Case in Point:
Lessons for the proactive manager

I recently listened to a leadership podcast which discussed what it means to be a preeminent organization and the traits that characterize them. Many, if not most, organizations say they want to be preeminent, but few arrive at that destination.

The podcast guest for this particular episode was Glenn, the founder of a major communications and marketing firm. Near the end of the discussion the conversation turned to the topic of crisis communication. One of Glenn's specialties involves crisis and brand management. Glenn said that many organizations confuse challenges with crises. They often take normal challenges and in handling them, turn them into full-fledged crises. Glenn listed 4 steps organizations should take in dealing with an actual crisis:

1. Own it
2. Fix it
3. Humbly move forward
4. Report on progress

We again invite you to review the stories reported across higher education and consider how you may proactively address your specific challenges to avoid a crisis. As always, we welcome your feedback and suggestions.

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

Information Security & Technology Events

Aug 26, 2016: Healthcare organizations cannot afford to skip out on conducting regular risk assessments, according to several recent OCR HIPAA settlements. Failing to identify potential risks and vulnerabilities in ePHI security could lead to healthcare data breaches. An OCR HIPAA settlement was reached with the University of Mississippi Medical Center in July 2016, following allegations of multiple HIPAA violations. (link)

Aug 25, 2016: According to Verizon's 2016 Data Breach Investigations Report, the education sector ranked sixth overall in the US for the total number of reported "security incidents" last year. This was notably higher than two other industry sectors which have also been plagued with security problems: healthcare (153 percent higher) and retail (160 percent higher). Why do hackers like school systems? Because the education sector, particularly at the college and university level, is a virtual buffet of valuable data. (link)

Aug 17, 2016: Ronald Murray is accused of taking personal information from a University of New Mexico database and using it to go on a nearly $90,000 spending spree. Trujillo said Murray had a flash drive containing personal information for 1,300 former UNM students and employees. Police still don't know how he obtained it. Trujillo said Murray used the personal information to make fake driver's licenses, and in one week, racked up $87,957 in bills in other people's name. (link)

Aug 03, 2016: What could be more normal that heading to the university library, swiping your card and logging in to a computer? Most students wouldn't think twice about it. But what they may not realise is that this mundane series of events leaves a unique data pattern that can be recorded, logged and reviewed, in a practice known as "learning analytics". And now data analysts are using this information to predict whether students will struggle with their courses, or drop out. Such techniques look set to become an integral part of university life in the future, much to the delight of advocates. (link)

Fraud & Ethics Related Events

Aug 30, 2016: The City University of New York is investigating whether a recent $500,000 donation intended to bolster the humanities and arts at its flagship school may have been improperly diverted. The inquiry was prompted by senior faculty members at the school, the City College of New York, who learned that an account that should have contained roughly $600,000, thanks to the donation, had just $76. Faculty members asked City College officials for an explanation, but were met with "silence, delay and deflection" before appealing directly to the university's chancellor, James B. Milliken. (link)

Aug 29, 2016: An energy consultant involved in a controversial state solar power project at two Oregon universities has been indicted on forgery charges, after an investigation prompted by The Oregonian/OregonLive's reporting. Martin Shain, the lead consultant on the state's $24 million "Solar by Degree" project, was indicted Thursday by a Marion County grand jury on two counts of first-degree forgery. Shain is accused of creating a phony invoice from a fictional subcontractor that was pivotal in getting nearly $12 million in tax credits from the Oregon Department of Energy. (link)

Aug 25, 2016: The state university system will no longer award bonuses to the system chancellor or campus presidents, a policy change announced Thursday following criticism of a $75,000 bonus awarded this year to Chancellor Robert Caret. None of the contracts for the campus presidents include bonuses. Lawmakers questioned how the university system could grant such generous increases to its top leader while students face growing tuition bills. (link)

Aug 24, 2016: The News 4 Tucson Investigators have learned that a man who taught at the U of A for nearly 50 years has pleaded guilty to stealing tens of thousands of dollars from the university. John Marchello, one of the college's longest-serving professors, has pleaded guilty to one count of "Theft of Property or Services," which is a felony. Marchello managed the student-run meat lab on N. Campbell, which has a store that holds weekly sales to the public. Marchello was diverting meat sales revenues to his personal account. (link)

