Case in Point:
Lessons for the proactive manager

It is hard to believe that we are fast approaching the end of 2019. In the USA, we end the month of November with my favorite holiday of the year – Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving may be my favorite holiday because the primary requirements are to eat great food and watch football. It is also good to think about the things we are thankful for during this season, one of which is you, our readers.

We never imagined when we began publishing Case in Point over ten years ago, that this publication would eventually have subscribers coast to coast (in the USA), and now internationally in multiple counties. We appreciate your interest, and our goal is to help you be successful in carrying out the mission of higher education.

Our mission in this industry is noble when you think about it. We have the opportunity to change lives for the better through education, research, and outreach to our communities. It is very important that we use our resources for this noble mission. Unfortunately, the headlines you see here each month usually mean that institutional resources are being directed away from our mission and into things like investigations, attorney's fees, fines, and the like. Our underlying philosophy in Case in Point is that proactive prevention of problems is less expensive than becoming the headline. The secondary philosophy is that whatever is happening at other institutions may also be happening at your institution.

That is why we suggest you do three things each month with this publication. First, scan the articles and read in depth those that apply to your area of leadership. Second, honestly consider whether you may have a similar issue that could become a headline. Lastly, do something to proactively reduce risk and keep funds on the mission.

It is really a very simple philosophy but one that often gets lost in the busyness of our daily activities. We again invite you to review the issues across our industry with a view toward preventing problems and staying on mission at your institution.

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

Nov 12: Data Breach: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine today announced it is mailing notification letters to an estimated 3,716 persons whose information may have been affected in a cyber phishing incident involving some School of Medicine email accounts. A leading independent forensic firm conducted a lengthy and extensive review that concluded on Sept. 13, 2019, and confirmed that an unauthorized third party gained access to several email accounts during the approximate timeframe of May 17, 2018, to June 18, 2018. This review confirmed that some patients' personal information was contained in the affected email accounts, possibly related to treatments received when they were seen by a UNC physician. (link)

Nov 07: Privacy Breach: Approximately 1,100 students' personal information was sent out inadvertently by a Georgia Tech employee, the institution said Thursday. The staff member sent an email and, in doing so, attached a file that included student names, ethnicity, Georgia Tech ID numbers, Georgia Tech e-mail addresses, and GPAs. The information did not include social security numbers or birth dates. (link)

Nov 01: Privacy Breach: Washington University School of Medicine announced today that it began mailing letters to patients whose information may have been involved in a recent security incident at its Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences. On Sept. 3, 2019, the School of Medicine learned that a small number of patients had received a letter regarding an ophthalmology department employee. The School of Medicine quickly began an internal investigation and determined that the letter was sent by an individual who knew the employee. The unauthorized individual took the employee's personal laptop and used it to access the employee's School of Medicine email account between April 29 and Sept. 3, 2019. (link)

Fraud & Ethics Related Events

Nov 19: Admissions Investigation: The investigation at Texas Southern University is focusing on admissions improprieties at the Thurgood Marshall School of Law, multiple sources tell ABC13. ABC13 has confirmed through multiple sources that the investigation at the law school has been ongoing for several months. Specifically at issue is whether there was any pay-to-play for admission into the school. Sources say that at least one person in the TSU law school's admissions office was recently fired. In addition, documents have been turned over to the Harris County District Attorney's Office for a criminal investigation. (link)

Nov 18: Money Laundering: A Miami professor who's an expert on drug trafficking and organized crime was charged by the U.S. with laundering money from Venezuela, skimming more than $250,000 for himself.Bruce Bagley, 73, a professor of international studies at the University of Miami, was the co-editor of the 2015 book "Drug Trafficking, Organized Crime, and Violence in the Americas Today" as well as a contributor to various journals on the topic. But on Monday prosecutors in Manhattan charged Bagley with laundering about $2.5 million into the U.S., money that foreign nationals embezzled and got from bribes and other corrupt schemes. Bagley pocketed about 10% of the money, according to prosecutors. (link)

Nov 01: Academic Fraud Costs: An academic fraud scandal and the ensuing NCAA appeal has cost the University of Missouri more than a half-million dollars. The university paid a total of $595,626.60 to outside counsel for their work on the investigation and appeal, according to records obtained by ABC 17 News. In January, the NCAA ruled to ban several of MU's athletic programs from postseason play. The programs were football, baseball and softball. The punishment was in response to academic fraud involving a tutor who worked for the athletic department. (link)

