Calculating the Cost of Compliance at a Predominantly Undergraduate Institution of Higher Education ABSTRACT he cost of complying with regulations is often cited as one of the drivers of the high price of college tuition. However, little published work on calculating this cost at the institutional level exists. The authors conducted in-depth research on the cost of compliance with federal, state, local and NCAA regulations at a Division I, predominantly undergraduate institution.
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS Patrick Hogan, is Associate Vice President of Financial Planning and Budget at Loyola Marymount University. He is responsible for oversight of the university budget, financial modeling and internal controls. Patrick received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Loyola University Maryland with a focus on Management Information Systems. Prior to joining Loyola Marymount University, Patrick held performance management consulting positions at Capgemini and Longview Solutions. Joseph McNicholas PhD, MBA, s the Director of Research Opportunities at the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University. Prior to this position, he was the Director of Research and Sponsored Projects at Loyola Marymount where he was selected for the Senior Vice President Fellows Program, an honor which supported the development of this research project. Joseph earned his PhD in English at the University of Texas at Austin and his MBA at the University of Redlands.
Administrators from the six primary units on campus identified employee effort spent on compliance activities, as well as costs related to software, training, fees and external consultations to maintain or report on these activities. This article lays out the methodology used; identifies the parameters, limits and definitions employed; and provides historical context on previous work in this area. It identifies costs by category and by unit and briefly addresses the issue of regulation as a factor in higher tuition "...at the time of this costs. writing, the most INTRODUCTION credible, publicly Loyola Marymount University (LMU), established in 1911 and located in Los Angeles, is a private, not- for-profit, 4-year available claims of and above university committed to providing students with a the costs of regulatory humanistic, liberal arts education in the Jesuit and Marymount tradition. The university comprises four colleges and three compliance range from schools: the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts, the College of less than 1% of operating Business Administration, the College of Communication and Fine Arts, the Frank R. Seaver College of Science and costs at a private liberal Engineering, Loyola Law School, the School of Education, and arts and sciences college the School of Film and Television. The university offers 57 to 7.5% and 11% at major and 51 minor undergraduate degrees and programs. The Graduate Division offers 43 master’s degree programs, premiere research one education doctorate, one doctorate in juridical science, institutions..." one juris doctorate and 13 credential programs. The athletics program competes in NCAA Division I. The university enrolls 6,162 undergraduates and 3,133 graduate students, and employs 550 full-time faculty members. In 2014, the Board of Trustees and the Chief Financial Officer at LMU asked its Regulatory Compliance Committee (RCC) to discover the cost of regulatory compliance on a universitywide scale. As we began researching the question, we found little existing professional literature and no published models for universities to consider in attempting to ascertain these costs. This is true in spite of the fact that 77% of governing boards at institutions of higher education report discussing operational, legal and regulatory risks at their board meetings (AGB/UE, 2014, p. 6). Likewise, there was little common language available to define crucial terms. Over the course of 18 months, the authors worked extensively with the RCC and with leaders across campus to develop a model that would adequately capture these costs at LMU.
9 COLLEGE & UNIVERSITY AUDITOR
Compliance
By Patrick Hogan and Joseph McNicholas PhD, MBA