Michigan Office of the
Auditor General
Thomas H. McTavish, C.P.A.
Auditor General
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EXECUTIVE DIGEST #3234096

Schoolcraft College

INTRODUCTION This report, issued in April 1997, contains the results of our performance audit of Schoolcraft College.
AUDIT PURPOSE This performance audit was conducted under the authority of Section 1203, Act 128, P.A. 1995 (a section of the community colleges' appropriations act), which mandates that the Auditor General conduct not less than three performance audits of community colleges each year.
BACKGROUND Schoolcraft College is a public two-year institution of higher education that was established in 1961. The College's district comprises the school districts of Clarenceville, Garden City, Livonia, Northville, and Plymouth-Canton and a part of the Novi Community Schools.

The College operates under Sections 389.1 - 389.195 of the Michigan Compiled Laws (the Community College Act of 1966). It is governed by a Board of Trustees consisting of seven members elected at large to serve six-year terms.

The College's mission is to service its community as an educational, cultural, and recreational center and to provide an environment conducive to the pursuit of quality education. To achieve its mission, the College offers college transfer courses, general education courses, vocational-technical training, and developmental education. The College provides counseling and guidance to all students, continuing education programs for adults, and community service programs and activities.

For the fiscal year ended June 30, 1996, the College reported current fund revenue (general, designated, auxiliary, and restricted funds) of $44,238,562, expenditures and transfers of $43,742,467, and fiscal year equated students of 5,025. Of the $44,238,562 in current fund revenues, the College received $9,431,755 (21%) from State General Fund appropriations. As of June 30, 1996, the College employed a total of 624.2 full-time equated employees.
AUDIT OBJECTIVES, CONCLUSIONS AND NOTEWORTHY ACCOMPLISHMENTS Audit Objective: To assess the effectiveness of the College's admissions and monitoring practices to help students successfully complete their classes and programs.

Conclusion: The College's admissions and monitoring practices were generally effective in helping students successfully complete their classes and programs. However, our assessment disclosed a reportable condition related to the College's monitoring of and controlling student enrollments in college level courses (Finding 1).

Noteworthy Accomplishments: The College's admission process includes testing and identifying student educational deficiencies and offering an array of developmental courses to rectify such deficiencies. Also, the College has performed various studies analyzing the success rates of its students which resulted in changes to college educational programs and courses.

Audit Objective: To assess the College's efforts and methods for evaluating the quality of education provided to students who completed associate degree and certificate programs or who transferred to four-year colleges and universities.

Conclusion: The College's efforts and methods for evaluating the quality of education were effective. We did not identify any reportable conditions.

Noteworthy Accomplishments: The College's evaluation efforts included establishing and implementing an assessment plan for the evaluation of its educational programs; establishing advisory committees; analyzing student licensure and certification examination results; surveying students, graduates, and local businesses; and conducting faculty evaluations.

Also, the College issues a quality assurance guarantee to students, prospective employers, and transferring institutions that individuals holding College degrees or certificates who have achieved a "C" (2.0) average or better are fully capable of competent performance. Under the guarantee, the College permits former students to retake courses, without tuition charge, if employers or transferring institutions consider them to be deficient in knowledge or skills in those areas of college instruction.

Audit Objective: To assess the College's efforts and methods for evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of its use of resources for education programs.

Conclusion: The college's efforts and methods for evaluating its use of resources for education programs were generally effective. However, our assessment disclosed reportable conditions related to repetitive course enrollments and minimum class enrollment (Findings 2 and 3).

Audit Objective: To determine the College's compliance with the Legislature's reporting requirements for education programs and to evaluate capital outlay projects.

Conclusion: The College was in compliance with the Legislature's reporting requirements for education programs. However, the College's management of capital outlay projects regarding planning and authorization prior to construction was deficient. Our evaluation disclosed one material condition:

  • The College did not accurately determine and report classroom and laboratory utilization data in planning documents submitted to the Department of Management and Budget for a new student services building (Finding 4).


    Agency Preliminary Response: The basic premise of this "finding" is that the Student Services Building, which was built to expand and consolidate Student Services, Business Services, and the Business Development Center - but also contains a computer lab and several classrooms - must somehow draw its raison d'etre from the utilization of classrooms campus wide. The focus of this "finding" is a facilities utilization report used in supporting the need for the Student Services Building.

    The College will work to correct all possible data entry and programming errors in its room utilization data base. However, the College disagrees with the methodology and certain assumptions that the auditors used to calculate room usage reported in the finding. As a result, the College believes that the auditors understated actual room usage for the period reviewed. For the record, the College stands by the rationale for including classrooms in the student services building rather than confining that structure to business and student services functions.

    Epilogue: Despite several requests, College management did not provide us with information as towhich specific methods and/or assumptions College management believed to be faulty. Nonetheless, we carefully reviewed our methodology and assumptions and believe them to be fair and objective.

    Our evaluation also disclosed a reportable condition regarding the College's compliance with the legislative requirement to request authorization for the construction of a self-liquidating project (Finding 5).
    AUDIT SCOPE AND METHODOLOGY Our audit scope was to examine the program and other records of Schoolcraft College. Our audit was conducted in accordance with Government Auditing Standards issued by the Comptroller General of the United States and, accordingly, included such tests of the records and such other auditing procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances.

    Our methodology included examining the College's admission procedures for students enrolled in classes for associate and certificate programs and for transfer to four-year institutions. We also examined the College's procedures for monitoring students' academic progress, including those students referred to developmental courses. In addition, we examined the College's institutional assessment plan and various evaluation systems used by the College to evaluate the quality of its education programs.

    We extracted information from the student record data base to examine low enrollment classes, repetitive enrollments, underage student enrollments, and tuition waivers and grants. We examined the College's use of branch campuses, extension centers, faculty loads, and classroom utilization. Further, we reviewed the program and financial records for the Job Training and Retraining Investment Fund and the At-Risk Student Success Program grants to determine the College's compliance with the annual appropriations acts. We also reviewed College planning documents, student enrollments, classroom utilization, and project records related to the College's recently completed capital outlay projects.
    AGENCY RESPONSES AND PRIOR AUDIT FOLLOW-UP Our audit report contains 5 audit findings and 6 corresponding recommendations. The agency agreed with 1 audit finding and 1 corresponding recommendation.

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