Aug 20, 2016: The University of Kentucky Police Department has arrested a man in connection with a case in which textbooks were stolen from multiple Kentucky schools. Anthony Ryan Shields, 30, of Lexington, was arrested Saturday and charged with third-degree burglary and possession of burglar's tools after police say they caught him in the act of selling textbooks stolen from Western Kentucky University to a Lexington bookstore. Shields was being held Saturday night in the Fayette County Detention Center. (link)

Aug 17, 2016: University of California, Berkeley's chancellor announced Tuesday he plans to resign as soon as the campus finds a successor. Nicholas Dirks did not give specific reasons for his resignations in his announcement to students, faculty and staff. His announcement comes after months of scandals and criticism from both students and faculty. In May 2016, Dirks spent almost $700,000 on a seven-foot tall fence around University House, the chancellor's residence to keep out vandals. Students also criticized his decision to use $9,000 from UC Office of the President funds to build an emergency exit for his office to escape protesters. (link)

Aug 16, 2016: A campus security employee at Central College and his girlfriend have been arrested in connection with the theft of several items from the school. The Pella Police Department says Parker Bollhoefer, 20, and Lyndi Littrel, 18, are each charged with one count of first degree theft. The investigation began August 10th after staff at Central College notified police about several items recently stolen from the school. Among the items taken were a wedding party sheet cake, merchandise from the college Spirit Store, and a large flat screen television. (link)

Aug 15, 2016: University of Arizona President Ann Weaver Hart has called on the Arizona Board of Regents to hire a law firm to conduct an independent investigation of the university's health-sciences administration and examine allegations of misuse of public funds and alteration of public documents. (link)

Aug 07, 2016: The Alabama Association For Higher Education might be the most powerful force in Alabama politics that no one has ever heard of. Established and managed by current and former University of Alabama System officials including Chancellor Robert E. Witt, the association operates outside public view as a "dark money" nonprofit organization. By funneling more than $1.4 million through the group since its founding in 2014, the nonprofit UA System has been able to influence state government without illegally donating directly to political candidates or having to report its spending on campaign finance disclosures. (link)

Aug 05, 2016: Virginia Tech police arrested two men in connection to the theft of two Virginia Tech football helmets from Merryman Athletic Facility late last month. Eric Lugg, 20, of Loch Haven, and Joshua Villanueva, 21, of Austin, Texas, are both charged with one count of felony grand larceny and one count of breaking and entering. (link)

Aug 02, 2016: As many as 90 University of Washington students from China may have been defrauded of up to $1 million in tuition money, UW Police Department investigators said Monday. The Chinese students, all studying at the UW in Seattle this summer, were told they could save 5 percent -- about $600 -- off the $11,340 cost of summer tuition by paying an intermediary, said UW Police investigator Lt. Doug Schulz. In an interview Monday, several students said a UW student from China who was well-known in the community spread word of the deal through a popular Chinese social-media app called WeChat. Because the student was active in UW student clubs for a number of years, she was widely trusted, said George Zhou, a sophomore math major. (link)

Aug 01, 2016: During her tenure as UC Davis chancellor, Linda P.B. Katehi has flown first class, hired tour guides, taken limousines and made numerous expensive travel changes that were billed to the University of California, according to documents obtained by The Sacramento Bee. Katehi's international trips alone cost the university more than $174,000, according to records. Because Katehi was often accompanied by her husband and other university staff members, who filed separate expense reports, the cost was actually much higher.It is unclear whether her travel paid off for the university. UC Davis spokeswoman Dana Topousis said there is no reliable way to track the donations generated from these trips. (link)

Jul 29, 2016: St. John's University was among the schools that received forged transcripts from the former head basketball coach of the Westchester Community College to help star players earn NCAA Division I scholarships, according to an indictment of the WCC coach Thursday. Tyrone Mushatt submitted bogus transcripts, helping at least eight players transfer to the Division 1 and other four-year schools, investigators say. (link)

Compliance/Regulatory & Legal Events

Aug 30, 2016: A former SF State information security officer claimed in a lawsuit that she was fired in a University attempt to sweep "under the rug" a 2014 hack involving a significant student records breach including financial records and password reset functions. "We've had minor cases," former employee Mignon Hofmann said of her work at SF State. "This was the most severe case I've ever seen." The suit, filed in January at the San Francisco Superior Court, accused the University and Board of Trustees of California State University of wrongful termination and whistleblower retaliation. Hofmann is asking for more than $1 million in lost pension, lost past and future earnings and emotional distress, according to court documents. (link)

