Case in Point:
Lessons for the pro-active manager

This month we turn our attention to a very substantial risk for all of higher education: cybersecurity. October marks the start of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month so we want to use this month's Case-in-Point to discuss practical ways that you can better manage these important risks. I've asked Robert Gottesman, Information Systems Auditor to provide us with guidance on these issues.

According to the online database located at privacyrights.org, 297 breaches were publically reported during the 2014 calendar year resulting in the exposure of 67,924,685 records containing personally identifiable information. The media dubbed the year 2014, "The Year of the Data Breach." Perhaps we should reconsider applying the moniker to 2015 since already this year, there have been over 132,000,000 records containing personally identifiable information exposed. The largest data loss on record, so far this year, falls to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM). In two separate breaches, the personally identifiable information of over 21.5 million federal employees and contractors was exposed in what is being attributed to nation-state hackers. Weaknesses in OPM's network security and neglected basic security guidelines played a part in these breaches.

As end-users we alone cannot prevent our institutions from experiencing a breach, but we must each be vigilant to prevent a breach resulting from our own bad habits. For example, one common cause of data loss is lost or stolen devices. Each of us has a role to play in preventing the loss of University data by ensuring that portable devices (laptops, flash drives, smartphones) are properly secured. Take inventory of devices you utilize to ensure they are password protected, encrypted and do not contain sensitive data. If necessary, contact your IT professional for help.

Similarly, we each have a responsibility to protect our authentication information. Make sure your passwords are strong and avoid password reuse. In July of this year, a commercial adult website was breached and over 30 million accounts were exposed. Like many websites, to access the site you log in using an email address and password. Hackers were able to decrypt 11 million of the exposed encrypted passwords in short order using a brute force dictionary attack. Many of the email accounts used as the user name for this site were user's work email addresses. If the passwords were also their work passwords, this represents a huge risk to their employers. Think about all the websites you visit that require you to create a user name and password. If you use your University credentials you put the University at risk should any one of these third-party websites be compromised. Consider using a password vault on your (password protected, encrypted) smartphone that stores passwords locally and create different credentials for each site you visit. (The October 2015 monthly Security Awareness Newsletter from SANS covers more information about password vaults.) Wherever possible, if a website offers two-factor authentication take advantage of this to further protect your account from unauthorized access. This is becoming more popular and many banks and social media sites now offer this option.

Finally, continue to be suspicious of unsolicited emails, especially those which ask you to verify your login credentials or ask for any personal information.

While cybersecurity issues are very important, the number of risks we face within higher education are vast and diverse. We again encourage you to review the issues we've observed over the prior month across our industry and think about whether you have any similar issues that may need pro-active attention and management. As always we encourage your comments and feedback.

M. Kevin Robinson, CIA, CFE, CCEP
Executive Director, Internal Auditing

Information Security & Technology Events

September 28, 2015: Someone is tormenting Rutgers University. The New Jersey school announced Monday it was fending off a distributed denial-of-service attack that crippled its Internet and Wi-Fi access. The latest cyberattack on a major U.S. research institution comes after a number of similar hacks against Rutgers, a school of approximately 65,000 undergraduate students. (link)

September 27, 2015: The employee records of a number of University of Calgary staff members were fraudulently accessed, and banking records altered, during an 'isolated breach' that is being investigated by the Calgary Police Service. In a letter to University of Calgary staff, Linda Dalgetty, vice president of finance and services, says 29 employee records on the PeopleSoft system were accessed, of which, 13 were altered during the security breach. The comprised accounts have been locked and removed from the school's internal network. (link)

September 15, 2015: A laptop stolen from a member of the faculty of LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine has potentially exposed the protected health information of approximately 5,000 minor patients primarily living in Louisiana and Mississippi. The information on the laptop included names, dates of birth, dates of treatment, descriptions of patients' conditions, treatments, and outcomes, lab test results, radiological and ultrasound images, medical record numbers, and diagnosis and treatment information. No Social Security numbers, credit card, bank account information or other financial data were stored on the laptop. (link)

September 10, 2015: Attacks against university networks and those who use them are on the rise. Symantec's 2015 Internet Security Threat Report (ISTR) found that education was the third-most breached sector in 2014, accounting for 10 percent of total incidences -- and that number is only expected to rise. (link)

