A.G. Gancarski
Transcripts are the currency of any college or university. Every school has a registrar. Unpaid fees, for example, can result in transcripts not being released.
Despite the essential nature of transcripts, it’s notable that one area school, Florida State College Jacksonville, hasn’t been consistent in terms of verifying transcripts for its own employees, according to the March Operational Audit by the Auditor General.
One of six charges in the report says college records did not always [show] evidence that employees met the education requirements for their positions.
“From the population of 46 employees who, effective July 1, 2015, either transferred to new positions as a result of a reorganization of the College’s Student Services Department or were newly employed to fill vacancies in the Student Services Department, we reviewed personnel records for 20 selected employees. We found that the personnel records for 10 employees did not contain official transcripts to evidence that the employees met the education requirements specified in their position descriptions,” claimed the audit.
Nine of those 10 employees were internal transfers.
“In response to our inquiry, College personnel indicated that, because of oversights, the College had not obtained official transcripts for employees transferring to positions requiring a higher education degree and that procedures would be revised to ensure official transcripts are timely obtained.
“Subsequent to our inquiries, the College obtained official college transcripts for 8 of the employees that demonstrated that the employees met the education requirements for their positions. College personnel indicated that education verifications were not performed for the other 2 employees because 1 was no longer employed by the College and the other employee’s position only required a high school diploma.”
The college concurred with the need for educational verification.
Among other issues identified in the report, which included substandard bank account reconciliation and inappropriate IT access privileges for some employees, were an over-reporting of General Education contact hours.
“For 8 students enrolled in 2 classes, the College over reported a total of 415 instructional hours. Although attendance records indicated that the College withdrew the 8 students before the end of the term because each had six consecutive absences, the instructional contact hours for these students were reported to the FDOE as if the student had completed the class.”
These issues, which emerged in the 2014-15 Fiscal Year, were corrected in the current one.
