Reports from Pima Community College’s internal auditor are a sign to some that the school’s overseers are following through on their pledge to increase transparency.
The reports, which go back several years but were released to the public last week, detail some of the worst moments in an era of administrative upheaval.
In PCC’s aviation program, for example, some faculty members routinely went “dumpster-diving” in the trash bins of local aviation firms for tools and other items to use in class, a 2014 audit found.
Their actions put the school at risk of “significant” fines from the Federal Aviation Administration, loss of FAA program accreditation and “safety incidents” from using unapproved equipment for aircraft repairs, the audit said.
At PCC’s international student center, problems with homeland security implications went uncorrected for years, audits dating to 2012 show.
The college had no written procedures to ensure that foreign students met visa requirements. And at least twice last year, foreigners successfully applied to the school as domestic students, the audits found.
Some of the faulty practices the auditor identified, such as trash-picking by aviation center faculty, have ended. Others continue years later, and members of the school’s Governing Board want to know why.
Chancellor Lee Lambert, who has long known about the problems because the internal auditor reports to him directly, was on the hot seat Monday when the board opted to discuss the auditor’s findings in public.
Demion Clinco, the board’s newest member, asked Lambert to explain why so many problems the auditor finds take so long to fix.
“Two years is a long time for some of these issues to not be corrected,” Clinco said of the aviation findings.
Lambert said employees are working hard to improve timeliness and are “moving in the right direction.” He blamed past delays in follow-through on heavy workloads, high turnover and the mountain of problems he faced when he started work at PCC three years ago.
“What all of this reflects is that so many parts of the college have been fractured,” the chancellor said. “It’s monumental. We’re trying our best with what we have to work with to get things done.”
The mass release of internal audits comes one month after PCC’s accreditor sent a review team to Tucson to see if the school is meeting quality standards. College officials “are not aware of the reviewers requesting any of the internal audit reports,” PCC spokeswoman Libby Howell said.
“HONOR SYSTEM”
At the aviation center, high-priced tools and equipment purchased with public funds received little theft protection, the 2014 audit found.
Inventory control was on the “honor system,” and keeping track was impossible because the last known inventory list was a decade old, the report found. Items often were “borrowed” and taken off campus by faculty or local businesses, with nothing in writing to show what was taken or when it would be returned.
Conflict of interest violations also were common, the audit found. For example, some faculty members ran aviation-related businesses or had side-jobs with aviation firms but failed to disclose such activities in writing as required by state law.
The inventory control issues were still uncorrected when the auditor last checked in May. The Governing Board wants all remaining problems fixed by year’s end.
CYBERSECURITY FLAWS
PCC’s information technology department, which was without permanent leadership for nearly two years until a recent hire, has “critical cybersecurity planning issues,” an April audit found.
The school is unprepared to deal with a major hacking incident, it said.
“The lack of a data breach plan places the college at increased risk for reputation damage, potential credit-monitoring costs for individuals impacted by a breach, and monetary penalties,” the audit said.
One of the best ways to prevent data breaches is through in-depth training for all employees, but such training “does not exist” at the college, the audit found.
Work has begun to correct those problems, but the department is understaffed and has high turnover, complicating the effort, the audit said.
SEX DISCRIMINATION
An audit in June of this year found the college in conflict with Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination at schools that receive financial aid.
Sexual harassment and sexual violence are forms of discrimination under the law, and schools are required to aid victims, protect them from retaliation and educate students and employees.
PCC falls short in several areas, the audit found. For example, schools must provide clear information on what constitutes sexual harassment or violence, how to report it and where to find help. The audit said the college has “very few information resources available.”
The law also requires schools to promote prevention and awareness — for example, by providing information in student handbooks and brochures. That also isn’t happening, the audit found.
SIGN OF PROGRESS?
While the audit contents were unflattering, some see the public disclosure as a big step forward for a school that’s often been criticized for secrecy.
Board member Martha Durkin, who was appointed last year and is running for election to the board’s District 5 seat, mentioned the release of audit reports at a campaign appearance last week as evidence of the college’s commitment to openness.
When problems occur, “it’s better to put it out there,” she told the Democrats of Greater Tucson.
Luis A. Gonzales, who is running against Durkin, said the audit results are “an indictment” of PCC’s leadership and questioned why the school waited so long to make the findings public.
Board member Clinco said the release of audits was a pivotal moment that left him feeling positive about PCC’s future.
“We are moving toward a culture of identifying problems and fixing them,” he said.
“It’s going to take time, but I am optimistic.”
