Objectives

To determine whether the State University of New York (SUNY) is adequately monitoring the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) and if SUNY and the campuses are using EOP funding for allowed purposes. The audit covered the period from July 2019 through December 2024.

About the Program

SUNY operates the EOP, which provides access, support, and financial aid for disadvantaged students who show the potential to succeed despite poor academic preparation and limited financial resources. EOP includes a pre-freshman summer orientation program (summer program) for incoming students and provides support and enrichment programs, including career advising, tutoring, and personal counseling, throughout students’ enrollment.

Responsibility for the administration and management of EOP is shared between SUNY Administration’s Office of Opportunity Programs (Office) and sponsoring EOP campuses. The Office is responsible for monitoring EOP, including expenditures and operations as well as compliance with SUNY’s objectives, policies, and procedures. Accordingly, the Office developed guidance for the summer program along with Guidelines for the Operation of EOP (Guidelines), which specify the requirements of EOP operations and include such things as administrative roles and responsibilities, student eligibility, and acceptable use of funds. Each participating campus must develop a plan outlining its approach to the administration of EOP and is responsible for, among other things, ensuring that EOP funds are used in a manner consistent with both the Guidelines and the State Education Law and that documentation is adequate. During the Fall 2023 semester, EOP operated on 28 State-operated SUNY campuses and served 5,969 EOP participants. Expenditures for EOP in State fiscal year 2023-2024 totaled $38.6 million.

Key Findings

Overall, we determined that SUNY is monitoring EOP, and campuses were generally using the funds for allowed purposes. However, we identified opportunities for SUNY to improve its oversight of the campuses’ use of EOP funds and maintenance of adequate documentation for program-related expenses and services. Our review identified:

• 10 (3.3%) unallowable or insufficiently supported transactions (of 304) totaling $20,142. Seven of the 10 transactions, totaling $5,974, were for unallowable goods or services, such as for bowling events and amusement park visits. Documentation for the three other transactions, together totaling $14,168 and related to the summer program and vehicle mileage did not clearly support the services received or the full amount of the expenditure.
• 16 (4%) EOP students (of 400), assigned to five counselors, with instances of unsupported counseling services. Consequently, we couldn’t determine whether the counseling services were actually provided.

Key Recommendations

• Ensure that campuses participating in EOP are using EOP funds for allowable purposes under the summer program guidance and the Guidelines.
• Ensure that campuses maintain documentation to adequately support EOP expenditures and services and retain that documentation as appropriate.