the campus of New Jersey City University is still reeling after a state Watchdog report last week blamed the school's leaders for causing its financial crisis an investigation by New Jersey's comptroller points to a lack of oversight by the University's governing board deliberate budgeting missteps and actions to cover it up as the key reasons behind the school's fiscal mess senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan reports I think that when the report came out no one was surprised faculty at New Jersey City University say the state comptroller's report merely confirmed what folks here at the 90-year-old institution already suspected that their current budget crisis was egregiously self-inflicted the professors Union saw problems everyone here union members and even some students knew that the administration the previous administration was mismanaging the place people have been concerned about the financial uh situation of the university for quite some time acting steer Kevin Walsh dug into the public University's budget details and his report uncovered a collective failure of leadership a failure of governance at a really difficult time Walsh's report found the school had gone on a building and spending spree but its revenues didn't keep Pace despite tuition hikes in 2021 njcu's Administration faced a shortfall and budgeted 14 million dollars in federal coveted funds that weren't legally eligible to cover it higher ed expert Dustin Whedon explains so your costs are increasing your enrollment's declining and the those should be red flags if anybody's doing any sort of financial monitoring and it doesn't appear that anybody was it's important to note that the 14 million dollar budget cap was not inevitable it was the result of poor decision-making by leadership and a breakdown in governance he says njcu's Chief Financial Officer did warn the administration which ultimately spent down its reserves instead of misspending federal covet funds by June it had only 25 days of operating cash left the Board of Trustees without required training in fiscal management let it happen president Sue Henderson resigned with a sweet 288 thousand dollar deal the board allowed the President to resign then with a six-figure separation package without ever looking into the causes of the crisis she led the university into Walsh recommended an independent Financial monitor for NJCU its new interim president Andre acebo now heads the effort to rescue the school with a cash infusion from State taxpayers NJCU said in a statement No funds were misappropriated senior administrators whose conduct is discussed in the report are no law longer employed at the University which has implemented additional reductions to eliminate the deficit over the next two years The Faculty is devoted to it the new members of the administration are working very hard the faculty who's put together a full court PR press lobbying Trenton lawmakers for 25 million dollars to help the university recover financially but they hope that money comes with more oversight this reinforces the need for strong state level coordination and that's everything from program approval and review authority to financial monitoring Whedon says this goes beyond NJCU the comptroller's report recommends State lawmakers consider resuming Financial oversight of New Jersey's public colleges and universities they spend taxpayer dollars at NJCU 66 percent of the students are black and brown and 54 percent qualify for federal aid I was here on the scholarship so I was one of the lucky ones thankfully Janiah Smith just graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in business in Jersey City I'm Brenda Flanagan NJ Spotlight News