Western Washington University offers fraudulent “ghost classes” according to internal audit.

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Higher education in Washington State needs more housekeeping to clean up their declining reputations (not to mention the claims they are “educating” their students).  While the national focus has been on the Evergreen College fiasco, downward spiral, and likely collapse (See here, here, and here), it appears Evergreen College is not alone in failing to educate the students who go into debt to attend these institutions. 

Located Just a few hours north of Evergreen College is Western Washington University. The campus is located in the City of Bellingham.  Like Evergreen, this is another State College, also located near Puget Sound.  While Western has its fair share of “Woke” Professors and is also self-immolating under the Diversity, Intersectionality, and Equity (D.I.E.) religion, they have avoided Evergreen’s very public weirdness, student bat brigades, and campus takeovers. This university also doesn’t appear to have leadership nearly as incompetent as George Bridges (Evergreen’s loony President). 

However, based on the results of a recent internal audit, they appear to have implemented a policy of falsifying credits and creating “ghost classes” or “ghost credits” for students in order to make sure the university gets the federal grant dollars and tuition they strive so hard to collect.  The complete audit from last July is linked here.  If you want interesting reading, go to Appendix B, and read their internal emails.  My favorite quote:

“It isn’t a course that you need to attend. Think of it as a “ghost” course.”

email from Sarah Jerns, Manager, Elementary Education Department Woodring College of Education, dated February 26, 2018 to a student asking how he can justify getting extra credits so he can qualify for student loans to be counted as “full time.” (see appendix B)

The conclusion of this audit basically determined that staff at Western Washington University committed:

1. Financial Aid Fraud (See Appendix A – page 1) which would expose the university to fines up to $57,317 per violation.  The report documented where this was done for at least 20 students (it seems likely there are many more). 
2. Course Participation without Registration (See Appendix A – page 9).  This affected at least 16 students.  This also appears to be impossible to document completely, but they documented at least a lost of $6,882 in tuition losses with this violation.
3. Misrepresentation of Credit Hours to Avoid Tuition Costs (See Appendix A – page 10).
4. Misapplication of Incomplete Grades (see Appendix A – page 14).  The auditors appear to have been able to document at least 24 students in this category.  Basically, given credit for classes they did not complete.

The entire Appendix B provides emails used in the internal audit investigation and provides entertaining reading if you have some familiarity with how education credits, tuition, and financial aid works.

Based on the statement of the auditors, it appears that upper management at Western Washington University didn’t want to accept the results of this report (although they promised to change their ways and presumably policies).  The management also wanted to make it clear that the auditors couldn’t formally determine criminal liability for staff or provide recommendations for staff discipline.

Unfortunately, after receiving this internal audit report, it looks like the former internal auditor Antonia Allen has been shifted into a different department.  . 

Last year, the University also settled with the former internal auditor, Matthew Babick, who appears to have been removed without cause from that position.  I hope to post the result of that settlement shortly.  Regardless, this doesn’t look good.  It is usually an obvious sign of problems at any organization when internal auditors are leaving or being shifted into different departments with alarming frequency.

Clearly, serious scrutiny of Western Washington University is in order, and while neither the current legislature nor Governor Inslee’s office is likely to take this fraud any more seriously than they have addressed the collapse of Evergreen College, at some time in the near future, someone serious will need to sort this mess. The State Auditor’s office would be a logical candidate for this review, but their office seems more focused on burying problems and not wanting to look very closely.

Even with the poor state of secondary education in Washington State today, committing financial aid fraud and gifting “ghost classes” is probably not the way to restore confidence in the value of public education today. 

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Related Articles:

Final Report Internal Audit – Western Washington University – July 2019

July 1, 2014 – Western hires Matt Babick as internal auditor

November 2016 – Western hires Antonia Allen

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