Case in Point:
Lessons for the proactive manager

Last month we examined the events from 2015's Case in Point Compliance/Regulatory & Legal Category. This month we planned to finish our review of 2015 with a focus on Campus Life. However, during the past month a very significant story was reported regarding Title IX at Baylor University, so we will focus on that issue and the lessons we can learn based on what we currently know.

Last month in this column, we made the following observation about the category of Compliance/Regulatory & Legal stories from 2015:

For the past couple of years we've commented that Title IX is the most substantial compliance risk within higher education today. The current issues at Baylor appear to confirm this assessment. So far, this compliance failure has cost multiple employees their jobs and the fallout will no doubt continue for years to come. Lest we forget, there are also real victims, those who have been assaulted, who will forever be affected. This is a sobering reminder of the importance of several things: the need to ensure we have adequate policies and procedures in place, the need to follow those policies and procedures as a matter of routine (even in the face of temptation to work outside the system), and lastly, the need to appropriately report concerns in a timely manner when we become aware of an issue.

Following the Penn State scandal a few years ago, I heard a speaker comment, "higher education has lost the benefit of the doubt." The impact of yet another high profile scandal in higher education will certainly increase the need for all of us to proactively manage this and the myriad of other risks we face daily. We again encourage you to review the issues occurring in higher education with a view toward proactive prevention of problems.

M. Kevin Robinson, CIA, CFE
Associate Vice President
Office of Audit, Compliance & Privacy

Information Security & Technology Events

May 25, 2016: For decades, it seems, public speaking was America's biggest phobia. However, a recent study from Chapman University found that's changed: Cyber-terrorism, corporate tracking of personal information, government tracking of personal information, identity theft and credit card fraud are now five of the top 10 fears held by Americans. Even a few of the other five fears tangentially relate to cybersecurity, with public speaking nowhere in the top 10. (link)

May 06, 2016: A FOX 35 investigation has revealed that in the months leading up to a cyber security breach at the University of Central Florida, leaders decided against an important cyber security measure. In February, the university announced that hackers had gotten ahold of the Social Security numbers of 63,000 students, staff, and alumni. According to the university the breach happened in December of 2015. A memo written by the university's Information Security Office and published in January of 2015 warned of what an independent security expert called a major weakness in the university's cyber security plan. (link)

Fraud & Ethics Related Events

May 25, 2016: A former University of Miami finance director embezzled $2.3 million from the college by falsifying bills for a bogus vendor and depositing the ill-gotten payments into the bank account of a fabricated business she had set up to hide the income, authorities said. Kimberly Jean Miller, 58, who worked as the finance director of the UM Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, pleaded guilty to four counts of tax evasion on Tuesday in Miami federal court. (link)

May 20, 2016: The University of Iowa says it is investigating whether more than 30 students cheated in online classes by having others take exams for them. The school said Friday that it is reviewing each case of possible academic misconduct and will take disciplinary action against any students who are guilty. The issue came to light after potential irregularities were identified by ProctorU, a company the university uses to provide identity verification for online courses. ProctorU said that discrepancies in identification were provided by test-takers in one or more exams and in some cases, in multiple courses. (link)

May 10, 2016: A University of Tennessee freshman has been charged with eight counts of felony theft after police discovered more than 100 laptops, cameras, laboratory devices and other stolen items -- valued at more than $100,000 -- in his dorm room, officials said. Yibo "David" Hwang, 20, of Hermitage, Tenn. was arrested Friday after another student reported seeing someone who fit the description of a person who may have stolen items from the Science Engineering and Research Building the week before, according to a UT news release Tuesday. (link)

May 09, 2016: A senior lecturer at Indiana University has been fired after being accused of sexually assaulting a student on-campus in late March. IU officials announced Monday that Guo Ping Wang, a senior lecturer at the Jacobs School of Music, has been terminated. Officials said the assault was reported to the university on March 28, and Wang was placed on leave while the university investigated the claim. (link)

May 06, 2016: An internal audit at the University of New Mexico discovered a former men's basketball director of operations made more than $60,000 in purchases and cash withdrawals for non-business purposes. UNM officials on Friday released the 42-page audit investigating Cody Hopkins' use of a UNM Purchase Card, stating he violated the university's fraudulent and dishonest activities policy. Hopkins also falsified documents about the transactions, according to the audit. The UNM audit states Hopkins did not submit receipts for $53,984 in cash withdrawals and falsified receipts for other cash advances of $3,600. Another $5,834 in P-Card charges was used for personal lodging, airfare, rental cars, means and entertainment for non-business reasons, the audit states. (link)

May 02, 2016: A doctor on the University of California's Board of Regents has been allowed to keep his seat despite a secret investigation that concluded he violated ethics rules by trying to strike a financially beneficial deal between his eye clinics and UCLA, part of the university system the regents oversee. Dr. William De La Peña also engaged in discussions about a prominent eye center affiliation involving UCLA even after recusing himself, an investigation found. At the time, he was chairman of the regents' health services committee. (link)

