The University of Guam closed fiscal year 2025 with a clean audit opinion from Ernst & Young LLP, marking a financial turnaround after a year that had left the school's net position deep in the red, the Office of Public Accountability reported.
UOG ended the year with a $947,000 positive change in net position — a sharp reversal from the $5.3 million negative swing recorded in fiscal 2024. The university's overall net position is still negative, at $109.7 million, though that's a modest improvement from $110.7 million the year before.
"It is evidence that the University of Guam is fulfilling its responsibility to students, taxpayers and the community," UOG President Anita Borja Enriquez said, calling the clean audit "more than a financial benchmark."
Several factors fed the turnaround. The biggest was a jump in Government of Guam operational appropriations, which rose to $41.97 million for the year. Federal capital grants also climbed, to $11.2 million from $6.7 million, even with OMB review delays slowing some of that funding. On the liabilities side, both the net pension liability and OPEB obligations shrank — pension liability fell to $85.9 million from $98.7 million, and OPEB dropped to $121.3 million from $141.4 million.
That progress was partly offset by a $10.9 million non-operating loss tied to UOG's transfer of the Guam Cultural Repository building to the Department of CHamoru Affairs. Total operating expenses, meanwhile, fell $9.1 million from the prior year.
"Our strong financial stewardship enables us to remain focused on our core mission of education, research, and public service while continuing to improve student outcomes and prepare the workforce Guam needs for the future," Enriquez added.
On the academic side, UOG conferred nearly 600 undergraduate and graduate degrees in fiscal 2025, including what the university called the "largest single-semester graduating class in University history during Spring 2025 with over 375 graduates." Full-time enrollment held essentially flat, ticking up from 2,979 students in Fall 2024 to 2,988 in Fall 2025 — a contrast the university drew against national trends and Guam Department of Education's enrollment, which has dropped more than 5,000 since the pandemic.
Federal compliance findings
Auditors flagged no questioned costs on federal awards, keeping UOG's status as a low-risk auditee. Even so, the audit turned up one material weakness in financial reporting and a separate material weakness plus a significant deficiency in compliance controls over major federal programs.
The financial-reporting issue — finding 2025-001 — centers on how UOG recorded transactions with its own Endowment Foundation related to construction of the School of Engineering and Student Success Center. The university had booked $30.8 million in construction-in-progress that auditors said should have been split between a Foundation receivable and a lease asset, and it classified $16.3 million in Foundation loan proceeds as a loan payable instead of netting it against the receivable. Auditors traced the errors to a lack of formal documentation around the accounting treatment of unusual transactions. UOG restated its fiscal 2024 financials to fix the misstatements and committed to a new documentation policy by Sept. 30, 2026.
Two more findings involved a federal Economic Development Administration grant: UOG had reported on an accrual basis in its semiannual federal financial reports despite keeping cash-basis books internally, creating discrepancies that were later corrected. Auditors also found, for three of eight samples reviewed, that UOG hadn't documented certified payroll from contractors in a timely way — a repeat of a finding from the prior year's audit.
UOG did not dispute any of the findings and has submitted corrective action plans for each. Additional comment from the university is pending.