Compliance/Regulatory & Legal Events

Nov 22: NCAA Allegations: The NCAA on Friday served Oklahoma State's men's basketball program with a notice of allegations that is highlighted by a Level I unethical conduct charge against former Cowboys associate head coach Lamont Evans, a source told CBS Sports. Evans was one of four assistant coaches (and 10 men in total) arrested in 2017 in the federal government's undercover sting operation on bribery and fraud within college basketball recruiting. He was convicted in April and sentenced in June to three months in federal prison. Oklahoma State's notice of allegations does not charge current Cowboys coach Mike Boynton or any other current member of the coaching staff with any violations. (link)

Nov 22: Title IX Lawsuit: A federal district court ruling allows a lawsuit to move forward that claims the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville acted with "deliberate indifference" to a student's report of rape. A former UA student filed the Title IX lawsuit in 2016 in U.S. District Court in Fayetteville. Her case makes claims about the university's response to her October 2014 report that she was sexually assaulted in her dorm room by another student. The ruling Monday by U.S. District Judge P.K. Holmes III comes after University of Arkansas Office of General Counsel attorneys filed a motion seeking summary judgment in favor of the university. (link)

Nov 21: Breach of Promise Lawsuit: Four retired OU employees filed a class-action lawsuit against OU's Board of Regents Friday for ending retirees' lifetime access to their OU email addresses and are seeking over $10,000 in civil relief. According to the petition on Oklahoma State Courts Network, the plaintiffs allege that OU breached its promise that retirees would have lifetime access to their OU email account. (link)

Nov 20: Retaliation Lawsuit: A longtime University of Nebraska-Lincoln law professor alleged in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that Chancellor Ronnie Green retaliated against her after she asked about the university's efforts to address a gender pay disparity. Josephine Potuto, the university's faculty athletics representative, said despite her status as an award-winning and nationally recognized sports law expert, she has not been immune to a systemic devaluing of work of women. (link)

Nov 19: Discrimination: An associate professor who served in the Trump administration is alleging Democrats at Oklahoma State University denied her a promotion because of her political beliefs. Whitney Bailey sued five OSU administrators Monday in Payne County District Court for actual, punitive and exemplary damages. She also is alleging she was not permitted to resume her previous teaching assignments after leaving the Trump administration and coming back to OSU in January. (link)

Nov 18: Clery Act Compliance: The U.S. Department of Education concluded in August that UNC violated campus safety laws, including by providing inadequate systems for sexual violence victims, omitting dozens of serious crimes from annual reports, violating a federal non-retaliation provision and demonstrating a lack of administrative capability that "remains a matter of serious concern." The conclusions are stated in a final report sent to UNC by the department's Clery Act Compliance Division. While the University received the report nearly three months ago, interim Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz shared it with the campus community in an email Monday evening. (link)

Nov 15: Drugs: According to the Clark County Sheriff's Department, two Henderson State University professors have been arrested for making methamphetamine. A press release states that Terry David Bateman, 45, and Bradley Allen Rowland, 40, of Arkadelphia were taken into custody on Friday around 3:30 p.m. The Henderson State University website lists Bateman and Rowland as chemistry professors. The Reynolds Science Center closed October 8 due to a report of an "undetermined chemical odor." (link)

Nov 11: Open Records Law: A judge has found that the University of Missouri knowingly violated the state's open records law by overestimating the cost to provide records of dogs and cats used in research to an animal rights group. Boone County Judge Jeff Harris sided Friday with Animal Rescue, Media & Education, also known as the Beagle Freedom Project, which was initially told it would cost $82,000 to get records for 179 animals used in university research. The group sued in 2016, alleging that the cost was so high that it effectively prevented the public from accessing information. (link)

Nov 11: Clery Act Compliance: The U.S. Department of Education has opened a formal review into Texas State University's compliance with a federal crime-reporting statute meant to provide information about campus safety. The process could culminate in hefty fines. The university, which has campuses in San Marcos and Round Rock, acknowledged in September that it seriously under-reported the number of rapes and other crimes on campus in recent years. Officials have attributed the misinformation to outdated software, lack of communication among campus offices and former university police chiefs' inexperience with Clery, a federal statute that requires schools to publish campus crime data and promptly warn students about safety threats. (link)

Nov 07: Federal Title IX Investigation: Arizona State University is under investigation by the federal government for sexual discrimination and retaliation in a case that raises questions about how the university protects students who report retaliation from other students. Earlier this month, the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights (OCR) notified ASU that it was opening an investigation for potential Title IX violations in the case. The probe began when a graduate student filed a complaint with the government alleging the university had fostered a "sexually hostile environment" by failing to address reports of retaliation by the student's lab peers after she reported a professor for harassment. (link)

