Case in Point:
Lessons for the proactive manager

The diversity of issues we within higher education are faced with each month is eye opening. Some of the events we link to within this newsletter are one-hit wonders; they are reported and then move out of the public eye. Occasionally, there are stories that linger for multiple issues. In extreme cases we see an incident cross multiple years.

This month we call your attention to a story related to a jury award in a defamation case related to the Jerry Sandusky/Penn State scandal. This case first made the media headlines over five and a half years ago. Litigation surrounding various issues of this case may well continue for years to come. While this case is certainly unusual, it is a sobering reminder of the importance of the types of issues and risks we face within higher education.

Our goal in producing this publication has always been to stimulate thought that we hope helps you become more proactive in managing risk within higher education. The actions that you must take to that end will depend on your specific circumstances, but ignoring or concealing issues may lead to major consequences in today's environment. We again invite you to review the higher education-related news articles linked below and consider how you can proactively manage risks.

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

Information Security & Technology Events

Oct 27, 2016: In the latest breach of cybersecurity on campus, a trove of internal documents from the Office of Marketing and Communications were leaked by the anonymous hacker SCUWatch. Included in these documents were crisis management plans, university social media strategies and personal contact information for upper level administrators. According to Chief Information Officer Bob Owen, there are two ongoing, active investigations by the university into this latest leak and the previous breach of video surveillance footage. In an interview with The Santa Clara, Owen said that both leaks were the result of careless password management and not a breach of university systems or firewalls. (link)

Oct 26, 2016: Despite technology's intention of making things simpler and easier, it's still susceptible to human error, malice or the adverse effects of dated technology. And when things go wrong, they can often go horrifically wrong. In our research for this series, we asked 8 higher ed CIOs to share their scariest campus IT horror stories. This is what they had to say. (link)

Oct 11, 2016: UCF police have determined that a vendor whose restaurants had malware on its computers is the potential root of the spike in campus credit card fraud cases last month. The issue was found with AD Food Services, which operates Asian Chao, Huey Magoo's and the Corner Café in the Student Union, the University of Central Florida said in a news release. Malware can include viruses, spyware and other unwanted software installed on computers without the owners' knowledge, according to the Federal Trade Commission. (link)

Fraud & Ethics Related Events

Oct 11, 2016: A University of Colorado fundraising employee resigned last week after being arrested on suspicion of theft and forgery because police allege she created fake receipts to cover more than $18,000 worth of personal child care costs at her previous job at Colorado State University. Jamie Alexander, 41, was booked into the Larimer County Jail Oct. 5, the same day she resigned from her post as executive director of business operations and finance for the CU Office of Advancement on the Boulder campus. She is free on $2,500 bond. (link)

Oct 06, 2016: Iowa State University President Steven Leath said he will be more cautious about mixing personal and official business after facing criticism over his use of university airplanes and a $1.1 million private land deal with his boss. Leath told the university's student government Wednesday night that he misjudged how both issues would be perceived by the public and that "I've learned my lesson." A pilot, Leath has been under fire after The Associated Press revealed that he damaged a university plane in a hard landing on his way home from a vacation in North Carolina last year. (link)

Oct 05, 2016: A university employee was sentenced Wednesday for fraud in connection with over $40,000 in federal student loans. Authorities said Ashely Ciampa, 28, of Medford, was sentenced to two years of probation and six months of home detention after she pleaded guilty to student loan fraud. Ciampa was working in the registrar's office at Suffolk University when she enrolled in the university's MBA program in 2013. She failed to attend her business ethics class or complete coursework, but used her computer access in the registrar's office to assign herself an "A" for the course. (link)

Oct 04, 2016: A North Carolina concert promoter pleaded guilty Tuesday to defrauding the University of Hawaii of $200,000 by promising to secure Stevie Wonder for an athletics department fundraising concert that never happened. Marc Hubbard pleaded guilty to wire fraud in federal court in Honolulu, saying he lied about his ability to secure Wonder for a concert. The university paid the $200,000 deposit in 2012 then began selling tickets before learning that neither Wonder nor his representatives had authorized a show. (link)

Compliance/Regulatory & Legal Events

Oct 27, 2016: A jury awarded a former Penn State assistant football coach $7.3 million in damages Thursday, finding the university defamed him after it became public that his testimony helped prosecutors charge Jerry Sandusky with child molestation. Judge Thomas Gavin still must decide McQueary's whistleblower claim that he was treated unfairly as the school suspended him from coaching duties, placed him on paid administrative leave, barred him from team facilities and then did not renew his contract shortly after he testified at Sandusky's 2012 trial. McQueary had been seeking more than $4 million in lost wages and other damages, saying he was defamed by a statement the school president released the day Sandusky was charged, retaliated against for helping with the Sandusky investigation and misled by school administrators. (link)