Aug 30, 2016: Syracuse University is being investigated by the Department of Education for its handling of a sexual assault case after a former student filed a Title IX complaint with the department's Office of Civil Rights. The complaint alleges that the university failed to "respond promptly or equitably" to a report of sexual assault made on or about May 5, 2015, according to documents obtained by The Daily Orange through the Freedom of Information Act. Further details of the incident were not provided in the request because the investigation is ongoing. (link)

Aug 29, 2016: The University of Colorado has paid a former business school staffer $40,000 to settle a federal gender discrimination complaint. Robin Miglarese, the former associate director of operations in executive education for the Leeds School of Business, filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She says she resigned because Dean David Ikenberry and other officials created a hostile work environment and discriminated against her for being female and over the age of 40. (link)

Aug 30, 2016: A former University of Cincinnati classics professor pleaded guilty to trading child pornography over the internet Monday in federal court, and could have been taken in custody immediately due to a bond violation. Holt Parker, 59, appeared before Judge Timothy S. Black in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati and changed his plea from not guilty to guilty as part of a proposed plea agreement. He admitted in court that he had possessed and traded images and videos of children engaging in sexual activity and was ready to take responsibility for the crime. (link)

Aug 26, 2016: A federal judge ruled Friday that the University of North Carolina system cannot enforce the part of the state's so-called "bathroom bill" that restricts which restrooms transgender people can use, a controversial provision that prompted boycotts, outrage and a Justice Department lawsuit. Until a final decision is reached in the case, the schools -- which have said they are caught between conflicting state and federal mandates -- cannot enforce the law's language ordering people to only use bathrooms that match the gender on their birth certificates, District Judge Thomas D. Schroeder wrote in an 83-page order issued Friday afternoon. (link)

Aug 25, 2016: A prominent southwest university's medical school could face a criminal probe after it was revealed that students dissected aborted fetal brains and other body parts at a summer camp. The University of New Mexico was accused of illegally transferring fetal tissue by the House Select Panel of Infant Lives in a recent letter to New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. charged the school broke state laws governing the use of aborted fetal tissue it received from Southwestern Women's Options, which provides late-term abortions. (link)

Aug 24, 2016: A Kennesaw State University worker is suing the school for $1.5 million for claims that she is still being harassed for coming forward about ethics violations by leadership during the past year. Tracy Nunn, who was an administrative assistant to the school's executive director of culinary services, filed the lawsuit Monday in the Superior Court of Fulton County as a violation of the Georgia Whistleblower Protection Act. The lawsuit alleges that her direct supervisor Gary Coltek, director of culinary services, listed Nunn as registered agent for a company, which she didn't know until a TV reporter emailed her with questions in September 2015. (link)

Aug 22, 2016: A federal judge in Texas has issued a nationwide injunction barring federal government agencies from taking action against school districts that don't follow the Obama administration's guidance on transgender bathroom policies in schools. The judge granted a preliminary injunction sought by Texas and several other states challenging the Obama administration's interpretation of Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in schools, colleges and universities. The administration interprets Title IX to include discrimination based on gender identity. The ruling was issued by Judge Reed O'Connor of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, late Sunday night before many students across Texas and other states commenced their school year. (link)

Aug 22, 2016: A federal judge on Monday declined to grant a preliminary injunction that would have allowed three professors at the University of Texas to ban concealed handguns from their classrooms. U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel of Austin said he found no precedent for the professors' argument that they have a right of academic freedom under the First Amendment so broad that it overrides decisions of the Legislature and the university that employs them. (link)

Aug 18, 2016: A Philadelphia man who claimed he was falsely arrested as the result of lies by Drexel University police in an alleged racial profiling incident will get another shot at suing the school. A state Superior Court panel gave Troy Demby that chance this week by reversing a Philadelphia judge's dismissal of the complaint he filed against the school and its cops over a December 2011 incident on campus that involved his brother. (link)

