In 2022, Associate Professor Richard Thayer was found to have violated CT State and Board of Regents (BOR) policies after being accused of sending photos of his genitals to two students, having a sexual relationship with one of them, groping another student in his home, buying drinks with students at a baseball game, or during outings at a strip club, and to have been drunk during an online class. During the course of the investigation, Thayer violated school policy yet again by attempting to contact students who had reported him via Facebook or text. For all of this, Thayer was issued a letter of reprimand.

Now, in 2026, after an audit released by the state’s Auditors of Public Accounts questioned the BOR’s “lack of remedial action” for Thayer’s “serious and confirmed violations of board of regents’ policies,” BOR management is sticking to their guns.

“Management partially disagrees with this finding,” said the BOR. “Management believes appropriate disciplinary actions were administered based on substantiated facts and documented findings outlined in the investigation. CT State continues to ensure appropriate and substantive action or other disciplinary measures are taken in the event of findings of violation of CSCU policy or procedure or other regulations.”

The auditors noted that Thayer had violated five CT State policies regarding consensual relationships, sexual misconduct reporting, and supportive measures and processes.

“The investigation found that the associate professor engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct, and pursued and engaged in romantic relationships with their students,” reads the audit. “Despite the system office’s conclusions, Gateway’s only discipline was a letter of reprimand. The college took no other remedial action such as safeguards or additional trainings.”

In February 2025, Inside Investigator reported extensively on CSCU’s inquiries into Associate Professor Thayer and 17 other CSCU faculty members accused of sexual misconduct. Inside Investigator found CSCU to have conducted 18 sexual misconduct investigations since 2018, in response to allegations ranging from inappropriate jokes to unwanted sexual advances, disparaging sexual comments, and even full-blown sexual relationships between staff and students, and a growing pricetag.

This “lack of remedial action for serious and confirmed violations” of BOR policies “reduces the effectiveness of those policies” and “may have put students at risk,” said the auditors. The cause of this issue was attributed to the fact that BOR does not recommend disciplinary responses during its misconduct investigations.

“The Board of Regents for Higher Education should make disciplinary recommendations to the college campuses for substantiated policy violations,” the auditors recommended. “The board of regents should monitor college disciplinary actions resulting from investigations to ensure colleges take appropriate and consistent disciplinary measures.”

While BOR leaders’ response to this finding might be the single most questionable piece of the APA’s report, it is only one of many. State auditors also found the BOR to have made numerous costly payroll errors and to have violated its own nepotism policy, leading to one employee’s wife approving 273 hours of overtime for her husband.

“CT State Northwestern allowed an employee to assign overtime to their spouse, which appears to violate state ethics laws and board of regents’ policies,” reads the audit. “The Northwestern campus hired the building superintendent’s spouse as a full-time lead custodian. The college did not successfully separate the spousal relationship, including the assignment of overtime.”

The state’s BOR sets policies and guidelines for the state’s 12 community colleges and its online university, Charter Oak State College. State auditors, who assessed the BOR from July 2021 to July 2022, made 22 findings, 19 of which were repeat findings. The vast majority of the findings were related to inadequate payroll and expense management, but auditors also questioned the BOR’s contractual structures, disciplinary responses, and adherence to its nepotism policies.

On the issue of payroll, auditors found the BOR paid out $8.9 million without “prompt supervisory approval,” overpaid $229,836 to 300 employees, paid out $401,075 in administrative leave to five employees, and paid $24,905 for classes that were never taught. The auditors included the findings of an internal audit that CT State procured from an independent accounting firm, after state auditors flagged two retroactive payments.