Oct 27, 2016: A federal appeals court has ruled that public college officials did not violate free speech or due process rights of a student removed from a nursing program after writing Facebook posts during his free time that allegedly violated professional standards. Free speech advocates fear the 2-1 ruling issued Wednesday by a panel of the St. Louis-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit could allow schools to punish many things uttered or written off campus merely by asserting it violates an outside group's professional standards. (link)

Oct 26, 2016: A former San Jose State University head women's basketball coach acted unethically when he falsely claimed to be unaware of violations in his program, according to a Division I Committee on Infractions panel. The former head coach also failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance when he allowed a nonqualifer to practice during her year in residence and when he conducted impermissible countable athletically related activities. (link)

Oct 20, 2016: The NCAA charged the University of Louisville men's basketball program with four Level I violations - the highest level - including citing coach Rick Pitino for a failure to monitor an employee, the school revealed Thursday with its public release of the NCAA's notice of allegations. The allegations, which the NCAA sent after its 13-month-long investigation into U of L, did not include any charges for lack of institutional or head coach control of the program, two of the most severe NCAA violations. (link)

Oct 17, 2016: The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio says Miami University has agreed to make sure technologies on all of its campuses are accessible to students with disabilities. Ben Glassman says the agreement comes after Miami was accused of not being compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. University Deputy General Counsel Mitchell McCrate says under the consent decree Miami will make sure all of its web sites meet handicap accessible standards, use technology that will meet accessibility standards, and will talk to students who have disabilities to make sure they have what they need. (link)

Oct 13, 2016: A professor at the City University of New York's Brooklyn College reports he was asked to change a class syllabus by school administrators worried a participation grade could be misunderstood as a request for sexual favors. Prof. David Seidemann wrote at Minding the Campus, a higher ed watchdog site, that his syllabus included a notice that grading would consider "Class deportment, effort etc..... 10% (applied only to select students when appropriate)." The investigation was reportedly initiated not by any student complaints but by the school's director of diversity investigations and Title IX enforcement. (link)

Oct 13, 2016: Lawsuits are accumulating across the nation brought by students who say they were unfairly disciplined for sexual misconduct by colleges and universities. And increasing numbers of judges are finding their complaints sufficiently valid to move forward. But few, if any, of the alleged violations of a student's rights compare in egregiousness to what happened at Wesley College in Delaware, as described in findings by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights (OCR) made public Wednesday. In this case, the OCR found virtually everything wrong and, therefore, a violation of Title IX's protections against discrimination. (link)

Oct 07, 2016: A University of Cincinnati student, found guilty of sexual assault by UC, filed a federal lawsuit against the university Friday. The male graduate student, identified only as John Doe in his lawsuit, alleges the university violated due process and Title IX in how it handled the investigation and ruling of the case against him. Title IX is a federal law passed in 1972 that protects people from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance. Doe is facing a one-year suspension from UC for allegations that he sexually assaulted another female student in September 2015. (link)

Oct 07, 2016: The University of Northern Colorado men's basketball team has lowered the boom on itself. The Bears and former coach B.J. Hill, guilty of alleged NCAA violations dating back several seasons, have self-imposed penalties and now await word from the NCAA on whether the self-imposed sanctions are acceptable. Hill and his staff were immediately fired, and school officials adamantly declined to discuss the nature of the allegations or violations. UNC still has not revealed what the violations are, widely considered to be Level I violations by the NCAA. It's the first time in school history the athletic department has been in violation of what the NCAA determines to be a Level I violation, which is the most serious type. (link)

Oct 05, 2016: A creationist scholar recently received a six-figure settlement from California State University Northridge, a payout that resolved a 2-year-old lawsuit that alleged the scholar had been fired after discovering soft tissue on a triceratops horn and publishing his findings. The plaintiff, Mark Armitage, had alleged religious discrimination and a violation of the Fair Employment and Housing Act in his suit, claiming in court documents that after his discovery -- which supports a young Earth theory -- some professors went on a successful "witchhunt" against him. (link)

Oct 03, 2016: Two women claiming they were sexually assaulted while attending Baylor University joined a Title IX lawsuit against the school Monday in U.S. District Court in Waco. Waco attorney Jim Dunnam filed the lawsuit June 15 naming Jane Doe 1, Jane Doe 2 and Jane Doe 3 as plaintiffs. Thirteen days later, three more Jane Does were added. Jane Doe 7 and Jane Doe 8 on Monday claimed Baylor failed to adequately investigate their cases. (link)

Sep 29, 2016: A University of California, Berkeley professor who is the subject of three sexual harassment complaints has filed lawsuits against the women he is accused of victimizing, an unusual step that the students say will not deter them from speaking out. Blake Wentworth, assistant professor of south and south-east Asian studies, has accused the women of defamation and "intentional infliction of emotional distress", with new lawsuits filed nearly a year after university investigators concluded that he had violated sexual harassment policies. (link)