Compliance/Regulatory & Legal Events

May 27, 2016: The University of North Carolina system told a federal court Friday that it won't enforce a law requiring transgender students to use restrooms corresponding to the sex on their birth certificates. The declaration came in a motion asking a federal court to halt civil legal proceedings against the university system while a higher court decides a separate case on transgender rights from Virginia. (link)

May 26, 2016: Kenneth W. Starr, the former independent counsel who delivered a report that served as the basis for President Bill Clinton's impeachment in 1998, was removed as president of Baylor University on Thursday after an investigation found the university mishandled accusations of sexual assault against football players. The university also fired the football coach, Art Briles, whose ascendant program brought in millions of dollars in revenue but was dogged by accusations of sexual assault committed by its players -- an increasingly familiar combination in big-time college sports. (link)

May 27, 2016: Ole Miss has responded to the list of allegations made against it by the NCAA after a four-year investigation that included more than 265 interviews. The school sent a 154 page response. "The NCAA has alleged, and we agree, that serious violations have occurred." The most serious violations involved academic misconduct that happened in the football program six years ago and in women's basketball almost four years ago. (link)

May 26, 2016: After a seven-day trial and more than three hours of deliberation, a Norfolk jury returned a verdict in favor of Virginia Wesleyan College in the $10 million negligence lawsuit filed against them by Jane Doe. The jury was unanimous in its decision in court on Thursday. Jane Doe, a former student, sued the school for negligence. She claimed that she was raped by another student, known in the lawsuit as Robert Roe, in August of 2012. (link)

May 25, 2016: Nearly four years after a University of Idaho assistant professor was terminated due to allegations of sexual harassment, the institution settled the resulting wrongful termination case with a six-figure settlement. Sanjay Gupta, formerly assistant professor of plant science, and his wife Archana, recently received a $400,000 settlement from the UI in response to their wrongful termination suit. Gupta was fired from his position at the UI in the summer of 2012, after a formal investigation concluded Gupta sexually harassed his accuser, Priyanka Gajjar, who worked for him. (link)

May 25, 2016: Former Auburn baseball coach Sunny Golloway filed a civil lawsuit in district court Tuesday against the school. Golloway alleges breach of contract, defamation, fraud and tortuous interference in the 86-page complaint. Auburn's former baseball coach is seeking the $1 million buyout in his contract along with compensatory and punitive damages against the university for what he describes as "mental anguish, embarrassment, and humiliation." Auburn responded with multiple statements Wednesday night labeling the lawsuit as a diversionary tactic and shakedown attempt. (link)

May 23, 2016: A Mormon tennis player from Idaho Falls is suing Idaho State University, claiming he was discriminated against because of his faith. Former Hillcrest High School tennis standout Orin Duffin filed suit against the school Friday, alleging he was subject to severe harassment while playing for the men's tennis team because of his membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (link)

May 23, 2016: A Rockhurst University employee hopes to represent some 1,200 school staffers in seeking damages for a data breach last month. Someone duped university staff into supplying information on IRS W-2 forms, including Social Security numbers, in an act of fraud April 4. The lawsuit filed Thursday in Jackson County Circuit Court by Alexandria Stobbe said the university was willful and reckless in exposing the personal information in "flagrant disregard" for the employees' rights to privacy and property. (link)

May 22, 2016: A federal complaint filed against Yale University claims the Ivy League school violated the gender equity law Title IX multiple times between 2010 and 2015 by mishandling reports that one of its well-known professors, Thomas Pogge, harassed students. Yale paid a former student, Fernanda Lopez Aguilar, $2,000 and instructed her to sign a gag order after she reported in 2010 that Pogge sexually harassed her, the federal complaint alleges. Years later, when multiple additional allegations were shared with Yale administrators detailing claims that Pogge acted inappropriately with other students, the university declined to investigate, saying it did not have jurisdiction, according to emails obtained by The Huffington Post. (link)

May 19, 2016: Rutgers University has settled a lawsuit with former men's basketball player Derrick Randall for $300,000. Randall filed the suit in 2013, eight months after the university fired basketball coach Mike Rice's for mistreating his players. The 6-foot-9, 240-pound forward, who has learning disabilities, sought damages for assault and battery, breach of fiduciary duty, negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress, interference with prospective economic advantage, discrimination, and violations of his civil rights and of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act. (link)

May 19, 2016: As Baylor University's board of regents reviews a law firm's findings about the school's response to sexual violence allegations -- many involving its football players -- Outside the Lines has obtained documents that detail largely unknown allegations of sexual assault, domestic violence and other acts of violence involving several Baylor football players. According to the police documents, at least some Baylor officials, including coaches, knew about many of the incidents, and most players did not miss playing time for disciplinary reasons. None of the incidents has been widely reported in the media. (link)

May 18, 2016: A college professor at the University of Houston was among the more than a dozen individuals arrested Tuesday in connection with an international synthetic marijuana ring. Omar Maher Al Nasser, 36, faces two criminal counts related to a synthetic drug operation detailed by authorities in a lengthy indictment unsealed Tuesday in the Southern District of Texas. Mr. Al Nasser worked as an assistant professor of finance for the University of Houston-Victoria's School of Business Administration at the time of his arrest, and he was responsible for teaching up to 40 students as of Tuesday, UHV President Vic Morgan told the Victoria Advocate. (link)

