Miami Hurricane, October 01, 1976

              GSA Calls Investigation Inadequate
By ISIDRO GARCIA
News Editor
Graduate students Penny Hall and Bob Weinhold charged that the Financial Aid Office application for federal funds had many figures that were fabricated and inaccurate, in violation of Federal regulations.
Hall said that the Financial Aid Office had to complete the federal report whether figures in the form were “documented or not." She said that if the figures were not documented. HFW had to be notified, and that they were not notified.
This, she claimed, could result in an audit by HEW that would cover the past five years of opperation at the Financial Aid Office.
Vice President for Student Affairs Dr. William
Butler said that submitted fiscal operation's report of financial aid had figures that had been substantiated after a University-conducted audit. "All dollar figures are correct," he said.
Weinhold said that dozens of other infractions would have been exposed if qualified individuals had conducted an investigation of the Financial Aid Office.
Dr. Butler said that, as far as he was concerned, the investigation was "conducted and completed." The graduate students walked out of the meeting, and there was only one person who attended subsequent meetings. "They entered into the political dynamics of tape recorders and charges of assault," he said
Weinhold said that although the Financial Aid Office was aware of a $400 a year tuition increase last
spring, the Office did not complete the federal application for funds taking account for the increase
Weinhold said this was because doing so involved more computations and work on the form.
“They never asked for money to supplement the tuition increase,” Weinhold said.
“Financial Aid had legitimate reasons to request more funds," Weinhold said
Dr. Butler said that appeals were made to HFW for consideration of tuition increases He said the Financial Aid application form was submitted to HFW' Oct. 14, 1975 before the Board had announced a tuition increase.
He said Dr. Sheeder delivered to HFW a letter of appeal on Jan. 6, 1976 (exactly six days prior to the
Board of Trustees decision to increase tuition by $409 yearly), and sent a second letter of appeal Jan. 13 for consideration of the known tuition increase.
Butler said both appeals were rejected.
Weinhold said the graduate students will present written charges against Dr. Butler to the Board of Trustee Committee on Student Affairs within a few days.
Dr. Butler will be charged by the graduate students on his handling of the investigation.
Weinhold said that the graduate students want to make sure that such an investigation is not handled in the same way again in the future.
Weinhold said he was not attacking Butler but said
See page 2
Miami Hurricane BULENT OZGOREN
( liainnail Slirpurd I alirr Speak» To I lie I- umll s Senate
... fili ii it \ rejei Irli /lini I nr si mirili ini/in I nil I r unir
Semite Rejects Student In nut In Faculty Tenure De visions
By CYNTHIA CHIEF A
Hurricane Staff Writer
The Faculty Senate Monday rejected an ad-hoc committee's recommendation that there be direct student participation (non-voting) in deciding which faculty members receive tenure.
The senate is in favor of faculty evaluations taken by the faculty utilizing a standardized procedure.
Senate council member Kamal Yacoub said there is a "limit to student input." He said faculty evaluation surveys have a tendency to be ambiguous, and often have meaning only to the department. This would he of no use to the Board of Trustees in making their final decision on tenure retention.
Faculty Senate Vice Chairman Eugene Clasby said that he was in favor of student input concerning tenure if it was "carefullv controlled." One senator
claimed that students do not represent students but are biased in their decisions and therefore represent themselves, no matter how these students are chosen.
The senate consensus was not against student input but rather that they could not come up with a "democratic way to instill it."
The senate rejected recommendations that would give students input into the tenure process recommendations.
Undergraduate Student Body Government President Susan Havey feels that both the faculty and the students have an obligation to design a method by which students can have input in deciding tenure. Havey said that students should also be involved in (he hiring of faculty members. According to Havey. "Faculty members who excell in the art of teaching should be awarded for their efforts — that is what a university is designed for.”
I he Department of Health. Education and Welfare (HFW) report of ihe University's Financial Aid Office was released Tuesday and cleared the University of any willful mismanagement along with making seven recommendations.