Aug 16, 2016: The U.S. Department of Education is investigating how the University of Maryland, Baltimore County handles reports of sexual assault after an attorney filed a complaint alleging that the university mishandled a student's case. Attorney Wendy Murphy, who is representing the UMBC student, said the student was drugged, raped and beaten by a fellow student on campus last year. She declined to be more specific about the date. (link)

Aug 15, 2016: Today, Oklahoma Wesleyan University (OKWU) became the first and only institution of higher education to challenge in court a 2011 mandate from the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) that colleges and universities adjudicate sexual misconduct allegations using the low, "preponderance of the evidence" standard. This mandate for institutions governed by Title IX --all but a few colleges and universities nationwide, whether private or public -- was first announced in OCR's April 4, 2011 "Dear Colleague" letter (DCL). (link)

Aug 12, 2016: A federal judge dismissed the civil-rights lawsuit filed by Ohio State University's fired marching band director Friday, putting an almost certain end to Jonathan Waters' two-year legal fight. Waters was fired in July 2014 for ignoring a "sexualized culture" inside what's known to fans as The Best Damn Band in the Land. He denied wrongdoing and sued for reinstatement and damages alleging reverse gender-discrimination. (link)

Aug 11, 2016: An audit report released earlier this month by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Inspector General could potentially trigger efforts in Congress to eliminate a critical legal requirement for college programs to receive federal Title IV student grants and loans. That would be a dangerous development, according to a long-time higher education policy expert who provided me with the statement below. (link)

Aug 11, 2016: More leading universities have been sued on claims that their retirement plans charged employees excessive fees, following a series of similar suits filed earlier this week. In the latest round, complaints were filed in various federal courts on behalf of employees at Duke, Johns Hopkins, the University of Pennsylvania and Vanderbilt. The earlier lawsuits were filed against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New York University and Yale on Tuesday. All of the complaints seek class-action status. (link)

Aug 11, 2016: The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against New Mexico State University Thursday, alleging that the school discriminated against a former female assistant track coach. The DOJ says that NMSU and its Board of Regents paid the coach less than similarly-situated men, violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The department says NMSU paid Coach Mary Harkins thousands of dollars less per year than it paid two male assistant track coaches with similar responsibilities. (link)

Aug 11, 2016: The University at Buffalo has been added to a growing list of colleges under investigation for their handling of sexual assault allegations. The inquiry into UB's case began in May. The federal civil rights agency is examining whether the university violated any laws in handling the case of a female student who accused a male student of sexually abusing her in a dorm room. The woman made the allegation to university staff last semester, and the case was referred to the university student judicial system. (link)

Aug 10, 2016: A former Western Kentucky University swimmer has reached a settlement in a lawsuit in which he claimed to have been hazed and assaulted by his teammates. Collin Craig had alleged that he was abused physically and mentally and suffered discrimination on the basis of sex. He reported multiple cases of assaults and hazing. Following a Title IX investigation last year that concluded policies were violated, the university suspended the swimming and diving programs for five years. (link)

Aug 10, 2016: A biochemistry professor at George Washington University (GW) in Washington, DC, has settled a lawsuit with his institution over how it handled allegations of misconduct leveled against him. Rakesh Kumar sued GW for $8 million in January 2015, accusing the university of taking away his position as chair of the department of biochemistry and molecular biology without following proper protocol. He served as the department chair from March 2009 until July 2014, when the university began investigating problems in his lab. (link)

Aug 09, 2016: The University of Kentucky will pursue legal action against the independent student newspaper, The Kentucky Kernel, after Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear sided with the newspaper on an open records request. In April, the paper sent an open records request to the university asking for documents regarding allegations of sexual harassment by a tenured faculty member. The university sent some documents, but not others. The Kernel's staff appealed to the attorney general's office to force the university to release the rest of the documents. On Monday, Beshear announced he had sided with the Kernel. (link)

Aug 09, 2016: Three professors duking it out in court for the right to ban guns in their classrooms were told Monday they will be punished if they do, according to the latest legal back-and-forth prompted by Texas' new campus carry law. "Faculty members are aware that state law provides that guns can be carried on campus, and that the president has not made a rule excluding them from classrooms," attorneys representing the University of Texas at Austin and Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote in a legal brief filed Monday. "As a result, any individual professor who attempts to establish such prohibition is subject to discipline." (link)

