We kick off our 16th year of Case in Point with our annual tradition of analyzing each category and assessing risks we may see appear in the new year. Our goal is always to help educate our industry on current and emerging risks with a view toward proactively managing these risks. We hope this publication helps you ''avoid the headlines'' we see each month from risk management failures.

Last year we noted three areas we were watching closely: 1.) NCAA changes; 2.) Federal changes in sub-regulatory guidance with respect to Title IX; and 3.) changing Federal requirements regarding sponsored research. Those are three areas we continue to monitor in 2024.

In the NCAA, it remains to be seen where Name Imagine and Likeness (NIL) will eventually land—whether a congressional solution is reached or perhaps an entirely new structure for college athletics is developed.

With respect to Federal issues, the new Title IX guidelines are now set to come out in March 2024, but some people have already speculated that there may be yet another delay.

As for Federal research compliance issues, the biggest change involves NSPM 33, which is set to take effect later this year, and applies to institutions with research in excess of $50 million. One of the biggest changes with this regulation is the requirement to have a research security program.

When we look at each specific category, we see similar percentages of stories linked from 2022 to 2023:

• Information Security & Technology: 14% (11% in 2022)
• Fraud & Ethics: 14% (14% in 2022)
• Compliance & Legal: 41% (42% in 2022)
• Campus Life & Safety: 31% (33% in 2022)

Next month we will begin our deep dive into each category and look for other emerging issues to consider in higher education. Until then, we invite you to review the news stories from January with a view toward proactive risk management. As always, we welcome your feedback.

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

Jan 18: Cyberattack: Kansas State University (K-State) announced it is managing a cybersecurity incident that has disrupted certain network systems, including VPN, K-State Today emails, and video services on Canvas and Mediasite. On Tuesday morning, the university announced on its media portal that it was experiencing disruption in some IT systems, and by the afternoon, it confirmed a cyberattack had caused it. Impacted systems were taken offline upon detection of the attack, resulting in the unavailability of VPN, emails, Canvas and Mediasite videos, printing, shared drives, and mailing list management services (Listservs). (link)

Jan 16: Cyberattack: Hackers last week attacked online forums used by UC Irvine students and teachers, posting gruesome videos portraying the desecration of human corpses and mutilation of animals. An estimated 3,000 users of Discord groups affiliated with UCI are believed to have been exposed to the disturbing content. The images were so extreme that they may have even landed some UCI students in the hospital. ''I know there were a couple instances of students who were actually hospitalized due to excessive vomiting,'' says Alina Kim, who manages several of the Discord servers. ''I know there's a lot of us who lost sleep over this.'' Kim says the cyberattack happened Jan. 9. It flooded the groups with pop-ups and caused academic disruption. A UC Irvine spokesperson told Eyewitness News the school does not oversee the Discord servers or the activity in them, and that they're student-run. (link)

Jan 02: Erroneous Acceptance Letters: Dozens of prospective graduate students recently received premature messages of acceptance from Northeastern University in Boston, officials confirmed. According to a university spokesperson, the application process is ongoing, and applicants are not expected to be notified of decisions until January. ''Due to a technical error, 48 individuals out of nearly 64,000 applicants for master's degree programs received an erroneous email of acceptance,'' a spokesperson said. "They were immediately contacted by the university to clarify the mistake. Their applications remain active as reviews are currently underway for all applicants." This is the second consecutive year that the university has sent erroneous acceptance letters to students. (link)

Fraud & Ethics Related Events

Jan 22: Research Misconduct Allegation: The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, a prestigious Harvard teaching school, is moving to retract six studies and correct 31 others following allegations of data manipulation. The steps by the Harvard Medical School affiliate come after a molecular biologist published a blog post earlier this month alleging researchers falsified data by manipulating images. More than 50 papers are part of the ongoing review by Dana-Farber into four researchers, all of whom have faculty appointments at Harvard Medical School. Four of the papers under review were authored by the Dana-Farber CEO. (link)

Jan 11: Spending Probe: As two state agencies begin scrutinizing the Western New Mexico University president's spending on international travel, extravagant purchases and sojourns at five-star resorts, a review of financial records and interviews with current and former employees now suggest those expenses were just the tip of the iceberg. The president's spending has also been lavished on costly wine, $111,000 in floral arrangements and more than $123,000 in checks made out to himself in just the last five years. The new details emerge as the president comes under heightened scrutiny for his spending habits and those of his wife, a former CIA agent. On Jan. 5, the New Mexico Higher Education Department issued highly critical preliminary findings following a review of Western's finances. (link)