September 8, 2015: A data breach through a third-party vendor exposed the personal information of 79,000 California State University students in late August, officials with the Chancellor's Office confirmed Tuesday. The CSU Chancellor's Office in Long Beach said the breach -- which included information such as sexual orientation, gender, email and mailing addresses -- was discovered Aug. 28, affecting students at eight CSU campuses who had enrolled in a required sexual assault training program. (link)

September 1, 2015: UCLA Health announced Tuesday that 1,242 patients are being notified about the theft of a faculty member's laptop computer containing names, medical record numbers and health information used to prepare patient treatment plans. According to UCLA, no Social Security numbers, health plan ID numbers, credit card numbers or other financial data were stored on the stolen laptop, which was password protected and was reported stolen on July 3. (link)

Fraud & Ethics Related Events

September 29, 2015: Southern Methodist University committed multiple violations, including academic fraud, unethical conduct and head coach control in the men's basketball program and recruiting and unethical conduct in the men's golf program, according to a decision issued by a Division I Committee on Infractions panel. As a result, the former head men's golf coach, the former compliance director and a former men's basketball administrative assistant violated NCAA's unethical conduct rules. (link)

September 23, 2015: During the 17 years Shawn Bunn worked as a computer lab manager for Harvard, he was issued a university credit card so he could make purchases for the lab. On Wednesday, Bunn, a 44-year-old Waltham resident, was charged with larceny, false entry in corporate books, and using forged documents in Woburn Superior Court. ''Over a period of four years, the defendant is alleged to have made personal purchases in excess of $80,000 therefore diverting resources from the students and faculty of Harvard University.'' (link)

September 22, 2015: Rachel Dolezal, the former head of the NAACP in Spokane, Wash., and adjunct instructor of Africana Studies at Eastern Washington University, made headlines this summer for claiming to be black even as her parents publicly insisted she was white. The case brought to light something that academe has dealt with for decades: faculty applicants claiming an ethnic affiliation they don't actually possess, either to gain some kind of edge in the hiring process in terms helping an institution meet its diversity goals, or to appear more expert in one's field, or both (or possibly neither). (link)

September 17, 2015: An Arizona State University professor who has been accused of plagiarism has been placed on administrative leave this week while university officials review his conduct. ASU confirmed to The Arizona Republic that associate professor Matthew Whitaker has been relieved of all duties while the university, following Arizona Board of Regents policy, reviews allegations that his conduct has fallen short of university expectations for a faculty member and a scholar, ASU spokesman Mark Johnson said. (link)

September 17, 2015: A woman from Central has been accused of misusing at least $10,000 of Clemson University money. Shana Lashay Grant, 34, is charged with breach of trust with fraudulent intent value $10,000 or more by the State Law Enforcement Division. Pickens County Sheriff's Department says Grant used Clemson's money to purchase approximately 231 Apple Computers devices, valued at more than $200,000. (link)

September 16, 2015: Rutgers University's embattled football coach, Kyle J. Flood, will be suspended three games and fined $50,000, the university's president, Robert L. Barchi, announced on Wednesday. The basis for that punishment? The results of a long-awaited investigative report into Mr. Flood's contact with a professor about a player's academic standing. So stupefying is much of the report that it might as well bear the subtitle ''All the Impulses a College Coach Might Have but Should Never Act On.'' (link)

September 16, 2015: Jerry Wang, the CEO of embattled Herguan University in Sunnyvale, has been sentenced to one year in prison for submitting false documents to the Department of Homeland Security, federal officials announced Tuesday. Wang, 34, of Santa Clara, had been indicted on 15 charges centering on a visa fraud scheme in connection with luring students illegally to Herguan. He pleaded guilty in April. (link)

September 15, 2015: For a school that teaches the art of good management, Stanford's elite business school is having a rough time at the top. Yesterday, the school announced that its dean, Garth Saloner, would step down at the end of this academic year in the face of a lawsuit from a former faculty member. The lawsuit, filed by James Phills, accuses Saloner and the school of dismissing him unfairly after the dean began a relationship with Phills' estranged wife, Deborah Gruenfeld, who is still a professor at the school. (link)

September 15, 2015: Five fraternity members from Baruch College in Manhattan will face murder charges in Pennsylvania for their involvement in the death of a freshman who was hazed during a rural retreat in 2013, officials said on Monday. A grand jury in Monroe County, Pa., recently recommended that five people face third-degree murder charges and that a total of 37 would face a range of criminal charges, including assault, hindering apprehension and hazing in Chun Hsien Deng's death. (link)