Aug 09, 2016: Three prominent universities were sued on Tuesday, accused of allowing their employees to be charged excessive fees on their retirement savings. The complaints allege that the universities, as the plan sponsors, failed to monitor excessive fees paid to administer the plans and did not replace more expensive, poor-performing investments with cheaper ones. Had the plans eliminated their long lists of investment options and used their bargaining power to cut costs, the complaints argue, participants could have collectively saved tens of millions of dollars. (link)

Aug 09, 2016: Brigham Young University is the target of a federal investigation for how it responds to reports of sexual assault. The university learned Thursday afternoon it is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, according to an announcement posted Monday afternoon on the university's website. The investigation comes after a complaint was filed on April 18. (link)

Aug 06, 2016: Members of Alabama's coordinating board for higher education were taken aback this past legislative session, when a Senate bill created to give the state's two-year college system more power threatened to remove the system from the supervision of the board in its entirety. Senate Bill 246, introduced by Sens. Trip Pittman, R-Daphne, and Del Marsh, R-Anniston, was drafted to establish the Alabama Community College System as a corporate body -- providing for the system powers similar to those held by four-year institutions, and to grant it the authority to allocate funds to the system's colleges and to create procedures for employee discipline and termination. (link)

Aug 04, 2016: A University of Hawaii professor pleaded not guilty today in federal court to charges of possessing and transporting child pornography. A federal grand jury indictment that was unsealed today charges Beei-Huan Chao, 61, with one count of distributing "visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, namely, approximately 14 videos." The indictment says that on or about Feb. 11, Chao knowingly transported and shipped the material. Chao is a mechanical engineering professor at UH-Manoa. A university spokesman said the professor was placed on paid administrative leave this morning. (link)

Aug 04, 2016: Arkansas State University confirmed Thursday that former Chancellor Dr. Tim Hudson was the focus of a second internal audit at the time of his resignation. The documents, which were released following a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by Region 8 News, "noted occurrences of potential noncompliance with a State of Arkansas law." The audit stated Hudson "appeared to use his position to secure financial assistance for a family member" who was unnamed. (link)

Aug 04, 2016: A University of New Mexico professor who was suspended and censured after a sexual harassment investigation that involved interviews of students and faculty will return to the classroom this fall, albeit under supervision. UNM Provost Chaouki Abdallah, in a statement to the Journal, on Wednesday acknowledged the case involving assistant anthropology professor Cristobal Valencia and said the university's goal was to "prevent future misconduct." Meanwhile, the director of the Rape Crisis Center of Central New Mexico said UNM's actions in this case would be "terrifying" for the victims. (link)

Aug 03, 2016: A former Kent State University softball player who filed a lawsuit accusing the university and her former coach of not properly responding to allegations that she was raped by the coach's son now says she is not receiving public records from the college. Senior Laura Kesterson filed a complaint Tuesday with the Ohio Supreme Court, asking the court to force the university to provide public documents about how it handled her rape report. Kesterson filed a civil lawsuit in U.S. District Court in February, saying former varsity softball coach Karen Linder pressured her to keep quiet in spring 2014 after she reported that she was raped in 2012. The lawsuit said Linder never reported the incident to the university. (link)

Aug 03, 2016: Associate Professor of Biology Robert Dillon will not return to his lab or the classroom this fall after he locked horns with college leaders in the spring in an obscure battle over a course syllabus. Dillon said he intends to retire on Aug. 15. He is also suing the college and Provost Brian McGee, saying that the college defamed him and denied him due process. College leaders wanted Dillon to include a list of "student learning outcomes" on the syllabus for his Biology 305 genetics lab, in keeping with the latest accreditation standards. Dillon refused. (link)

Aug 03, 2016: Kennesaw State University has fired softball head coach Torrence "Tory" Acheson after an investigation by the University's Office of Title IX found Acheson violated its Sexual Misconduct Policy by making inappropriate comments to members of the team. The investigation also uncovered systematic problems with how the complaints were handled. (link)

Aug 03, 2016: A longtime University of Virginia film professor was arrested Tuesday amid allegations that he was in possession of child pornography. Walter Francis Korte, Jr., 72, was arrested and charged with two counts of possessing child pornography after police obtained warrants and searched his campus office and his home on Fosters Branch Road in Albemarle County. Korte was taken to the Albemarle County Regional Jail, where is being held without bond. A trial has been scheduled for Sep. 12. His attorney could not be immediately identified. (link)

