Letter from the Editor

Publication Date: December 4, 2023

Hello ACUA Members!

Last week my county’s Superior Court summoned me for jury duty. I wound up being Juror #9 in a short two-day trial. The experience was nowhere as humorous as the Amazon Prime Video series “Jury Duty,” but it had its moments. While doing my civic duty was a bit of an inconvenience, it provided an interesting mental break. My only job was to listen and apply reason. No phones, emails, meetings, or daily distractions. Just calming focus.

I realized conducting an audit is like serving every position in a trial simultaneously. Like the attorneys, we must find facts, both positive and negative, and learn from our key witnesses and subject matter experts. We carefully document our workpapers, like the tireless court reporter capturing every word. As a judge, we keep the engagement relevant and on track until we, as our own jury, come to our conclusions.

One key difference is in a trial, you only measure against the law. Not what you think it should be, not what would be best. As auditors we have the amazing opportunity to go beyond merely judging compliance. We create recommendations to make things better. That is our value.

Like a law library, this issue of the C&U Journal adds several great resources to our collection. Ken Lish and Billy McCain from the National Science Foundation share their Promising Practices for NSF Award Management report, a must read for research universities. In a nod to October’s cybersecurity month, Bruce Tong presents his favorite IT tests when performing departmental audits, David Clark from BDO shares ways to leverage technology during audits, and Sabine Charles discusses authentication factors. Agnessa Vartanova invites you to consider culture in audits. Our ACUA news section includes award winners, an AI poll, and an artifact challenge.

As we strive to complete our audits before the hectic holiday season, let’s not forget the importance of listening and applying reason.

Sincerely,
Kara Hefner