Audit Finds CSUF Office Misspent $800

About $800 in Cal State Fullerton funds was spent on a wedding shower and a baby shower that were “deliberately misrepresented” as training sessions to get the money, according to a report released Tuesday.

Robert Palmer, the university’s vice president of student affairs, said the employees involved will have to make restitution. After discussions with the Department of Human Resources, anyone involved could be disciplined, he said.

“The key thing for me, and what is obvious, is you do not misrepresent how you’re using funds,” Palmer said.

The three-page report recommended that transactions from the account involved be audited “to determine whether additional misrepresentations have occurred.”

An auditor for the California State University system is expected to issue his report next week, a spokesman for the chancellor said.

Palmer said one or two people were involved, but the investigation cleared Chuck Moore, director of the Office of Enrollment Management/University Outreach. The events in question were a baby shower for Moore and a wedding shower for his assistant.

The costs were charged to a nonprofit campus foundation that runs the bookstore and campus food service and administers research grants.

The foundation wrote two checks for $400 each to Darlene Trostad, a secretary in the office, to pay for food and paper goods for training sessions, according to documents obtained by The Times.