Aug 02, 2016: North Carolina is challenging the NCAA's jurisdiction to pursue charges in the school's long-running academic fraud scandal and is holding off on self-imposed penalties. The school on Tuesday publicly released its response to five potentially top-level NCAA charges, which include lack of institutional control. UNC acknowledged problems tied to irregular courses in a department popular with athletes but also available to non-athletes on the Chapel Hill campus, though it argued that its accreditation agency -- not the NCAA -- was the proper authority to handle such a matter. (link)

Aug 02, 2016: Merced College President Susan Walsh broke her silence Tuesday to address an investigation on campus with an email sent to staff and faculty. The email discussed the college's decision to hire a private detective in March to investigate an anonymous letter, a move the Sun-Star confirmed by obtaining an invoice through a public records request. Merced County Sheriff Sgt. Vince Gallagher, the campus's former chief, told the Sun-Star campus officials were looking to see if any campus employees were behind the letter, however administrators denied that was their motive. In the morning email, Walsh cited the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act as a reason to stay mum over the investigation of an anonymous letter and Merced-based private investigator Cen Cal Investigations, which conducted a "latent fingerprint" search on March 31. (link)

Aug 01, 2016: Two men connected with the Temple University Police Department have been charged with murder, according to court records. Aaron Wright, 47, and Marquis Robinson, 41, are charged with six criminal counts including murder, aggravated assault, conspiracy, and abuse of a corpse. Their addresses were unavailable Sunday. Wright was an officer with the university police department until he was dismissed in 2012, Temple University spokesman Ray Betzner said Sunday. Betzner would not say why Wright was fired. Robinson was an officer with the department until Sunday, when he was fired because of the charges against him, Betzner said. (link)

Campus Life & Safety Events

Aug 30, 2016: A group of Clemson University students intend to hold a rally Friday in the area where a community evangelist was told last week that he was violating a campus policy. Robby Roberts was holding a "Prayer" sign at Trustee Park when he was approached last Thursday by Shawn Jones, the university's assistant director for client services. "This is not a designated free speech area," Jones said, according to a video of the encounter that Clemson graduate student Kyra Palange posted Sunday on Facebook. Jones explains in the video that Roberts would need to follow "proper procedures" to use a designated area on campus. (link)

Aug 29, 2016: A former faculty member at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine who had been fired shot the school's dean outside a popular deli in Chappaqua, N.Y., on Monday, apparently in an act of revenge, the authorities said. The former employee, Hengjun Chao, 49, of Tuckahoe, N.Y., was charged with attempted second-degree murder after he allegedly fired a shotgun and hit two men around 7 a.m. outside the deli, Lange's Little Store. Mount Sinai officials confirmed that the dean, Dr. Dennis S. Charney, 65, of Chappaqua, was one of the victims. (link)

Aug 29, 2016: Anthony Nazaire, a 19-year-old sophomore at Ithaca College, was killed during a bloody brawl Sunday morning on the campus of Cornell University. The business major was stabbed several times as the massive 2 a.m. melee spilled across the center of the Ivy League school's sprawling upstate campus, police said. Another Ithaca student who was slashed in the fracas was treated at an area hospital and released. (link)

Aug 25, 2016: A search warrant signed by a local judge says members of the Sigma Nu fraternity in College Station dragged a teen's body through the house and waited to call 911 because they didn't want police involved. According to the warrant, College Station police found marijuana, heroin, cocaine and ecstasy inside the fraternity's house where 19-year-old Anton Gridnev became unconscious Saturday morning. The teen was rushed to a hospital by paramedics were he was later pronounced dead. (link)

Aug 25, 2016: This is Herky. Herky is the official mascot for the University of Iowa. He is a bird that somehow has a full set of teeth, but don't hold that against him. Anyway, Herky has come under fire from a professor at Iowa's medical school who thinks his constant state of angered agitation is just too much for the delicate souls who could encounter him at a Hawkeyes sporting event. "I believe incoming students should be met with welcoming, nurturing, calm, accepting and happy messages," Resmiye Oral, a clinical professor of pediatrics at UI, wrote recently in an email to UI athletic department officials that was obtained by the Press-Citizen. (link)

