Objective

The objective of our follow-up was to assess the extent of implementation, as of October 2024, of the four recommendations included in our initial audit report, Determination of Residency for Tuition Purposes (Report 2019-S-58).

About the Program

The State University of New York (SUNY) is the largest comprehensive system of public education in the nation, comprising 64 institutions (four of which are University Centers)—including research universities, academic medical centers, liberal arts colleges, community colleges, and agricultural and technical institutes across the State—and educating approximately 367,000 students with approximately 83,000 faculty and staff. Of the 64 institutions, 28 offer graduate programs. For fiscal year 2022-23, SUNY had an overall budget of $12.5 billion and revenue of $14 billion, including State support totaling $4.3 billion and over $1.7 billion in tuition and fees.

SUNY’s Policy 7810: Residency, Establishment of for Tuition Purposes (Residency Policy) states that each campus is responsible for making the final determination of students’ residency status and tuition charges. The Residency Policy also establishes proof of residency requirements. To be considered a State resident and receive in-state tuition, a student must show proof of domicile—defined as a fixed, permanent home to which a person plans to return after an absence—within the State. Proof of domicile includes, but is not limited to, voter registration, driver’s license, State tax return, proof of property ownership, and vehicle registration. In order to be considered a State resident, students must have established their domicile in the State for a 12-month period immediately preceding the date of registration. The campus’ initial determination of residency status should be based on information provided by the student during the admissions process. All application forms should solicit information relative to the student’s principal or permanent home for the previous 12-month period.

The campus should examine the totality of the circumstances in each individual student’s case and should have at least three forms of the required documentation to support their residency determination. Campuses are required to keep the student’s residency determination and any supporting documentation in the student's permanent file. In addition, SUNY’s Records Retention and Disposition schedule requires campuses to maintain documentation relating to residency and residency determinations for a period of 6 years after the student’s separation from the campus.

Key Finding

SUNY officials have made some progress in addressing the problems we identified in the initial audit report; however, additional actions are needed. For example, while SUNY provided all campuses with a flowchart regarding the interpretation of the Residency Policy, the flowchart does not address obtaining sufficient proof of residency. For the four campuses reviewed for our follow-up, we found they could not provide the proper documentation to support the assessed residency status for 85 of 100 (85%) graduate student tuition assessments sampled. Of the initial report’s four audit recommendations, one was implemented, one was partially implemented, one was not implemented, and one was not applicable.

Key Recommendation

Officials are requested, but not required, to provide information about any actions planned to address the unresolved issues discussed in this follow-up within 30 days of the report’s issuance.