Operations, Audit and Risk Committee Meeting February 3, 2023 - Christopher Newport University

Board of Visitors

Operations, Audit and Risk Committee Meeting February 3, 2023

The Operations, Audit and Risk Committee met on Friday, February 3 at 9:45 a.m. in the David Student Union Board Room with Chair Terri M. McKnight presiding.

Present from the Committee

  • Terri M. McKnight, CPA, Chair
  • Robert R. Hatten, Esq.
  • Kelli Purdy Meadows, CPA

Absent from the Committee

  • Regina Brayboy
  • Lee Vreeland

Present from the University

  • Mrs. Ashleigh Andrews, Associate Vice President/Chief Human Resources Officer
  • Mrs. Faith Belote, Director of Internal Audit
  • Mr. Bob Colvin, Interim Chief of Staff
  • Mr. Andrew Crawford, Chief Information Officer
  • Mr. Bryan Donohue, Director of Emergency Management
  • Mrs. Sarah Herzog, Director of Planning and Budget
  • Mrs. Jennifer Latour, Vice President for Finance and Planning/Chief Financial Officer
  • Ms. Christine Ledford, Vice President for Administration and Auxiliary Services
  • Ms. Olga Lipatova, Faculty Staff Representative
  • Mr. David Ralph, Information Technology Internal Auditor
  • Ms. Christina Russell, Senior Internal Auditor
  • Mrs. Rhonda Wissinger, Executive Administrative Assistant

Public in Attendance

  • None

Chair McKnight called the meeting to order and welcomed everyone in attendance.

Approval of November 18, 2022 Minutes

Chair McKnight asked if everyone had a chance to review the Operations, Audit and Risk Committee minutes from November 18, 2022. There being no comments, edits or suggestions, Chair McKnight called for a motion to approve the minutes as presented. Mr. Robert R. Hatten, provided the motion, which was seconded by Ms. Kelly Meadows and the minutes were approved by unanimous vote of the committee.

Mrs. Latour, Vice President for Finance and Planning/Chief Financial Officer introduced Mr. Andrew Crawford, Chief Information Officer to provide an overview of Information Technology Services.

Presentation by Chief Information Officer

Mr. Crawford presented an overview ofInformation Technology Services and reported that there are 18 computer labs, 108 open workstations and 1,700 managed faculty/staff devices. There were 5,741 support requests for IT services in the last 6 months. Mr. Crawford discussed campus infrastructure, data centers and internet service providers. The IT department consists of 39 employees and their business units include academic technology, information security, network infrastructure, support services, web services, enterprise services, management, project management office, and systems and database operations. Mr. Crawford reported on the governing bodies and processes, advisory bodies, the campus technology footprint and provided a cyber-security overview. He also discussed the major projects that they are currently involved with.

Mrs. Latour then introduced Mrs. Ashleigh Andrews, Associate Vice President/Chief Human Resources Officer to provide an update on the Compensation Study.

Report from Associate Vice President/Chief Human Resources Officer

Mrs. Andrews reported that Human Resources conducted a compensation study in 2022 for classified/hourly employees to improve the compensation and retention rate of employees. At the completion of the study, 46% received an increase for a total cost to the University of $900,000. A compensation study for A/P (Administrative Professionals) faculty is underway and initial reports show that Christopher Newport University is falling behind the market by 18.6%. Human Resources is continuing the study and results will be given as soon as they are available. The company that is providing the compensation study is Gallagher and they will be comparing salaries with other higher education institutions as well as the private sector. The last time a compensation study was done was in 2010 so this will help to make Christopher Newport University more competitive with the current job market.

Internal Audit Report

Mrs. Faith Belote, Director of University Audit, reported on the status of the Audit Plan for FY 2022–2023. The Faculty Recruitment and Succession Planning audit report has been completed. By mid-February, the review and approval to release the report by the Vice President of Finance and Planning/Chief Financial Officer are anticipated. This final report, including management action plans, should be completed by mid-March. Student Accounts audit planning is underway. TheStarRezSoftware application audit fieldwork is in progress. Internal Audit has selected an automated work paper solution under evaluation by the IT Tech vetting team. The University Fraud training presentation has been developed.

Mrs. Belote reported on the summary status of audit issues stating the Maxient audit follow-up is progressing, with nine audit points targeted for completion by May 15, 2023. The Disaster Recovery Planning audit follow-up is a work in progress. Four open points are currently targeted for completion by June 1, 2023. Six Laboratory Safety audit points are complete, and eight remain open, targeted for completion by April 1, 2023.

A small purchase charge card misuse has occurred, resulting in employee termination. A process is in place to recover the immaterial dollar amount.

There being no further business the meeting adjourned at 10:33 a.m.

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