Universities

The Legislature enacted statutes in 2013 requiring the Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) and each community college district in Arizona to establish a pilot program (Programs) to waive tuition and mandatory fees (waiver) for current and former foster youth who meet certain eligibility requirements. Pursuant to statute, the Programs are scheduled to terminate on July 1, 2018. Although the Programs have helped some eligible current and former foster youth by providing waivers, data management needs improvement to assess the Programs’ effectiveness. In addition, changes to some requirements and additional supports, such as increasing the Programs’ age limit, may increase the Programs’ reach. Finally, the community college districts, and ABOR in collaboration with the universities, should improve the Programs’ implementation.

As part of its responsibility to prevent and detect fraud, Northern Arizona University (University) management took appropriate action by reporting a fraud allegation to both its police department and the Office of the Auditor General (Office). The university police department subsequently requested our Office to investigate the allegations of financial misconduct by Edwin Talley, former university postal services manager, and we determined that from July 1997 through January 2013, Mr. Talley used a fraud scheme to embezzle public monies totaling $354,902. The embezzled monies came from university revenues that consisted primarily of state appropriations and students’ tuition and fee payments, and should have been used to pay for services provided to university students. We have submitted our report to the Coconino County Attorney’s Office, which has taken criminal action against Mr. Talley resulting in his indictment on six felony counts.

During this 15½-year period, Mr. Talley may have violated state laws related to theft, misuse of public monies, fraudulent schemes, and money laundering when he caused the University to issue 245...