The Grand Rapids Community College’s financial audit has officially been reviewed and was accepted by the GRCC Board of Trustees and President Charles Lepper during their meeting on Oct. 16. GRCC also is looking into how to fund a new project with the Library and Learning Commons along with an update on the GRCC Foundation’s achievement in scholarships this semester.
GRCC has to go through an audit process every year for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to ensure that the college is in good standing financially. The College partners with Plante Moran, an accounting firm based out of Southfield, Michigan.
“We have received complete cooperation,” said Vicki VanDenBerg, an accountant from Plante Moran. “The letter has no issues noted, just a lot of information about what’s happening out there in the industry”
During the meeting the GRCC Foundation shared that they had given out over $1 million in scholarships this semester alone .
“We have awarded almost $1 million to over 1,000 students,” said the Executive Director of the GRCC Foundation, Erin Van Egmond. “We still have more awards to make for the winter semester.”
The GRCC Foundation will be hosting its most significant event of the year, Scholarfest, on Oct. 24. This annual event celebrates the college’s philanthropic leaders and highlights the achievements of the faculty and staff at GRCC.
Lisa Freiburger, Vice President for Finance and Administration, and Victoria Janowiak, the Executive Director of Operational Planning spoke with the board to propose
a project request to help renovate the Library and Learning Commons building. This Project was proposed back in 2021 and again in 2022 but was not passed.
“You may remember we have talked to you twice now about the LRC (Learning Resource Center) and that being our top project report,” said Freiburger. “We have submitted that (proposal) both for the 21-22 and 22-23…We are again asking you to approve the LRC as our highest priority request.”
They hope to move forward with the project this semester if it is approved by the board and state but it is not guaranteed. The project would cost $33.6 million with the state paying for half.
During Lepper’s update, he shared that the GRCC had a total economic impact of $1 billion for Kent and Ottawa counties. With spending impacts of $110.2 million, construction spending impact of $7.3 million, student spending impact of $31.9 million and alumni impact of $898.4 million.
The board approved and accepted two new grants during their meeting to help fund departments on campus.
The first is for the GRCC Play and Learn program, which was awarded $404,170 from the Kent County Early Childhood Millage to help continue programming in the community. This program hosts several playgroups for parents and children at GRCC and several places throughout Kent County in hopes of assisting kids transition into Kindergarten as smoothly as possible.
The second is for GRCC’s School of Liberal Arts, which was awarded a grant of $81,000 from the State of Michigan’s Office of Sixty by 30. GRCC hopes to participate in the Immigrant Success Grant initiative and use the funds to refresh and scale up a previous English as a Second Language (ESL) Fast-Track Workshop in hopes of increasing student retention rates.
Here are the purchase items approved by the board in their meeting:
General Fund
- A purchase order for $30,000 was issued to provide payment for athletic officials.
Other Special Funds
- A purchase order for $75,154.84 was issued to purchase replacement furniture for the Administration Building.
- A purchase order for $80,792.67 was issued to provide motorcycles for motorcycle safety courses.
- A purchase order for $45,000 was issued to provide payment to MWTEC for the Program Director for the Surgical Tech program.
