An audit released yesterday found that Pace University’s certification procedures for its state-funded Tuition Assistance Program are “appropriately designed” and the school “substantially complied” with them for the three academic years that ended June 30, 2010. However, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s office found that Pace officials incorrectly certified 10 awards totaling $21,236 during that time.
The audit recommends that the state Higher Education Services Corp. recover the money, plus interest, from Pace University, which has campuses in Westchester County and New York City and a current annual undergraduate tuition of $35,320. The audit encompassed the 6,994 TAP awards totaling $11.2 million that Pace officials certified for 2,387 Manhattan campus students.
TAP is an entitlement program that helps eligible students pay tuition costs. The objective was to determine whether the private university complied with state education law and the commissioner of education’s rules and regulations.
This is the breakdown of the disallowed TAP awards:
