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Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Florida A&M University's CFO blasted by state board over systemic audit failures
This story was originally published on To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily newsletter. Rebecca Brown, the CFO of Florida A&M University, was on the receiving end of harsh remarks from the state's Board of Governors last week after audit findings revealed multiple delayed reconciliations, poor internal controls and the continuation of financial issues the state university system has failed to address for over a decade. During a meeting on June 18, members of the Florida Board of Governors' audit and compliance committee expressed their concerns about the university's finance function and its practices. Multiple board members also questioned Brown's performance. 'From my perspective, the CFO failed pretty miserably in this job,' said Board of Governors member Aubrey Edge, who chairs the audit committee. 'She's been there two years and five months, which is long enough to know that you're not reconciling your statements.' Brown's dual role as CFO and senior vice president for finance and administration came into question regarding the school's poor financial practices. She's held the roles since January 2023. Interim President Timothy Beard said the university is reviewing structural changes to address Brown's dual role. An operational audit of FAMU from July 2022 through Dec. 2023 found delayed bank reconciliations, missing performance evaluations and slow vendor payments that violated both university rules and state law. The audit also found discrepancies in how FAMU's finance team reported restricted and unrestricted investment income and made note that the college's internal accounting controls required improvement. Though FAMU has implemented a corrective action plan, the board referred to the financial issues at FAMU as 'serious' and 'systemic,' signaling the problems are deeper than one-off errors. Edge, who also serves as president and CEO of First Coast Energy, an ownership group of over 160 Daily's and Shell-branded convenience stores throughout Florida, said the issues are more than just Brown's poor performance. 'This is serious. It's systemic, and that's a word I don't think they were tossing around lightly, and this time around it's pretty systemic in the accounting side,' Edge said. He noted the Board of Governors began tracking more than 30 corrective actions at FAMU back in 2013 to address internal control deficiencies and said many of the problems highlighted in the latest audits are similar to those identified back then. CFO turnover, a challenge in businesses across both public and private sectors, is likely a factor in Edge's labeling of the university's financial challenges as systemic. The finance team's track record indeed has its blemishes, like a failure to do due diligence on a $238 million fraudulent donation last year, but the university has also had seven CFOs since 2018, with an average tenure of 11 months per person. Reports indicate several critical finance roles still remain unfilled, like a comptroller and a CPA position. At last week's meeting, FAMU leaders cast blame for the lack of financial controls on turnover. 'We've had instability in leadership, and the turnover has changed the staffing in those functions as well,' FAMU Vice President for Audit Credentials Joseph Maleszewski said. Board member Eric Silagy criticized the university's oversight culture, candidly comparing the situation to what would likely occur if similar finance practices were to be done in the private sector. 'For a chief financial officer to have this systemic breakdown and this loss of risk controls, they would be shown the door so fast it would make their head spin,' Silagy said. 'They sure wouldn't be getting an increase in their base salary, and they sure wouldn't be getting a bonus.' Kristin Harper, FAMU Board of Trustees chair, said a monthly scorecard has been implemented to monitor progress and ensure reconciliations and other corrections remain on track. Brown still serves in her dual role as of now, though her autonomy in managing the finance function is likely to be limited in the upcoming months. The audit concerns come at a time when the perceived value of higher education is under increasing pressure nationwide. Dozens of colleges have announced closures or mergers in recent years amid declining enrollment and rising operational costs. At the same time, public confidence in universities has eroded due to ballooning student loan debt and questions over return on investment. For public institutions, as well as those that are Historically Black Colleges and Universities like FAMU, ongoing financial mismanagement and governance failures risk further undermining trust. Other HBCUs have had financial problems of their own due to poor leadership, and the consequences of poor financial controls have been playing out in some of the country's largest public university systems. Recommended Reading Oklahoma State University names a new CFO after audit finds $41M in misallocations
04-06-2025
- General
Mexican 4-year-old is granted humanitarian parole to continue receiving lifesaving care in US
LOS ANGELES -- A 4-year-old Mexican girl who receives lifesaving medical care from a Southern California hospital was granted permission to remain in the country weeks after federal authorities said she could be deported, her family's attorneys said Tuesday. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security granted the girl and her mother humanitarian parole for one year so she can continue to receive treatment she has been getting since arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2023, according to a copy of a letter received by Rebecca Brown, an attorney for the family from the nonprofit Public Counsel. An email message was sent to the Department of Homeland Security seeking comment. The girl's family said they were notified in April and May that their humanitarian parole was being revoked and they would be subject to potential deportation. The Trump administration has been pushing to dismantle policies from former President Joe Biden's administration that granted temporary legal status for certain migrants and allowed them to live legally in the U.S., generally for two years. The girl was taken to a hospital upon arriving on at the U.S.-Mexico border with her mother in 2023 and released once she was stable enough. She receives intravenous nutrition through a special backpack for short bowel syndrome, which prevents her from being able to take in and process nutrients on her own, and lawyers said the treatment she receives is necessary at this stage for her to survive and isn't available in Mexico. The family's attorneys from Public Counsel said in a statement that while they were grateful the administration 'acted swiftly' to ensure the girl could continue her life-saving treatment, they hoped the case highlighted the need for better communication with federal immigration officials. 'We cannot ignore the systemic challenges that brought Sofia to the brink,' the attorneys said, using a pseudonym for the girl. 'Her parole was terminated without warning ... It took an international outcry and pressure from elected officials to get a response—something that used to take a single phone call.' Humanitarian parole, which doesn't put migrants on a path to U.S. citizenship, was widely used during the Biden administration to alleviate pressure on the U.S.-Mexico southern border. It was previously used on a case-by-case basis to address individual emergencies and also for people fleeing humanitarian crises around the world including Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos during the late 1970s. In Mexico, the girl was largely confined to a hospital because of her medical condition, said her mother, Deysi Vargas. After joining a program at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, she can now receive treatment at home in Bakersfield, California, and go to the park and store like other children, Vargas has said. Lawyers said the girl's medical treatment, which requires 14 hours a day of intravenous nutrition, will not be necessary indefinitely but that she is not at the point where she could live without it.
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Mexican 4-year-old allowed to continue receiving lifesaving care in US
LOS ANGELES — A 4-year-old Mexican girl who receives lifesaving medical care from a Southern California hospital was granted permission to remain in the country weeks after federal authorities said she could be deported, her family's attorneys said Tuesday. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security granted the girl and her mother humanitarian parole for one year so she can continue to receive treatment she has been getting since arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2023, according to a copy of a letter received by Rebecca Brown, an attorney for the family from the nonprofit Public Counsel. An email message was sent to the Department of Homeland Security seeking comment. The girl's family said they were notified in April and May that their humanitarian parole was being revoked and they would be subject to potential deportation. The Trump administration has been pushing to dismantle policies from former President Joe Biden's administration that granted temporary legal status for certain migrants and allowed them to live legally in the U.S., generally for two years. The girl was taken to a hospital upon arriving on at the U.S.-Mexico border with her mother in 2023 and released once she was stable enough. She receives intravenous nutrition through a special backpack for short bowel syndrome, which prevents her from being able to take in and process nutrients on her own, and lawyers said the treatment she receives is necessary at this stage for her to survive and isn't available in Mexico. The family's attorneys from Public Counsel said in a statement that while they were grateful the administration 'acted swiftly' to ensure the girl could continue her life-saving treatment, they hoped the case highlighted the need for better communication with federal immigration officials. 'We cannot ignore the systemic challenges that brought Sofia to the brink,' the attorneys said, using a pseudonym for the girl. 'Her parole was terminated without warning ... It took an international outcry and pressure from elected officials to get a response—something that used to take a single phone call.' Humanitarian parole, which doesn't put migrants on a path to U.S. citizenship, was widely used during the Biden administration to alleviate pressure on the U.S.-Mexico southern border. It was previously used on a case-by-case basis to address individual emergencies and also for people fleeing humanitarian crises around the world including Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos during the late 1970s. In Mexico, the girl was largely confined to a hospital because of her medical condition, said her mother, Deysi Vargas. After joining a program at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, she can now receive treatment at home in Bakersfield, California, and go to the park and store like other children, Vargas has said. Lawyers said the girl's medical treatment, which requires 14 hours a day of intravenous nutrition, will not be necessary indefinitely but that she is not at the point where she could live without it.
Politico
04-06-2025
- General
- Politico
Mexican 4-year-old allowed to continue receiving lifesaving care in US
LOS ANGELES — A 4-year-old Mexican girl who receives lifesaving medical care from a Southern California hospital was granted permission to remain in the country weeks after federal authorities said she could be deported, her family's attorneys said Tuesday. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security granted the girl and her mother humanitarian parole for one year so she can continue to receive treatment she has been getting since arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2023, according to a copy of a letter received by Rebecca Brown, an attorney for the family from the nonprofit Public Counsel. An email message was sent to the Department of Homeland Security seeking comment. The girl's family said they were notified in April and May that their humanitarian parole was being revoked and they would be subject to potential deportation. The Trump administration has been pushing to dismantle policies from former President Joe Biden's administration that granted temporary legal status for certain migrants and allowed them to live legally in the U.S., generally for two years. The girl was taken to a hospital upon arriving on at the U.S.-Mexico border with her mother in 2023 and released once she was stable enough. She receives intravenous nutrition through a special backpack for short bowel syndrome, which prevents her from being able to take in and process nutrients on her own, and lawyers said the treatment she receives is necessary at this stage for her to survive and isn't available in Mexico. The family's attorneys from Public Counsel said in a statement that while they were grateful the administration 'acted swiftly' to ensure the girl could continue her life-saving treatment, they hoped the case highlighted the need for better communication with federal immigration officials. 'We cannot ignore the systemic challenges that brought Sofia to the brink,' the attorneys said, using a pseudonym for the girl. 'Her parole was terminated without warning ... It took an international outcry and pressure from elected officials to get a response—something that used to take a single phone call.' Humanitarian parole, which doesn't put migrants on a path to U.S. citizenship, was widely used during the Biden administration to alleviate pressure on the U.S.-Mexico southern border. It was previously used on a case-by-case basis to address individual emergencies and also for people fleeing humanitarian crises around the world including Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos during the late 1970s. In Mexico, the girl was largely confined to a hospital because of her medical condition, said her mother, Deysi Vargas. After joining a program at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, she can now receive treatment at home in Bakersfield, California, and go to the park and store like other children, Vargas has said. Lawyers said the girl's medical treatment, which requires 14 hours a day of intravenous nutrition, will not be necessary indefinitely but that she is not at the point where she could live without it.
Toronto Star
04-06-2025
- General
- Toronto Star
Mexican 4-year-old is granted humanitarian parole to continue receiving lifesaving care in US
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A 4-year-old Mexican girl who receives lifesaving medical care from a Southern California hospital was granted permission to remain in the country weeks after federal authorities said she could be deported, her family's attorneys said Tuesday. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security granted the girl and her mother humanitarian parole for one year so she can continue to receive treatment she has been getting since arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2023, according to a copy of a letter received by Rebecca Brown, an attorney for the family from the nonprofit Public Counsel.