September 14, 2015: A top Wheelock College administrator who acknowledged using passages written by others -- including Harvard University president Drew Faust -- in a welcome letter to faculty last month has resigned, the school announced Monday. Shirley Malone-Fenner stepped down from her post as interim vice president for academic affairs effective immediately, Wheelock's president said in an e-mail to faculty and staff. (link)

September 12, 2015: The University of Minnesota revealed Friday that its chief information officer, Scott Studham, resigned under pressure last week following complaints about alleged misconduct. Between May and August, the university received four complaints accusing Studham of hiring friends in violation of university rules, using university funds for personal expenses and other questionable actions. (link)

September 11, 2015: Wright State University has fired its provost and two senior leaders, and revealed the cause of the months-long investigation into its business practices. The school announced late Monday it has fired Provost Sundaram Narayanan and it said will take any necessary steps to remove him from his tenured faculty position. Phani Kidambi, head of the university's International Gateway program, and Ryan Fendley, senior advisor to the provost, both also were fired. (link)

September 5, 2015: At Monsanto, sales of genetically modified seeds were steadily rising. But executives at the company's St. Louis headquarters were privately worried about attacks on the safety of their products. So Monsanto, the world's largest seed company, and its industry partners retooled their lobbying and public relations strategy to spotlight a rarefied group of advocates: academics, brought in for the gloss of impartiality and weight of authority that come with a professor's pedigree. (link)

Compliance/Regulatory & Legal Events

September 29, 2015: A former Auburn University science professor is among those charged in federal court in Dallas in connection with an illegal steroid distribution ring, court records show. Yonnie Wu was director of the Alabama college's Mass Spectrometry Center in its chemistry and biochemistry department. Prosecutors say he tested steroids from China and other sources in his university lab so the conspirators could market the drugs on websites that vouched for the purity and quality of the products. (link)

September 28, 2015: Three former women's head coaches with the University of Minnesota-Duluth are suing the school, alleging discrimination under Title VII and Title IX and saying they were fired because they are female and gay. Two of the plaintiffs suing the Board of Regents say they were fired also because they are Canadian, and two of them claim age discrimination because they are older than 40. Shannon Miller, Jen Banford and Annette Wiles all left the school in the past year after suffering what they describe as a pattern of hostility and making complaints that went unanswered. (link)

September 25, 2015: The University of Kansas must reinstate a student it expelled for sending offensive tweets about a former girlfriend while he was not on campus, the Kansas Court of Appeals ruled Friday. (link)

September 25, 2015: A federal jury awarded a former University of Oregon public safety officer $755,000 Friday after finding that UO Police Chief Carolyn McDermed and a top lieutenant retaliated against the young officer for blowing the whistle on department wrongdoing. (link)

September 22, 2015: A new antitrust lawsuit alleges much more than a neighborly understanding between Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The suit, brought against Duke by a medical faculty member there, rather alleges a binding no-hire agreement between the two Research Triangle institutions prevented her from getting a job at Carolina that otherwise would have been hers. The faculty member alleges there are others like her, and she's proposed a class action. (link)

September 21, 2015: Nestled among the laudable commentary and public relations message about Penn State's latest integrity monitor report is a nugget about Penn State football and Coach James Franklin's apparently tumultuous relationship with the athletic compliance staff. The report, which was released today, commended Penn State on its swift adoption of the controversial Freeh report recommendations and its compliance with the maligned NCAA consent decree. (link)

September 21, 2015:The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights and the University of Virginia have settled concerns about how UVA managed sexual violence and sexual harassment cases. UVA was found to be in violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 for failing to promptly and equitably respond to certain complaints. (link)

September 20, 2015: A University of Missouri professor is filing a lawsuit against the school for prohibiting guns on campus, in what is aimed to be one of the first tests of the state's newly amended constitution that provides for ''strict scrutiny'' of gun restrictions. (link)

September 18, 2015: The family of Robert Champion -- the Florida A&M University drum major killed in a hazing ritual in Orlando -- settled a lawsuit against the university, accepting $1.1 million and an apology, according to documents obtained Friday by the Orlando Sentinel. The hazing occurred on a bus parked at the hotel where the marching band was staying. (link)

September 17, 2015: An educational consultant accused of defrauding a family in China of more than $2 million has been sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to pay $839,000 in restitution to the family, federal prosecutors announced Thursday. A jury in April found Mark Zimny guilty of scamming a Hong Kong couple who paid him to help get their sons into elite New England prep schools and colleges. (link)

