Message to Campus on Financial Assistance Audit

April 23, 2026

Dear Aggies,

When I joined North Carolina A&T in 2024, I made a commitment to our entire university community — three values that would guide every decision and define this university under my leadership.

First, we would ensure that our planning and actions are student-centric, always asking ourselves whether a decision or opportunity is in students' best interests. Second, we would be disciplined about our decision-making. And third, we would always operate with a high level of integrity and accountability.

During Fall Semester 2025, members of my team brought concerns to my attention about improper financial assistance disbursements that predated my tenure. I acted immediately — authorizing a full investigative audit through the Office of Internal Auditing to get to the bottom of the matter. We learned from that investigation that these disbursements totaled $5.1 million over an eight-year period.

The improperly disbursed funds came from administrative recovery funds — institutional cost-recovery allocations derived from fees students pay for housing, dining, and parking. These were not federal funds or state-allocated funds. Rather than being awarded through the normal processes established by the Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships, this financial assistance was awarded through the Division of Business and Finance during the tenure of the former Vice Chancellor for Business and Finance. We have a responsibility to ensure that financial assistance is allocated through a fair and equitable process. The amount of financial assistance a student receives should never be a function of who they know. We award assistance based on need and merit — not on relationships or as favors.

In response to our findings, we took immediate and decisive action:

• The Office of the State Auditor (OSA) reviewed and assessed our audit findings. By law, OSA is charged with reviewing matters that may involve fraud, waste, or abuse. Full transparency requires an impartial external review, and we complied and cooperated fully. Based on elements of the findings, and in coordination with the OSA, this matter is being referred to the Guilford County District Attorney's Office and State Bureau of Investigation for further investigation. We will continue to cooperate fully with authorities as this process moves forward.
• The practice of the Division of Business and Finance awarding financial assistance has been permanently discontinued. Financial aid has always been and will continue to be administered exclusively through the Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships, which is undergoing its own review to strengthen criteria, oversight, and segregation of duties. Appropriate personnel actions have been taken, and we are evaluating all available options for recovery of funds.
• State Auditor Dave Boliek is meeting today with the NC A&T Board of Trustees' Risk Management, Audit and Compliance Committee to share a special report from his review. You will likely see related news coverage over the next few days. As a leading HBCU and member of the UNC System, we welcome this public opportunity for transparency.

As students prepare to enroll this fall and apply for financial assistance, it is critical that each and every one have full faith that their application will be judged fairly and impartially. Based on the diligence, transparency, and commitment to our values that our team has demonstrated throughout this process, I am confident that we have built a financial aid system that is fair, equitable, efficient, and effective — and worthy of the full trust of every student and family we serve.

Sharing a communication like this is never easy — but sometimes the harder thing is the right thing to do. Our core values require transparency, responsibility, and integrity, and we hold ourselves to the same standard we ask of our students, faculty, and staff. What I also want you to know is this: we are a forward-looking organization. We learn from the past, grow stronger every single day, and remain united in shared vision. The challenges described above are from a prior period — they do not define us, and they do not reflect the institution we are today.

What the record makes undeniably clear is this: North Carolina A&T is thriving and rapidly expanding on all fronts.

Last year was the strongest academic year in our history. We set institutional records across nearly every major student success metric — graduation rates, student retention, debt at graduation, first-year retention, and new program development. We also achieved record levels in both undergraduate and graduate degree production.

The only area where we did not surpass the previous year was research output — and that was not due to institutional performance, but to the impact of significant reductions in federal research funding. Even with that constraint, our overall performance reached historic levels — an unprecedented standard of achievement for this university.

And as remarkable as last year was, this year is already shaping up to be even stronger. We fully expect a second consecutive year of record-breaking undergraduate and graduate enrollment, continued gains in student success outcomes, and renewed momentum in research as funding conditions stabilize.

In fact, based on the data in hand, we expect to exceed the vast majority of our stretch goals — representing not only a second consecutive record-breaking year, but performance that places North Carolina A&T as the highest-performing university in the UNC System this year relative to achieving our key performance indicators.

Our strategic focus remains clear. We are boldly engaging the future through our framework of Now. Next. Beyond.

In the Now, we are focused on creating the best possible student experience — strengthening support systems, enhancing academic success, and ensuring every student has the opportunity to thrive. This includes initiatives like our Aggies at the Goal Line program, which is actively bringing stopped-out students back to finish the degrees they started and the futures they deserve.

In the Next, we are building a leading research and innovation platform as we advance toward R1 status — with that designation now within reach — expanding capacity, competitiveness, and impact across key areas of discovery and application.

And in the Beyond, we are intentionally expanding our reach — building on a strong local and regional reputation to grow our national and global presence, partnerships, and impact.

Taken together, this is not incremental improvement. This is sustained, system-wide excellence at a level this institution has never experienced before.

The best of North Carolina A&T is not behind us. It is ahead of us. And we will get there — together.

With Aggie Pride,

James R. Martin II
Chancellor