Gregory E. Murray, a senior managing auditor at RMAS, says the group has only conducted one student group audit—but refused to identify which student organization was audited.

He says his boss, RMAS Director Deloris Pettis-Donaldson, sent an e-mail to RMAS staff last Thursday saying the number of student group audits might have to increase.

Murray says he is not sure if RMAS has the capacity to conduct more than the five or six audits per year Illingworth had originally requested.

Pettis-Donaldson did not return repeated phone calls.

Illingworth says that following the alleged theft from the Pudding, he has enlisted the help of RMAS to review the Pudding’s financial practices.

He says that in the wake of the Pudding theft, the College will look more closely at the budgets of some of the larger student organizations.

“Will I as a result of this scrutinize things more closely? Of course,” Illingworth says.

Trust at Harvard

Currently, all student groups recognized by the College must submit an annual budget to Illingworth’s office. While Illingworth says his staff reviews these budgets, he acknowledges the College cannot scrutinize the finances as thoroughly as can RMAS.

Illingworth says he expects more student group leaders to seek advice on handling their money properly as a result of the recent Pudding scandal. Indeed, he reports that several groups have already approached him.

“There might be some good that comes out of this,” Illingworth says. “The current producers of the Pudding are very responsible people and if they had a better system this might not have happened.”

Because so few groups can be audited by RMAS each year, Illingworth emphasizes the importance of the mandatory educational seminars.

“It’s basically free training,” he says. It gives them an actual chance to get procedures that can be passed down from treasurer to treasurer.”

Illingworth says he prefers to consider the College a partner working with student groups toward proper record-keeping rather than an intrusive presence.

He says students are generally cooperative when asked to enact changes to improve their organizations.