September 17, 2015: A private liberal arts college said Thursday it would abide by an order from federal judge to reinstate a student who was expelled over allegations of sexual misconduct that occurred during his junior year while he was studying abroad. In his order, Murtha noted that the Middlebury student, identified in court papers as John Doe, was cleared of wrongdoing by the School for International Training in Brattleboro, which sponsored the study abroad program, and continued his studies at Middlebury last spring. (link)

September 17, 2015: Leaders of Pennsylvania's 14 state-owned universities say it would help safeguard children, but the faculty union says it exceeds what child protection law requires and wastes public funds because very few of its professors work with minors. Regardless of which is true, one thing is certain about an effort to start requiring background checks on all of its professors: The move by the State System of Higher Education is on hold after a Commonwealth Court judge on Thursday upheld the union's injunction request. (link)

September 14, 2015: The University of Michigan dropped a sexual misconduct ruling against former student Drew Sterrett in accordance with a lawsuit settlement the University signed on Sept. 1. The agreement was signed by Sterrett on Sept. 8. Per the settlement, the University will reverse its previous findings, which found Sterrett in violation of the school's Student Sexual Misconduct Policy. (link)

September 13, 2015: A University of Arizona student is suing after he says a 270-pound meteorite toppled over at a university museum and crushed his hand, according to a lawsuit filed earlier this week in Pima County Superior Court. The civil suit says freshman Grant Black was performing community-service work in November 2014 and he tried to move a piece of the Canyon Diablo meteorite on display at the UA's Flandrau Science Center and Planetarium. (link)

September 11, 2015: When the Justice Department arrested the chairman of Temple University's physics department this spring and accused him of sharing sensitive American-made technology with China, prosecutors had what seemed like a damning piece of evidence: schematics of sophisticated laboratory equipment sent by the professor, Xi Xiaoxing, to scientists in China. The schematics, prosecutors said, revealed the design of a device known as a pocket heater. The equipment is used in superconductor research, and Dr. Xi had signed an agreement promising to keep its design a secret. But months later, long after federal agents had led Dr. Xi away in handcuffs, independent experts discovered something wrong with the evidence at the heart of the Justice Department's case: The blueprints were not for a pocket heater. (link)

September 11, 2015: University of California Regents have appealed a Superior Court judge's ruling that found UC San Diego was unfair to a student who had been suspended after being accused of sexual misconduct. In July, Superior Court Judge Joel Pressman reversed the school's suspension order and ruled a UC San Diego board's disciplinary action against the student was unfair and not supported by evidence. (link)

September 10, 2015: Student activists and rape survivor advocacy organizations sided with higher education officials on Thursday to oppose a bill that would prohibit colleges from punishing accused rapists if the reporting victims do not go to police. During a hearing in the House of Representatives' Education and the Workforce Committee, higher education representatives laid out their opposition to the Safe Campus Act, warning it could have a "chilling effect" on rape survivors reporting their assaults. (link)

September 10, 2015: A former Merrimack College engineering professor has pleaded guilty to using a college-owned computer to access child pornography. Gary Spring pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court to having more than 300 images of nude, prepubescent girls under the age of 12 on the computer owned by the North Andover school. (link)

September 9, 2015: Three tenured professors of the now-defunct University of Texas Pan American filed lawsuits against the UT System and UT Rio Grande Valley last week after they were not chosen to transition to the new university. The three plaintiffs all argue the university didn't have sufficient or valid reasons to deprive them from securing positions with the new university, according to the lawsuits. (link)

September 8, 2015: Professor Rongxing Li was a star at Ohio State University, attracting international attention as he helped NASA rovers explore Mars in the past decade. Then, early last year, Li quit his post as OSU's premier mapping expert and disappeared. No news release was issued to explain his departure, and most information about his 18-year tenure at Ohio State was removed from the university's website. Now, federal search warrants filed in U.S. District Court in Columbus reveal that the FBI was investigating Li, trying to determine whether he shared defense secrets with the Chinese. (link)

September 4, 2015: A former professor has been arrested after allegations that he sexually assaulted a student. Daniel Gula, 52, a former CCSU professor, was accused of assaulting a student of in the fall of 2014. He was arrested on Wednesday, September 2, and charged with sexual assault in the third degree, unlawful restraint in the first degree and disorderly conduct. (link)

