Wayne Watson, CSU’s president since 2009, said beginning in 2007 students with less than a 2.0 GPA were allowed to stay on the student rolls despite a university policy saying they should be dismissed. He said he didn’t know why the students were allowed to remain but rejected that it was to inflate enrollment numbers, which would bring more money into the institution.
When the university discovered the issue in May, he said failing students received letters dismissing them with the right to appeal.
“I cannot answer how it happened,” Watson said. “We are in compliance as we sit here today.”
Wednesday’s meeting was prompted by a March audit that found 41 issues with university operations and bookkeeping in fiscal year 2010. “When I read your audit at first, frankly, I was mortified,” said state Sen. Christine J. Johnson (R-DeKalb), a member of the higher education committee. She said the university ranks fourth for the level of funding for state universities but dead last in the percentage of students graduating.
Among the audit’s findings were that university officials did not formally bill students for the Spring 2010 semester, allowed students with outstanding balances to register for classes and understated campus construction costs by more than $680,000. State auditors found 11-year-old checks that had never been cashed.
More than $7,000 in cell phone roaming fees and $6,800 on airline tickets where “the travelers were unaware of the check-in procedures on tickets already purchased” were deemed unreasonable expenses, the audit said.
Contracts worth $90,000 related to the university’s convocation center were not competitively bid and two invoices were paid a year after they were sent.
Watson, who took over a university plagued by allegations of financial mismanagement and consistently low graduation rates, didn’t contest any of the audit findings. He said he was trying to change the culture at the South Side school of 7,200 undergraduate and graduate students.
“There’s the speedboat turnaround and the Queen Mary turnaround,” he said. “We have the Queen Mary.”
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Copyright © 2011 — Sun-Times Media, LLC
BY KARA SPAK
Staff Reporter/kspak@suntimes.com
Last Modified: Aug 11, 2011 02:15AM
Nearly 450 failing students at Chicago State University — including 106 students with 0.0 grade point averages — received state grant money through the Monetary Award Program though they shouldn’t have been enrolled at the university, according to testimony at a state hearing Wednesday.
State Sen. Edward Maloney (D-Chicago), chair of the Senate higher education committee, questioned CSU leaders on why their failing students received funds that could have gone to other low-income students in the state during the 2008-2009 school year. He also questioned if these students received federal Pell grants, money they could pocket for education expenses if it exceeds their financial aid.
“It actually is an emotional battle to maintain this MAP money for deserving students,” he said. “The fact that people were getting this money and not making progress and keeping it from more worthy students ... is a tragedy.”
Citing figures from the Illinois Student Assistance Commission, Maloney said during the 2008-2009 school year, 449 of CSU’s 2,941 MAP grant recipients shouldn’t have been enrolled because of poor grades, according to CSU policy. Qualified MAP applications across the state far exceed the amount of money available annually.
Wayne Watson, CSU’s president since 2009, said beginning in 2007 students with less than a 2.0 GPA were allowed to stay on the student rolls despite a university policy saying they should be dismissed. He said he didn’t know why the students were allowed to remain but rejected that it was to inflate enrollment numbers, which would bring more money into the institution.
When the university discovered the issue in May, he said failing students received letters dismissing them with the right to appeal.
“I cannot answer how it happened,” Watson said. “We are in compliance as we sit here today.”
Wednesday’s meeting was prompted by a March audit that found 41 issues with university operations and bookkeeping in fiscal year 2010. “When I read your audit at first, frankly, I was mortified,” said state Sen. Christine J. Johnson (R-DeKalb), a member of the higher education committee. She said the university ranks fourth for the level of funding for state universities but dead last in the percentage of students graduating.
Among the audit’s findings were that university officials did not formally bill students for the Spring 2010 semester, allowed students with outstanding balances to register for classes and understated campus construction costs by more than $680,000. State auditors found 11-year-old checks that had never been cashed.
More than $7,000 in cell phone roaming fees and $6,800 on airline tickets where “the travelers were unaware of the check-in procedures on tickets already purchased” were deemed unreasonable expenses, the audit said.
Contracts worth $90,000 related to the university’s convocation center were not competitively bid and two invoices were paid a year after they were sent.
Watson, who took over a university plagued by allegations of financial mismanagement and consistently low graduation rates, didn’t contest any of the audit findings. He said he was trying to change the culture at the South Side school of 7,200 undergraduate and graduate students.
“There’s the speedboat turnaround and the Queen Mary turnaround,” he said. “We have the Queen Mary.”
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Copyright © 2011 — Sun-Times Media, LLC