May 17, 2016: Several former college football players filed class-action lawsuits Tuesday against their universities, conferences and the N.C.A.A., claiming negligence over their handling of head injuries. The spate of cases - six were filed Tuesday - marks a new effort by athletes seeking financial relief for what they say are the lasting effects from concussions sustained in their college careers. Among the named defendants in the filings are Penn State and Vanderbilt and three major football-playing conferences: the Big Ten, the Southeastern Conference and the Pacific-12. (link)

May 16, 2016: A jury on Thursday awarded $1 million in punitive damages to a black professor at William Paterson University who sued the school on allegations that she was harassed and discriminated against because of her race and religion. The award to Althea Hylton-Lindsay was on top of a nearly $1.2 million that the panel in Superior Court in Paterson awarded to her on Wednesday in compensatory damages. (link)

May 13, 2016: The Obama administration on Friday directed schools across the nation to provide transgender students with access to suitable facilities - including bathrooms and locker rooms - that match their chosen gender identity. The move, which affects all public schools and most colleges and universities that receive federal funds, plunges the administration even further into the country's ongoing contentious debate over transgender rights. (link)

May 02, 2016: Marquette University associate professor John McAdams and the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty filed a lawsuit Monday against Marquette over the professor's suspension stemming from his public criticism of a teaching assistant. According to a news release, the lawsuit against Marquette is for "illegally suspending" McAdams and "making the decision to terminate his tenure and fire him from Marquette." The lawsuit, filed in Milwaukee County Circuit Court, accuses Marquette of breach of contract. (link)

Campus Life & Safety Events

May 11, 2016: A former Massachusetts Institute of Technology student and basketball player has pleaded not guilty to entering a Boston University dorm room and sexually assaulting a woman as she slept. Samson Donick, of Tiburon, California, was held on $10,000 bail at his arraignment Wednesday on charges including aggravated rape. Prosecutors say the 20-year-old Donick and friends were visiting the dorm in the early morning hours of Oct. 18. Donick and another man allegedly entered several rooms while searching for a friend. Police say the 20-year-old victim awoke to Donick sexually assaulting her. (link)

May 05, 2016: Four Radford University students now face criminal hazing charges after school officials said previously that a student was injured in an incident involving the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity last month. The student was hospitalized for five days and has since been released, university spokesman Joe Carpenter said Thursday. Jesse Vaughn Leasure, 20, Evan Ross Satterley, 22, Andrew Morgan Piccione, 20, and Theodore Eugene Anna, 22, all face one misdemeanor count of hazing. Leasure and Satterley have also been charged with aiding and abetting underage possession of alcohol, according to a Radford City Police Department news release. (link)

May 04, 2016: Authorities have obtained an arrest warrant in the investigation into a reported peeping Tom at Towson University. A man was seen around 3 p.m. Monday in a third-floor bathroom in the College of Liberal Arts Building putting a cellphone under the divider and taking photographs of the occupant of the stall, authorities said. On Wednesday, the university said an arrest warrant has been obtained for Zachary Campbell. No further information was released. (link)

May 03, 2016: A New Jersey teenager visiting a Massachusetts college has been charged with raping a student during the trip. Jamad Thomas, of East Orange, was released on $20,000 bail and ordered to stay away from Merrimack College after pleading not guilty Monday. Prosecutors say the 18-year-old Thomas raped a female student at the North Andover school inside a dormitory bathroom just after 1 a.m. Sunday. Thomas told police that the sex was consensual. Thomas identified himself to police and students as a football recruit, but a Merrimack spokesman said he was not being recruited by the school. (link)

May 03, 2016: A Pennsylvania man has been found guilty of murder in the dorm room killing of his girlfriend after what he said was an argument over spilled noodles. Gregorio Orrostieta, convicted Monday, now faces 20 to 40 years in prison for the death of Karlie Halls, who was an 18-year-old freshman at Millersville University outside Lancaster when she was found dead in February 2015. (link)

May 03, 2016: The bill, Senate Bill 2376, allows full-time faculty, staff and other employees of Tennessee's public colleges and universities who have handgun-carry permits to carry their guns on campus -- but they must notify the local law enforcement agency with primary responsibility for security on their campus -- the campus police, for example. It goes into effect July 1, but the bill gives law enforcement agencies with jurisdictions over each campus authority to develop and implement policies and procedures regarding the law's requirement that employees notify law enforcement of their intent to go armed, and to offer voluntary courses or supplemental firearm training to employees who elect to go armed. (link)

Apr 29, 2016: A former Wheaton College student entered a guilty plea Friday to charges that he used a "spy camera" that looked like a watch to secretly videotape three female students in the bathroom of their college-owned apartment. Alexander Lim, 25, admitted guilt to six counts of unauthorized video recording in a blind plea with DuPage County prosecutors. Judge John Kinsella set a June 30 sentence date for Lim, who could face up to five years in prison, though lesser jail sentences or probation are options. (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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