During special session, Trustees accept annual audit

In a special session October 27, the Central Michigan University Board of Trustees voted to receive the fiscal year 2025 audit. Michelle Fowler, principal auditor from Rehmann Robson LLC, presented Trustees with a clean audit report.

“We are pleased to report there were not any material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in internal control that we needed to report as a result of the audit,” she said. “We did not have any audit adjustments, or basically no errors, that would have been detected as the result of our procedures…so very clean results.”

Audit Committee Chair Ed Plawecki complimented both the team from independent auditor Rehmann Robson and the CMU staff in Finance and Administrative Services for their expeditious work in completing the audit.

Trustees also held a meeting of the Finance and Facilities Committee to receive an update from Mary Hill on utilities spending and to discuss financing plans for the Women’s and Men’s Golf Training Facility.

Jonathan Webb, associate vice president for facilities management, also gave an overview of CMU’s process for identifying and securing rates for natural gas and electric power. He said the university uses an energy broker for natural gas, which is a publicly traded commodity, and is currently issuing a Request for Qualification to three vendors for electricity.

"This process allows us to shop for the best rates for CMU,” Webb said.

Trustees also discussed a 0% interest loan for up to nine years to finance part of the cost of building a new Women’s and Men’s Golf Training Facility.

CMU Athletics and Advancement have secured $5.7 million in donations to date and are continuing to fundraise for the project, said Mary Hill, vice president of finance and administrative services. A donor has offered to provide a mid-term, interest-free loan of up to $3.2 million to allow CMU to complete the financing of the project.

Following discussion of the loan amount and terms, the Trustees approved a resolution to authorize the CMU President to sign the Promissory Note for the loan if additional project funding is required.

In other Board action, Trustees approved the meeting minutes from the September 18, 2025, formal session. The next meeting of the Board of Trustees will be November 20-21, 2025.