Nov 05: NCAA Violations: The UC Santa Barbara men's and women's cross country and track programs violated countable athletically related activity restrictions, and the men's water polo program violated impermissible benefits rules, according to a Division I Committee on Infractions panel. The committee also said both the head water polo coach and the former head track coach failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance in their programs and violated head coach responsibility rules when they were directly involved in violations and did not consult compliance. The head water polo coach also involved an assistant coach in the violations. (link)

Nov 03: Discrimination Lawsuit: Deborah Mitchell's lawsuit paints a picture of a "toxic environment" within the Fisher College of Business and a "boys club" within its Executive Education program. She was fired in August after a college committee said she violated a faculty financial conflict-of-interest policy through her private consulting work. She was accused of improperly steering a $1.6 million project with the agency to her company, CyprusTree Corp. The complaint said the work Mitchell provided via her private company was substantially similar to services Ohio State's Executive Education program could have offered, which Mitchell's lawsuit disputes. (link)

Nov 03: Sexual Assault Cover Up Allegation:University of Michigan-Dearborn failed to properly investigate, and then tried to cover up, claims that a lecturer sexually assaulted a student, a university employee alleges. Wayne County prosecutors now are considering whether to charge the lecturer with a sex crime as a result of the alleged incident, which the woman reported March 1. The prosecutor's office received a warrant request Oct. 25, two weeks after The Detroit News inquired about the allegations. A university spokesman insists there was no cover-up attempt, saying the school suspended the instructor and launched an investigation immediately after the woman reported the allegations. (link)

Nov 01: Discrimination Lawsuit: A former American University soccer player accused the University of racial discrimination, according to a lawsuit filed in a D.C. federal court on Wednesday. David Nakhid applied for the men's soccer head coach position following the dismissal of Todd West in December 2018. Zach Samol, the team's current head coach, took over the position in early 2019. On April 26, Nakhid filed a charge of discrimination with the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, according to Bloomberg Law, who first reported the lawsuit. (link)

Nov 01: Alleged Abuse by Coaches: The transgression? The Rutgers softball team had gone $6 over its food travel budget during a stop at a Cracker Barrel in early March 2019. The punishment? According to multiple players, at their next practice, a group of team members were told to run six, 100-yard wind sprints -- one for every dollar over -- and each in less than 17 seconds, until some of them were left crying, collapsed or doubled over in exhaustion. First-year head coach Kristen Butler directed the March 12 sprints from the field, players said. If they didn't make the time, they would have to start over. (link)

Campus Life & Safety Events

Nov 21: Sexual Assault: New details have been released about a rape that was reported last month at Clemson University. The victim reported that the rape happened Oct. 3 in the third-floor bathroom at Robert Muldrow Cooper Library, according to a report that WYFF News 4 received in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. The victim met with authorities on Oct. 5 and told them she had been studying in the library with another person when she started to feel ill, the report said. The report said she went to the bathroom, which only had one stall, and when she turned on the light, she saw that a man was there. (link)

Nov 19: Guns on Campus: In a lawsuit which pitted the State Attorney General against the University of Missouri, a Boone County Judge ruled Monday that the university's ban on guns on campus is constitutional. 13th Circuit Judge Jeff Harris handed down the ruling, saying that Attorney General Eric Schmitt, who sued the university, did not prove that the rule violates the constitution and therefore it stands. (link)

Nov 19: Racial Climate: At the Syracuse Police Department press conference Tuesday afternoon, law enforcement said that students should not be fearful. However, after speaking with many students on campus Tuesday it is obvious that some are scared, and some said they even had classes and tests canceled. After the most recent incident, Syracuse police held a press conference today to address what has been happening on campus. (link)

Nov 18: Hazing: Former Ohio University students and members of the Sigma Pi fraternity have been indicted by an Athens County grand jury. Nine people, including seven members of the recently expelled Sigma Pi fraternity at Ohio University, have been indicted in the death of Collin Wiant. Some of the charges include involuntary manslaughter, hazing and trafficking and drugs. (link)

Nov 14: Accidental Shooting Death: A student at the University of Central Missouri is facing manslaughter charges in the shooting death of another student. Johnson County Prosecuting Attorney Robert Russell announced second-degree involuntary manslaughter charges Thursday against 24-year-old Jeremy Manley. Stephon Abron, a 20-year-old student from St. Charles, died Nov. 4 after what the university called an accidental gun discharge at an on-campus apartment in Warrensburg. (link)

Nov 13: Student Deaths: Faced with the deaths of nine students since Aug. 24, USC administrators are engaged in a delicate balancing act as they notify students, attempt to quell rumors, offer mental health resources and also try to avoid triggering students who may be in the midst of a mental health crisis. A campus of 47,500 students, USC experiences four to 15 student deaths in a typical school year, officials said. Last year, six were reported. Officials have confirmed that three students this year died by suicide. In some cases, the cause of death is undetermined; in others, families did not want details disclosed, they said. (link)

