http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/08/nyregion/president-city-college-quits.html 2016-10-08 04:51:00 President of City College Quits Abruptly Amid Scrutiny of Her Finances The administrator, Lisa S. Coico, announced her resignation a day after The New York Times contacted officials with questions about the handling of more than $150,000 of her personal expenses. === Lisa S. Coico, the president of the Ms. Coico’s resignation is effective immediately, said James B. Milliken, chancellor of the City University of New York, the college’s parent body, in a statement. She will be replaced temporarily by Mary Driscoll, the college’s new interim provost, pending the appointment of an interim president at the next meeting of the university’s board of trustees, which is set for Oct. 26. The Times had been investigating whether Ms. Coico’s expenses were accurately recorded, or whether some had been postdated. The Times presented its findings to officials on Thursday, and by late Friday, Ms. Coico had submitted her resignation. In a statement on Friday, she announced that she was stepping down but did not give an explanation. Ms. Coico — along with the 21st Century Foundation, a nonprofit affiliated with the college — is currently under A federal subpoena was issued shortly after The Times Ms. Coico has maintained that there was no “inappropriate use” of college funds and, in letters to faculty and students, has said that she asked all relevant employees to “cooperate fully” with prosecutors. A spokeswoman for Robert L. Capers, the United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York, which is handling the federal investigation, declined to comment, citing office policy. The scope of the federal inquiry is unclear. But numerous college officials received a letter in July saying that they “must preserve, and may not alter,” documents related to Ms. Coico, her family, the 21st Century Foundation and the research foundation, such as annual financial statements and annual filings with the Internal Revenue Service and the office of the New York attorney general, dating to when Ms. Coico took office. Ms. Coico arrived with much But she had been criticized for her handling of fiscal matters and had also been at odds with the faculty. Last year, with the state budget uncertain, the CUNY administration asked its colleges to cut their budgets by at least 3 percent. City College, citing increased personnel costs and declining enrollment, particularly in graduate programs, imposed a 10 percent cut, or $14.6 million. Programs with the steepest enrollment declines suffered the most, with the humanities and education departments cut by more than 40 percent each.