The report contains the results of a HI W program review conducted in early August after the Graduate Students Association (GSA) filed a series of charges dealing with mismanagement of the office
The meeting of the Student Affairs Committee of the Board of t rustees was held only to discuss the report. Present along with the Trustees were President Henry King Stanford. Vice President for Student Affairs Dr William Butler, Dean of Students Bill Sheeder. Assistant to Dr. Butler Kick Artman and student representatives from the medical, law. graduate and undergraduate schools of the University
l)r Hut ter said the charges were "essentially unfounded" and that ot
the 12 presented, one was true and another had some substance.
Problems in the Aid Office were blamed on the computer program that was installed three years ago. Dr. Butler said the computerization should have been completed two years ago hut it hasn't, lie said payment to the computer firm had been held up.
One of the biggest problems, the report cited, was the potential for overaward. Dr. Butler said the computer picked out .100 cases where possible overawards could have been made Upon manual screening, it was determined that there could he 26 cases involv ing $15,900
Both Dr. Butler and Dr. Stanford were pleased in that with a $16 million budget, the potential error was less than a tenth of a percent.
When questioned as to the possibility of overawards involving the relation of guaranteed loans to the Aid Office, Acting Financial Aid Director Ron Hammond said there wasn’t too much of a problem because of existing controls.
Graduate Student Penny Hall asked if the overaward figures of the computer were totally accurate and Hammond said "no." Hammond also agreed that some overawards could not be caught.
"Ili II i/ii/u't sre llir nriililrni ni limili ni sii< fi ninnili Unir limi il innihl gilè irnlrnrr In ululi IIIr I,N I i lim arli. Il*« III II '* jllifyelllelll ilguiiml llir f.N IV*
— Iti. \\ illi,llll Itili tei*
Hammond said he's hoping that the amount of overawards involving tile guaranteed loan was "zero" hut he could in no way speculate as to any amount of overawards.
Hammond said he "would stake his reputation" that there isn't any serious amount of overawards involving guaranteed loans due lo the method in which they are handled llr said that when Palnirr (C.K., head of Ihe Student Financial Aid Branch of the Division of Post .Secondary Education of HEW) checked various files, "in no instance did he find anything wrong.”
Dr. Butler said the University had not missed out on $500,000 in federal aid and he said he was assured by
HFW that the University has gotten the maximum amount of funds possible.
He did. however, say that about 600 students couldn’t attend the University two years ago because there simply wasn’t enough money to go around Because of this, the Trustees have started their program to try and make up I he slack.
HFW has requested that n full audit hi' done of the Financial Aid Office and Truster Pat Cesarano said it was being done because II was federal law and for no other reasons.
Dr. Butler said the last audit w'as done in 1968 He said he had re-See page 2
íes 7
Report Mak
Recommendations
Biweekly Pay Postponed For Year
By IVONNE KOVIKA
Hurricane Staff writer
Because of the $9.600 cost of immediate implementation of a biweekly pay period for work-study students, the program will wait until a computer system change scheduled to occur in 12 to 18 months, at which time there will be no cost.
a
"We were told by Jennings Ez-zele (director payroll) that it would not he reasonable to implement the new program now. We plan to follow through in the next six to eight weeks and see what exactly is happening on the new computer system." Undergraduate Student Body President Susan Havey said.
"It was a matter of whether it was worth all that money to implement it this semester or incorporate it in a year at no cost." Assistant to the Vice-President for Student Affairs, Rick Artman said.
At a Sept. 14 meeting, all members agreed to the idea. Because of the cost, the USBG legislation on the matter was further referred to the Budget Committee, which decided lo postpone the change until the payroll reorganization was finished.
Director of Studenl Employment James Brodie said that the idea would help students in work-study get their first check sooner. At present a work^itudy student receives his first paycheck in mid-October.
"In addition fo that it would help Ihe sludent budget on a month to month basis," Brodie said.
There was apparently no student clamor either to USBG or Studenl
Employment. "I’ve not heard of the idea from students as such. The first time I heard of if was from USBG.
If we had heard something, we d have fried to do what we could prior to this to respond to the
needs." Brodie said
"Senator Jose Cantillo proposed the legislation because students on work-study have to budget their money a lot more than other people," Havey explained.