Nov 12: Free Speech: A University of Illinois policy requiring NPR member station reporters to disclose information about sources who say they were sexually harassed or assaulted is coming under fire from media organizations and free-speech advocates, who say the rule will have a chilling effect on reporting about sexual misconduct. An investigation published in August by NPR Illinois and the nonprofit outlet ProPublica's Local Reporting Network found that the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign had repeatedly protected the reputations of professors who had been accused of sexual misconduct. (link)

Nov 11: Athlete Death: An NCAA Division II gymnast died Sunday as a result of a training accident. Melanie Coleman, a 20-year-old junior athlete at Southern Connecticut State University, suffered a serious spinal cord injury while practicing on the uneven bars on Friday before being pronounced dead Sunday at Yale New Haven Hospital, the university announced in a public statement. (link)

Nov 12: Sexual Assault: An East Boston man has been arrested and charged in connection with a sexual assault that allegedly occurred last month at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. The Berkshire Eagle, citing a campus-wide email sent by by MCLA Police Chief Daniel Colonno, reported 21-year-old Khyrin McCarthy was arrested in Boston last Thursday. The incident allegedly occurred on Oct. 26 at about 3 a.m. when a male entered an unlocked townhouse on campus and fondled a victim who had been sleeping. (link)

Nov 11: Burglary: Police have arrested three Sonoma State University (SSU) students for burglarizing about 24 unoccupied residence hall rooms in late October as the Kincade wildfire raged near the campus. The suspects are Daryl Livington Reems, Jose Ricardo Rubio and Lamont Bryan Paxton, reports the Press Democrat. All three are 18 years of age. At the time of the alleged break-ins, the SSU campus had been evacuated due to the fire, power shut offs and large-scale evacuations. (link)

Nov 08: Free Speech: During a university-sponsored event on Thursday at the University of North Texas, the event's speaker -- UNT assistant general counsel Caitlin Sewell -- used a racial epithet while discussing the limits of free speech on campus. Following a storm of controversy, Sewell submitted her resignation Friday morning, UNT system chancellor Lesa Roe and president Neal Smatresk said in a statement. (link)

Nov 07: Sexual Assault: A Michigan State student is charged with luring a man to his dorm room with false promises of meeting a university quarterback, then raping him, according to court records. Aaron Gerard met the other man walking home from a bar in April, MSU Police Detective Kelly Johnson testified at a hearing that led to criminal charges. Gerard lied, saying an MSU quarterback was his roommate, and offered to introduce the other man to him, Johnson testified. Gerard led the man to his room in Abbott Hall, where he closed and locked the door. The quarterback was not there. (link)

Nov 06: Assault: A man has been arrested and four others have been charged after Georgia Southwestern State University (GSW) student Tyler Ellis was critically injured in an assault on Oct. 31, according to a GSW press release. GSW officials said Chason Worsham, 23, of Camilla, was arrested Wednesday for aggravated battery. While Worsham, who is not a GSW student, is facing felony charges, four GSW students are facing misdemeanors ranging from battery to affray, the release states. (link)

Nov 01: Hazing: The University of Texas chapter of the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity has been shut down following a university investigation into hazing allegations. The investigation found that during the 2018-19 school year fraternity pledges were shot with air soft guns and forced to eat spicy soup made with ghost peppers and cat food. Officials said pledges competed in relay races where they would run back and forth between the chapter house and a nearby apartment building while chugging milk mixed with hand soap, laundry detergent or vinaigrette. (link)

Nov 01: Campus Culture: By the time UW-Madison realized something was wrong in the Wireless Communication and Sensing Laboratory, it was too late for John Brady. Graduate students described the work environment under engineering professor Akbar Sayeed as "toxic" and "abusive." The professor called students "monkeys" and "chimpanzees." One said he compared them to "slaves" who must learn to endure pain because it would last only four or five years. (link)

Nov 01: Hazing: Five men have been charged in connection with the death of their fraternity brother, who succumbed to alcohol poisoning after a booze-soaked party earlier this year. Zavier Larenz Brown, 21, Jonathan Anephi Vu, 22, Mohamed Ibragim Kharaev, 21, Caleb Gavin Valleroy, 20, and Jonathan Gabriel Villicana, 21, were all members of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity at the University of California, Irvine when fellow member Noah Domingo died one weekend in January after a night of drinking as part of the fraternity's "Big Brother Night" events. Domingo, 18, had joined the fraternity several months earlier, and Brown was his "Big Brother." (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.

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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