NC A&T handed out $5.1M in aid with no rules for who qualified
Summary
A North Carolina State Auditor investigation, opened after the university self-reported the problem, found NC A&T's Division of Business and Finance redirected $5,095,277 in student fees as financial assistance over eight years -- with no policy authorizing the practice, no merit or need criteria, and no requirement to document who got what or why. Nearly two-thirds went to out-of-state students. Over $781,000 went to students connected to university employees or officials, including a scholarship that quintupled its own annual budget for one administrator's son. The matter has been referred to the State Bureau of Investigation.
Eight years, no rules
NC A&T's Administrative Recovery Funds (ARF) -- fees students pay for housing, dining, and parking, meant to offset administrative costs -- have no policy permitting their use for tuition assistance at all. From July 2017 through June 2025⧉, the university's Division of Business and Finance used them that way anyway, distributing $5,095,277 to students with no evidence of merit or financial need behind any of it.
View data as table
| Out-of-state students | 3,239,371 |
|---|---|
| In-state students | 1,855,906 |
Nephews, daughters, and a scholarship that quintupled its own budget
Of the total, $781,142 went to students with a personal or professional tie to the university. Twenty-four were themselves employees or family members of employees; the five who received the most -- a former Real Estate Foundation director's nephew, a board member's daughter, an instructor's son, an associate vice chancellor's son, and an assistant vice chancellor's daughter⧉ -- together took in $152,255. Separately, the former Associate Vice Provost overseeing financial aid had a hold placed on his own son's account so the son could stay enrolled despite an unpaid balance, in violation of university policy. That son then received a $10,000 scholarship budgeted at just $2,068 -- more than the same scholarship had paid out, combined, over the prior seven years.
View data as table
| Division-connected recipients (20 students) | 542,737 |
|---|---|
| Employees or their family members (24 students) | 238,405 |
One official's inner circle got $97,678
A separate $542,737 went to 20 recipients connected specifically to the Division itself. The former Vice Chancellor for Business and Finance⧉ used his authority to award one out-of-state student $49,024, then unilaterally authorized $36,654 and $12,000 more for two of that same student's friends -- $97,678 total, from one official, to one social circle.
A structural gap, not just individual choices
OSA's central finding wasn't just who got money -- it was that almost nobody was positioned to stop it. The Division alone identified recipients, set award amounts, and approved disbursements, with no segregation of duties and no secondary review. Combined with the absence of any written eligibility criteria, that left award decisions entirely to leadership discretion, which OSA says is what let conflicts of interest go undetected for years.
The university's response
NC A&T agreed with every finding and committed to corrective action: an independent external audit of its financial-aid process, mandatory ethics and compliance training for financial-aid staff, and new written policies covering all internally awarded scholarships, including ones to employees' relatives. The State Auditor's Office referred the matter to the State Bureau of Investigation, and Auditor Dave Boliek said he separately notified the Guilford County District Attorney, calling the conduct "gross misconduct." OSA cautions its own review wasn't exhaustive -- it doesn't rule out further findings. As of this piece's publication, roughly three months after the report's release, no criminal charges or SBI findings had been publicly reported.
The takeaway
- The university caught this itself, then asked for the audit. Current NC A&T leadership flagged a single case and requested the broader review that found $5.1 million in undocumented awards -- a self-reporting choice this piece treats as a mitigating fact, not a footnote.
- No policy meant no accountability. ARFs were never authorized for tuition assistance in the first place -- the absence of a rule, not the breaking of one, is what let a single division control $5.1 million with no oversight.
- The money followed relationships, not need. Out-of-state students -- who pay the most and qualify least for need-based aid -- received 64% of the funds. The employees and officials with personal ties to the Division controlled who got the rest.
OSA's report identifies the officials involved only by title, never by personal name, and this piece does the same. The report describes each implicated official as 'former' but does not state when or why any of them left their positions -- it does not say any departure was a direct result of these findings, and this piece does not imply that. OSA's report also states its review 'was not exhaustive' and 'cannot guarantee the absence of any wrongdoing' -- this piece treats the $5,095,277 figure and the named connections as what OSA found and verified, not as a claim that no other instances exist. The matter's referral to the State Bureau of Investigation and the Guilford County District Attorney means any criminal determination remains open and unresolved as of this report. NC A&T's cooperative, fully-concurring response is included because it materially shapes how this incident differs from cases where an institution disputes or resists its findings.
Sources(2) ▾
- North Carolina Office of the State Auditor, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University Investigative Special Report (2026-04-23) — An investigative special report by North Carolina State Auditor Dave Boliek, opened after NC A&T self-reported improper conduct in student financial assistance, including the university's own written management response. Fetched directly and converted with pdftotext -layout. auditor.nc.gov · original document
- North Carolina Office of the State Auditor, State Auditor's Office Releases NC A&T Investigative Report (2026-04-23) — The State Auditor's own press release accompanying the report, used for the Guilford County District Attorney notification detail and Auditor Boliek's on-record characterization of the conduct -- neither of which appears in the report PDF itself. auditor.nc.gov · original document
Comments
Always open. Logged-in readers can annotate paragraphs in place.
North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, a Historically Black land-grant institution founded in 1891, self-reported a problem to the State Auditor's Office: financial aid promised to a student connected to a university employee. What OSA found⧉ went well beyond one case -- $5,095,277 in student fees redirected as financial assistance over eight years, with no policy governing who qualified or how much they got.