The Board of Visitors’ Audit, Compliance and Risk Committee met Friday, where they heard a presentation about compliance guidelines and a new incident management software from Gary Nimax, assistant vice president for compliance. The Committee then entered closed session for the remainder of the meeting, where they were scheduled to speak about the performance of specific employees, as well as discussions of proprietary business information and legal issues.
Nimax gave a brief overview of the University Compliance Program — which aims to prevent and address potential regulatory or legal violations by the University, as well as to promote proper conduct and workplace ethics at the University. He also spoke about the compliance program’s broader mission to ensure the University’s compliance with federal and state regulations.
Nimax then spoke to the Committee about SafeGrounds, an incident management software developed by the University to process reports of compliance issues and ensure that it remains compliant with federal and state regulations. According to Nimax, SafeGrounds allows the University to process reports that come in from a variety of sources, including Title IX reports, the Threat Assessment team, which works to prevent violence in the community before it takes place, and the University Compliance Helpline, which allows anyone in the community to submit reports of unethical behavior or policy violations to be investigated.
The presentation slides shown to the Committee said that SafeGrounds processed a total of 7,447 reports in the past fiscal year — which ran from the summer of 2023 to the summer of 2024.
Of those reports, 39 percent came through Student Affairs, while the next two highest percentages came from human resources for the Health System and the Academic Division, at 21 percent and 16 percent respectively, according to Nimax’s presentation. Nimax said these percentages were in line with what other comparable universities might see. While Nimax noted that some schools might have human resources reports be the largest share of reports, he said nothing within the University’s incident report breakdown was unexpected.
Nimax said that he hopes to raise more awareness about the compliance helpline and other reporting methods across University departments. He said that his team has already made progress towards the goal of raising awareness by attending meetings and sending emails to preemptively address concerns people have with reporting processes.
“I would say that for some of our peers that aren't receiving reports, it means that there's a lack of awareness of the helpline, a foreclosure of compliance [systems] or a fear of retaliation among employees,” Nimax said. “And those are not concerns here, which is good.”
The Committee then entered closed session — which they are entitled to do for matters pertaining to the performance of specific employees, or discussions that include proprietary information, ongoing legal processes or strategic final considerations.
In their June meeting, the Committee discussed an ongoing audit of the University that the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Auditor of Public Accounts is conducting. The audit was not discussed at this meeting, though the committee met Aug. 14 for an update on the process. This meeting’s presentation slides included a timeline that said the target month for issuing Financial Statements is November — the same goal as discussed in June.
The Audit, Compliance and Risk Committee is scheduled to reconvene during the next Board meeting in December.
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