The internal audit found that from December 2020 through Oct. 17, 2024, 268 CT State employees received $229,836 in excess retroactive payments. The audit estimated CT State to have recovered only $70,514 from those funds. The vast majority of these overpayments went to five employees, who were overpaid a total of $183,844. Additionally, 32 employees were underpaid a total of $7,842, leading CT State to pay out “approximately $2,659,” per the audit. In violation of state law, BOR did not “promptly notify” either the APA or State Comptroller of these overpayments, instead deciding to hire an independent accounting firm to study the issue. The APA noted that late reporting “lessens transparency and increases audit risk.”

“In August 2024, CT State hired an independent accounting firm to review the matter which commenced in October 2024,” reads the audit. “Neither the board, nor CT State, notified our office of the matter until November 1, 2024, and withheld details until August 28, 2025.”

BOR responded in agreement to the finding, attributing the issue to an “error in the mass calculation of SEBAC [State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition] payments,” and said they have recollected over $134,000 (58.3%) of the funds.

“Collection efforts remain ongoing,” said the BOR. “Updated controls have been implemented, including enhanced reporting and supervisory review of mass calculations. CSCU System Office also hired an HR Business Systems Analyst in December 2024 to assist with the implementation of additional internal controls and business process improvements.”

In addition to these overpayments, state auditors found the BOR paid $24,905 to three CT State adjunct or part-time professors for classes they never taught. The auditors assessed 216 payments to 25 contractual employees and noted that CT State, “could not find one employee’s contract.” Sixteen part-time lecturers’ contracts were determined to have been “improperly executed.” Fifteen contracts were not fully signed until two to 24 days after they were supposed to be, while the last contract was not fully signed until 798 days later.

The auditors also assessed Core CT timesheets for CT State’s full-time employees who are paid biweekly. They found 273 employees whose roles were coded as not requiring supervisor approval for their timesheets. The auditors looked further into the timesheets of 43 of these employees, discovering that all of them were signed off by supervisors, and 31 of them were signed off anywhere from three to 76 days late.

“Our data analysis of Core-CT timesheet approvals identified 332 biweekly payroll transactions for 273 college employees that lacked timely supervisory approval, totaling $8,879,827 in fiscal years 2021 and 2022,” wrote the auditors. “When supervisors do not promptly approve employee timesheets, payments are delayed and there is less assurance that payroll is complete, accurate, and not susceptible to fraud.”

The auditors said CT State “lacks policies and procedures” to ensure that payment is made after services are provided, and that CT State “incorrectly assigned” employees to workgroups that did not require supervisor timesheet approval. The audit notes that this has been a recurring issue for CT State, with this finding having been “reported in the last three audit reports” from 2014 to 2020.

“The Board of Regents for Higher Education and CT State Community College should strengthen internal controls to ensure regular and contractual adjunct faculty payroll is prompt, based on actual time worked, and properly approved,” recommended the auditors.

On the subject of administrative leave, the auditors concluded that CT State should “minimize” the paid leave provided to employees under investigation. Per the audit, “at least six” other state employee bargaining units are contractually limited to receiving 60 days’ worth of paid leave while under investigation. CT State’s employee bargaining units have no such limit.

The auditors reviewed the five highest administrative leave payments that began during the audit and found that all five employees were paid for longer than 60 days. The average length of paid leave was found to be 277 days, and one employee’s leave lasted 769 days. In total, they accrued $401,075 worth of paid administrative leave.

“The Board of Regents for Higher Education and CT State incurred excessive paid administrative leave costs,” said the auditors. “The Board of Regents for Higher Education’s System Office and CT State Community College should limit the duration of paid administrative leaves and promptly investigate personnel matters to avoid excessive paid administrative leave costs.”

BOR agreed with the finding and said it, “continues to utilize paid administrative leave in very limited capacity for personnel matters that involve a pending investigation, or contractual obligations in circumstances of termination leave.”

In addition to all of the above findings, the auditors also found the BOR to have failed to retain adequate records, insufficiently monitored dual and outside employees, failed to maintain proper occupational safety guidelines, insufficiently managed and reported its assets, lacked proper security technology policies, and had overworked professors, among other findings.

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