Hv ALAN MARCUS And ISIDRO GARCIA
Of the Humean* Staff
Despite release of an HEW report which failed to verify charges of criminal mismanagement in lIM’s Financial Aid Office, members of the Graduate Studenl Association fGSA) will press additional charges against the actions taken by Vice President for Student Affairs Dr. William Butler in the matter
The new charges stem from what the graduate students regard as Dr Butler’s incomplete investigation of the Financial Aid Office as he was charged to do by the Board of T rustees.
The entire HEW report was made public to disprove GSA charges ot fraud, mismanagement and criminal actions. The report dealing with a dozen charges against the Financial Aid Office, concludes with seven recommendations.
Of the 12 charges, HEW found no substance to 10 of them and partial truth to the other two, according to Dr. Butler.
Ihe charges ranged from granting aid to students not in need, dis-i repancies in awarding aiu. inadequate record-keeping and students being "over-awarded.”
Oceanic And Atmospheric Center lias Open Him S<>
By JOAN DONOHUE
Humean* Staff Writer
Some of the mysteries of the sea will he explained today and Saturday as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) celebrates its sixth birthday with an Open House. And you're invited, at no cost.
ft starts at 9 a m., today at their Virginia Key complex, with everything from undersea diving exhibits to aquariums full of sea turtles, shrimps and tropical fish.
During the diving exhibit, the basics of diving and the gear needed to do so will be discussed. Viewers will also have a chance to see the Recompression Chamber, the machine used to stabilize divers who get a case of the bends.
Gay Ranallo, Public Information officer for NOAA, explained the im-nprtance of the Recompression Chamber display. "It is a fascinat-
ing machine that many people hear about but few people ever see. Scientists will be standing by the Chamber with members of the Helicopter Rescue and Transport squad to answer any questions. The Chamber is especially vital for the South Florida area which is a mecca for divers," Ranolla said.
Studies currently underway with lobsters and shrimps will also be set up. Again, scientists who are working on the research projects will be there, ready to explain anything or to answer questions.
"Some of our research divers have been getting multi-colored tropical fish and coral specimens for live display in aquariums. Many of the fish and coral are coming from as far away as Marathon, in the Florida Keys, to as close as offshore reefs in the Miami area
The reefs now come under the ju-
‘	See page 2
The first recommendation is for a sample audit to he done for 1972 'through 1975 and to "revirw the Internal work on overawards" for fiscal year 1976
l)r. Butler said the computer spotted 300 possible cases where an overaward could have been made. After review by the Financial Aid staff, it was determined that only 26 cases involving a total of $15,900 were in question.
Dr. Butler stressed that these cases were nol definite overawards and should they be determined overawards, a conflict between the University and HEW as to when that amount could he made up would have to he resolved.
I he way it works, according to UM’s interpretation Dr. Butler said, is that an overaward could be corrected in the next fiscal year in the student's financial aid benefits.
HFW stales, Dr. Butler said, the University must make up the overaward within the fiscal year
“If the HFW application stands, we will ask that it take effect May 31, 1976. If the University has to pay back the overawards, it will be done so with money from the general operating budget, not from the Financial Aid Office," Dr. Butler said.
The second recommendation deals with particular instances of overawards.
The third recommendation states that the University must resolve thp existing discrepancies surrounding students with "citizen or national" status.
In order to prevent overawards, there should be better documentation of “changes in assets," the fourth recommendation states.
The fifth recommendation deals with the establishment of "policies and procedures" to deal with "discrepancies" In students’ folders and in documenting changes in needs analysis or awards.
One of the most difficult recommendations to implement is the need for interface within the University between the federal aid programs.
Dr. Butler said if a student on financial aid works for the chemistry department, it must inform the financial aid office of the student's earnings so an adjustment can he made in the student's grant The same applies to all sectors of the University.
"The University must develop and implement procedures to assure this interface will occur. Failuy- to See page 2
(,S i Skep
HEW Y indicates Financial Aid
H\ AFAN MARI I s iirnt ISIDRO GARCIA
Of The Hurricane Stall