September 3, 2015: Until last spring, Edwin Zarowin thought his job was secure. He was 31 years into coaching men's and women's cross-country and track and field at Hunter College, after having coached at Brooklyn Technical High School for 21 years. He was 88. A new college cross-country season will begin this week, but Zarowin will no longer be Hunter's coach. Unhappy over his situation, Zarowin has filed an age discrimination/retaliation complaint against Hunter, and some current and former athletes have waged an online war. He and his supporters claim that the college unfairly, and perhaps illegally, decided that Zarowin was simply too old. (link)

September 3, 2015: The investigation into improprieties in the University of Minnesota athletic department has widened to include a second top official. The U confirmed that associate athletic director Mike Ellis has ''voluntarily'' agreed to the institution's request that he take a paid leave from his job as investigators reviewing sexual harassment and discrimination issues look into five anonymous complaints that have been filed against him. (link)

September 2, 2015: The Oregon Court of Appeals breathed new life Wednesday into a lawsuit filed by a young woman who was raped during a Halloween party at an Oregon State University fraternity, ruling that the local Phi Kappa Psi chapter could be held liable for failing to shield the woman from harm. The court ruled that the woman can go forward with her claim based on arguments that the fraternity didn't go far enough to stop the attack despite a known "epidemic" of sexual assaults by drunken frat members at colleges across the country. (link)

September 1, 2015: A federal judge sentenced a former Miami Dade College employee in connection to an identity tax fraud scheme in South Florida. A judge sentenced Michelson Jeancy, 35, of Miami to 36 months in prison after pleading guilty to one count of wire fraud. FBI officials said he worked at the college as a student services assistant which means he had access to student records that had their personal identification. Using that information, court documents say, Jeancy and his accomplices filed fraudulent tax returns. (link)

September 1, 2015: The U.S. Education Department has found that Michigan State University's sexual-assault and sexual-harassment policies violated the federal gender-equity law known as Title IX, creating a ''sexually hostile environment.'' In a letter released on Tuesday, the department says that the university did not notify students or employees of its Title IX coordinator, and that grievance procedures did not satisfy Title IX's standards, among other things. (link)

August 31, 2015: House Bill 821, intended to help colleges and universities prevent and address sexual assaults, was signed into law by Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner on August 21, 2015. The new law, which goes into effect August 1, 2016, mandates that every Illinois higher education institution develop a clear, comprehensive campus sexual violence policy, including detailed incident reporting options and university response guidelines, and provide a confidential adviser to victims to help them understand their options to report the crime and seek medical and legal assistance. (link)

Campus Life & Safety Events

September 23, 2015: The kiss cam did not operate during Saturday's game between the Orange and Central Michigan University following a letter to the editor published Friday on Syracuse.com questioning its appropriateness at a time when universities are focused on discouraging sexual assaults. During the Sept. 12, game between the Orange and Wake Forest, letter writer Steve Port said he witnessed two incidences on the kiss cam in which women indicated they didn't want to be kissed. Yet, the men nearby kissed them anyway to cheers from the crowd. (link)

September 22, 2015: When Rini Sampath decided to run for student body president at the University of Southern California, some students told her she would never win, she said. Her struggle -- no doubt the same for many minority students, she said -- came into focus Saturday night when Sampath said she was walking back from a friend's apartment. Someone leaned out of a fraternity house window, she said, and shouted: ''You Indian piece of s***!'' Then he hurled a drink at her. (link)

September 21, 2015: More than 20 percent of female undergraduates at an array of prominent universities said this year that they were victims of sexual assault and misconduct, echoing findings elsewhere, according to one of the largest studies ever of college sexual violence. The survey from the Association of American Universities drew responses from 150,000 students at 27 schools, including most of the Ivy League. (link)

September 16, 2015: A University of Buffalo graduate art student has admitted to hanging the 'White Only' and 'Black Only' signs seen in Clemens Hall Wednesday as part of a class project. Ashley Powell, who is black, posted the signs for a project for her Installation in Urban Spaces class, a 400-level arts class that required she make an installation in an urban area that involved time. A university spokesperson released a statement to The Spectrum Wednesday night that the university is continuing to review the matter through appropriate university policies and procedures. (link)

September 14, 2015: Three Toronto-area universities have taken down posters around campus that appear to advertise a students' group for white students. The University of Toronto, Ryerson University and York University all said the group, called Students for Western Civilization, was not sanctioned at any of the schools and not allowed to put up the posters. (link)

September 14, 2015: A history professor was shot and killed on Monday at Delta State University in Mississippi, a county coroner said, and the school remained locked down as authorities searched for the shooter on campus. The university, located in Cleveland, Mississippi, confirmed the fatality and asked those on campus to stay inside and away from windows. (link)