Aug 24, 2016: Incoming first-years received a letter from the College today making clear that the University of Chicago does not condone safe spaces or trigger warnings. "Our commitment to academic freedom means that we do not support so-called 'trigger warnings,' we do not cancel invited speakers because their topics might prove controversial, and we do not condone the creation of intellectual 'safe spaces' where individuals can retreat from ideas and perspectives at odds with their own," reads the letter from Dean of Students Jay Ellison. (link)

Aug 24, 2016: The University of Vermont women's basketball team has canceled an upcoming game against North Carolina due to concerns about the state's controversial HB2 law, the UVM athletic department announced Wednesday. UVM athletic director Jeff Schulman explained the school's decision in a statement released Friday. Schulman's statement reads, in part: "The decision to cancel to our Dec. 28 women's basketball game at North Carolina was made as a result of concerns over the HB2 law, which prevents transgender people from using government-run bathrooms based on their gender identity." (link)

Aug 24, 2016: On the first day of classes at the University of Texas in this city that revels in its own oddball creativity, students protested a law allowing concealed handguns on state college campuses by carrying something they thought was just as ridiculous and out of place: Thousands of sex toys. "These laws won't protect anyone. The campus doesn't want them," said an organizer of the protest, Jessica Jin. "It's absurd. So, I thought, we have to fight absurdity with absurdity." (link)

Aug 22, 2016: Indiana University is targeting its Greek system as it goes after illegal alcohol and drug use. This year fraternities and sororities will have to sign contracts allowing police to search their houses as well as the rooms of individuals. Police searches are most drastic of new measures IU is imposing on fraternities and sororities the university said is intended to keep students safe and healthy. The new rules allow IU Police and other emergency services to search public areas and private rooms, without a warrant if they give 24 hours warning or immediately if they suspect there is a dangerous situation or someone is in danger. (link)

Aug 17, 2016: Springfield police have 10 reported incidents involving Haribhau Gholap. All the reports were the same: he would approach a female student asking her to take his picture, and then asked for a hug. All of the victims agreed to that, but say it led to inappropriate touching, so they called police. Gholap told multiple female Missouri State University students that was a professor from India and visiting his friend on campus. After asking them to take his picture, he would ask for a hug. It led to inappropriate touching of the students. When the women resisted, they said Gholap would run away. (link)

Aug 08, 2016: For more than a decade, maintenance workers at the University of Washington's Seattle campus have said the UW isn't spending enough to maintain its buildings. Now, a consultant's report has identified a billion-dollar backlog in building fixes. According to a national report by Sightlines, a Connecticut consulting firm, the nation's colleges and universities face a collective backlog of $30 billion in deferred maintenance -- in part because many colleges went on a building spree 50 years ago, when baby boomers were going to college. Those buildings are now in need of major updates. As well, many states -- including Washington -- slashed higher-education budgets during the recession, and maintenance suffered as a result. (link)

Aug 03, 2016: A professor at Oberlin College who made a series of Facebook posts that suggested that Israeli and United States intelligence services were behind terror attacks has been placed on paid leave while the college continues to review the case, the college said Wednesday. A professor at Oberlin College who made a series of Facebook posts that suggested that Israeli and United States intelligence services were behind terror attacks has been placed on paid leave while the college continues to review the case, the college said Wednesday. (link)

Aug 02, 2016: Effective August 1, 2016, laws on Texas college campuses changed. Specifically, laws effective August 1 permit licensed handgun holders to carry firearms on college campuses. This school year, students may return to campus bearing arms. The new Campus Carry Laws do not provide blanket permission for any person to carry a handgun on a college campus. There are threshold requirements to legally carry a gun at a school of higher education. In addition, there are some prohibitions that remain in effect, and some realities of the law that will prohibit college carrying. (link)

Other News & Events

Jul 30, 2016: The GAC program, which can cost students $10,000 a year or more, has emerged as one of many avenues in Asia used to exploit weaknesses in the U.S. college admissions process. The website for the GAC program promises universities "highly skilled international students," and some schools award college credit for classes taken at GAC centers. But interviews with some students who attended GAC centers call the program's integrity into question. One now attending the University of California, Los Angeles, said a GAC administrator in China let him practice answering almost half the questions that would appear on the actual ACT about a week before the exam was given. (link)

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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