Call it win-win meets the hit-by-a-truck scenario.
With a small staff, Russel Kost knew that documenting all the procedures in the alumni relations office could be one of those projects that keeps getting bumped to meet some other deadline. He also knew what it was like to lose a key staff member. Then Paulette Tandy, chair of the accounting department, offered a solution.
As part of her department’s internal auditing class, students examine the operations of a campus department to recommend how it can run more efficiently within their current budgets.
A Win for Alumni Relations
"The project", says Kost, associate vice president for alumni relations, "will help ensure that the alumni association operations are run with industry “best practices.” It will also help capture some of the knowledge of the office’s employees."
“When a long-term employee leaves and the organization hasn’t documented all the processes and procedures that particular employee developed through the years, it’s an incredible sinkhole to start out in,” Kost says.
The 10 students in the class were divided into teams of five, with two teams assigned to the association’s project. One team concentrated on the financial processes — how records are kept and what controls are in place. The other examined the policies and procedures of the membership records system.
The audits were led by internal auditing professionals who volunteer their time. Supervising the alumni relations projects were C. Monica Robles, ’96 BS Accounting, an internal auditor for the Clark County School District, and Philip Cheng, city auditor for North Las Vegas.
Student Jennifer Luebbert said the first step in assessing the operation is to determine what it is they do.
“If they don’t have any policies and procedures, you try to create them. You determine whether or not they are following their procedures and document their internal control over their assets,” she explains.
“Then you test those controls to determine if they are being done and if they’re effective,” she added. The final step is presenting the findings and recommendations in a report to management.
In the audit of the association processes, for example, an area that the students examined was membership records — what type of records are kept, how they are maintained, and so on, Tandy said.
A Win for Students
The students have the chance to gain reallife experience and implement the theory discussed in class. And for the departments and businesses that seek the audits, the program offers ways to improve how they do business.
“There are several instances where they implemented the things that the students suggested,” Tandy said. “It’s always nice when that happens.”
Since the auditing projects began in 1999, several university departments and student organizations have been examined.
On campus, the auditing projects carry an additional benefit: It gives non-academic departments an opportunity to participate in the students’ education, Tandy said.
Luebbert graduated in May with bachelor’s degrees in accounting and psychology. She has already landed a job and will begin working as a staff accountant with Houldsworth, Russo and Co. in August.
“The experience has been great,” she said. “We’re working with a project manager who is actually working in internal auditing, and she has given us great feedback.”
When the alumni relations office went into the auditing process, it was trying to get answers to some key questions.
“If I get hit by a truck tomorrow, will the university know what I do right now? Will it have a document or plan to reference who does what, when, why, and with what intended result?” Kost says. The students helped come up with answers. The result will be a smoother, more streamlined operation.
“As an institution, we’re growing so fast that we’re not always able to take the time out to document what we’re doing and how we’re doing it,” he says. “The students helped point us in the right direction.”