September 11, 2015: The University of Toronto has increased campus security after allegedly receiving reports of a series of anonymous web comments urging readers to kill ''feminists.'' ''We have increased campus police presence on our three campuses, and we are monitoring the situation closely,'' said university provost Cheryl Regehr writing in an email to students and staff. In the letter, Regehr says the university was the target of ''anonymous threats made on a public blog,'' but provides no details. (link)

September 10, 2015: The captain of the Pace University football team has been suspended as the school investigates his role in a photo posted on Snapchat that appears to show the player draped in a Confederate flag and making a Nazi salute. Calling the photo ''highly offensive,'' Pace President Steven J. Friedman said in an email to the Pace community that the captain, reportedly Tyler Owens, has been stripped of his role and ''will not participate in University football activities pending the outcome of the investigation.'' (link)

September 8, 2015: The University of South Carolina has suspended 13 of 19 fraternities from recruitment activities because of alcohol violations, according to university officials.(link)

September 8, 2015: The president of Trinity College has decided to eliminate a mandate to make all fraternities co-ed. Dialogue around the co-ed mandate has been divisive and counterproductive, Berger-Sweeney said. At least 50 percent of the local chapters would lose their national charters because their national organizations require that they be single-sex. (link)

September 7, 2015: University of Michigan freshmen who rack up two alcohol or drug violations won't just have campus authorities to deal with -- mom and dad will also be brought into the loop under a pilot program launched at the campus this fall. Under the new policy, freshmen younger than 21 whose first alcohol or drug infraction involves a DUI, property damage or the need for medical attention will also get a phone call home. (link)

September 5, 2015: Hard liquor is now banned from University of Missouri fraternity houses. The policy change was handed down this school year by Mizzou's governing body, the Interfraternity Council. (link)

September 4, 2015: While rushing from class to class this fall, Santa Clara University students might soon be able to hitch a ride on a golf cart that -- without the benefit of a driver -- will traverse the palm-tree-lined campus. No, the shuttle won't be driven by a poltergeist. Sunnyvale-based startup Auro Robotics has chosen the university as the location to test its new vehicle for three months. (link)

September 1, 2015: A company contracted by the University of Tulsa admitted to spilling a radioactive substance in 2014 on Aug. 25. FOX23 confirmed with officials on Tuesday that Tracero, a company contracted by the university, spilled a small quantity of Cesium-137 in the Process Building. The building is restricted and rests on a restricted part of campus. Tracero was using Cesium-137 in a research project with the petroleum engineering department. At least 21 people are at risk for exposure; most people are safe. TU notified the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality and further restricted access to the building. (link)

September 1, 2015: Six people were injured Tuesday morning in a building collapse on the campus of Bryant University in Smithfield, Rhode Island, police said. The building, an indoor practice facility, was under construction when it gave way at 8:15 a.m. The six construction workers received minor injuries, police said. Some of the workers were trapped under beams and had to be cut out. (link)

September 1, 2015: The University of South Carolina suspended 13 fraternity chapters from recruiting new members this week after reports of alcohol violations. The school's Fraternity Council halted rush, which started this week, for 13 chapters Monday after accusations the fraternities served alcohol in front of potential new members, according to a letter sent to the chapters. (link)

September 1, 2015: Ohio legislators introduced a bill Monday to make college textbooks tax-free. The bill, introduced in the Ohio House of Representatives by State Rep. Niraj Antani, R-Miamisburg, and two Columbus-area legislators, would exempt all college textbooks from sales tax if passed. Students would be required to be enrolled in an Ohio college or university and the textbook must be required by a course the student is enrolled in. (link)

August 31, 2015: A cultural studies instructor at Washington State University has warned her students that they could face disciplinary action -- and in some cases, failure of her class -- if they use certain terms she deems unacceptable, including "illegal aliens," "tranny" and the words "males" and "females" to refer to men and women. (link)

Other News & Events

If you have any suggestions, questions or feedback, please e-mail me at robinmk@auburn.edu. We hope you find this information useful and would appreciate hearing your thoughts. Feel free to forward this email to your direct reports, colleagues, employees or others who might find it of value. Back issues of this newsletter are available on our web site at https://www.auburn.edu/administration/oacp.

If you have any suggestions for items to include in future newsletters, please e-mail Robert Gottesman at gotterw@auburn.edu.

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