Campus Life & Safety Events

Oct 28, 2016: A now-suspended University of Tulsa student faces more than 20 charges after authorities linked him to multiple sexual assaults and numerous burglaries at female students' on-campus homes. Luis Alberto Molina, 19, was charged Thursday with one count of first-degree attempted rape, four counts of sexual battery, seven counts of peeping tom, one count of peeping tom with photographic/electronic equipment, seven counts of first-degree burglary and one count of larceny from a house. (link)

Oct 26, 2016: On Oct. 12, a female student went to police in Madison, Wis., and filed a complaint against a 20-year-old student by the name of Alec Cook. By Oct. 25, according to a police detective's affidavit quoted by WKOW-TV, dozens of women had come forward "'wanting to speak about ... acts related to Cook.'" Dean of Students Lori Berquam issued her own statement on Oct. 21, noting that the student had been placed on emergency leave from the university "based on the severity of the allegations and the potential impact on the campus community..." (link)

Oct 26, 2016: A part-time Villanova University student, Vincent Kane, 19, was arrested and charged with using a cell phone camera to take videos and photographs of unknowing victims in public areas and restrooms, including on the school's Main Line campus, the Delaware County District Attorney's office said Wednesday. A search warrant found a hard drive hidden in Kane's bedroom closet that held more than 51,000 images and videos, some of individuals recorded in a Villanova classroom and a local high school. (link)

Oct 24, 2016: Four juveniles have been arrested in a series of violent incidents Friday night near Temple University's main campus in North Philadelphia. According to Temple security, a group of over 150 juveniles coordinated a "meet up" on Instagram, amassing on Broad Street near the campus at approximately 8 p.m. Four youths, ranging in ages between 14 and 17, were arrested in connection with wide-ranging attacks on Temple students, others in the crowd, and two Temple police officers that seemed to mimic the "flash mobs" that hit Center City in recent years. (link)

Oct 24, 2016: Authorities say a 25-year-old man has been charged with raping a University at Albany student after getting into her dormitory room while she slept. The state university's police force says Franklin Casatelli of the Albany suburb of Guilderland was charged Sunday with rape and burglary. Police say Casatelli, who isn't a student at the college, entered the Stuyvesant Tower dorm around 4 a.m. Sunday and raped a woman in her room. He later turned himself in to university police. College officials say they're investigating how Casatelli gained access to a dorm that is locked 24 hours a day and requires a key card for entry. (link)

Oct 17, 2016: The Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity on the Missouri University of Science and Technology campus in Rolla has been temporarily suspended after an incident there resulted in two students being hospitalized. University officials said they are investigating the incident but declined to give more details about what happened to the injured students. (link)

Oct 16, 2016: Two Christopher Newport University students were robbed at gunpoint Sunday evening. Around 7:45 p.m., police were called to the first block of Shoe Lane to investigate a robbery report. Officers located two victims, both CNU students, one a 21-year-old man and the other a 20-year-old man. The victims told police that they were walking the area of Show Lane and N. Moore's Lane when they were approached by three people with guns. (link)

Oct 15, 2016: A fraternity at the University of Missouri-Columbia at the center of a racial incident last month is under investigation for a slew of violations, and has been put on notice about an allegation that new members were instructed to drug women before sexually assaulting them, according to documents obtained through a records request. Mizzou's chapter of Delta Upsilon is currently suspended by the campus and its national organization. (link)

Oct 06, 2016: The University of Vermont announced Thursday that it has placed its Division I men's hockey team on probation for a year, while suspending both of its co-captains and two of three alternate captains for five games after an alleged hazing incident. According to UVM Athletics, allegations of a "prohibited initiation activity focused on first-year team members" first surfaced on Sept. 24. According to the school, its Campus Security Authority turned over their information to campus police to investigate. (link)

Oct 03, 2016: A fraternity at the University of South Florida is suspended tonight and one of it's members is under arrest after a 16-year-old reports that she was raped inside the frat house over the weekend. It happened at the Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity House off USF Birch Drive directly across the street from the USF Police Station. USF Police reports the incident took place around 12:30 Sunday morning while the victim says she was unconscious. Later Sunday afternoon, investigators arrested 19-year-old Dillon LaGamma, a member of USF's Zata Eta Chapter of Pi Kappa Phi. (link)

Oct 01, 2016: No one was injured as a fire ripped through a dorm hall at New Hampshire's Dartmouth College. Flames could be seen shooting through the roof of Morton Hall early Saturday morning. Firefighters battled flames for several hours until the fire was finally knocked down around 5 a.m. No one was injured but about 70 students are displaced. Due to "extensive" smoke and water damage, the dormitory is uninhabitable. (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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