Jan 02: Plagiarism: Harvard University, in the face of mounting questions over possible plagiarism in the scholarly work of its president, Claudine Gay, said on Wednesday that it had found two additional instances of insufficient citation in her work. The issues were found in Dr. Gay's 1997 doctoral dissertation, in which Harvard said it had found two examples of "duplicative language without appropriate attribution." Last week, Harvard said that an earlier review had found two published articles that needed additional citations, and that Dr. Gay would request corrections. (link)

Compliance/Regulatory & Legal Events

Jan 29: Settlement: Maybe a PayPal alert or a Venmo deposit, perhaps just a check in the mail -- certain UD students have seen payments from their university this month. University of Delaware has seemingly begun issuing cash reimbursements to thousands of current and former students in line with last year's $6.3 million settlement of a class-action lawsuit over its campus shutdown in 2020. Some 21,000 students should see their piece. The university did not confirm how many payments have been making their way to students, nor the timeline expected. Those seeing payment in the mail received a letter reminding them of the Ninivaggi v. University of Delaware settlement, on top of a check. In one letter shared with Delaware Online/The News Journal, that amount was roughly $200. (link)

Jan 19: Settlement: Rice University has set aside $33.75 million to settle an antitrust lawsuit filed against 17 prestigious private universities across the country accused of illegally running a scheme that limited the amount of financial aid given to students, according to the school's financial statements for last year. The Houston-based university's financial statement for last fiscal year, first reported by Inside Higher Ed and the Houston Chronicle, says the school will use the money to settle "a class action lawsuit in which it had been named a co-defendant along with sixteen other universities." Court records related to the case reviewed Friday do not show a settlement agreement has been reached yet. Rice declined to comment on the lawsuit and the financial statement. (link)

Jan 18: Research Security: With geopolitical tensions mounting, the Canadian government announced a new security system for university research that aims to prevent tech secrets leaking to key Chinese, Russian or Iranian research institutions. The new policy -- the most detailed security procedures yet made public in the West -- would bar federal Canadian funding for "sensitive" research projects linked to any of 103 foreign universities and institutions that the government says "could pose a risk to Canada's national security." In future, anyone applying for federal research grants covered by the policy will have to sign an "attestation" that they are compliant. The country's security services will conduct "random" audits to double-check this is the case. (link)

Jan 17: Discrimination Investigation: The U.S. Department of Education is investigating whether discrimination occurred at the University of Minnesota, one month after it received a complaint raising concerns about antisemitism at the Twin Cities campus. The U is one of 99 schools "that are currently under investigation for discrimination involving shared ancestry," a term the department uses to describe incidents that occur based on someone's ancestry or nationality. "An institution named on this list means that [the department's Office for Civil Rights] has initiated an investigation of a case concerning that institution," according to the U.S. Department of Education website. "Inclusion on the list does not mean that OCR has made a decision about the case." (link)

Jan 17: State Regulations: The Florida Board of Education said Wednesday it has implemented "strict regulations" limiting the use of public funds for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs, activities, and policies in the Florida College System. The new rule defines DEI as "any program, campus activity, or policy that classifies individuals on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, gender identity, or sexual orientation and promotes differential or preferential treatment of individuals on the basis of such classification." social activism" It bans schools within the Florida College System from using state or federal funds for programs related to DEI. (link)

Jan 17: Settlements: In a significant turn of events, Emory, Rice, and Vanderbilt Universities have seemingly reached settlements in a class-action financial aid antitrust lawsuit filed in January 2022. The lawsuit, accusing 17 prestigious institutions of colluding to limit student financial aid packages, has sent shockwaves through the higher education landscape. While these three universities have not officially declared their settlements, financial documents and court records suggest a resolution may have been reached. We delve into the background of the lawsuit, the recent settlements, and the implications for the remaining defendants. (link)

Jan 11: NCAA Compliance: A Florida State assistant football coach violated NCAA rules when he facilitated an impermissible recruiting contact between a transfer prospect and a booster, according to an agreement released by the Division I Committee on Infractions. During that contact, the booster encouraged the prospect to enroll at Florida State and offered a name, image and likeness deal as a recruiting inducement. The assistant coach then violated ethical conduct rules when he provided false or misleading information about his involvement in the arranged meeting. (link)

Jan 10: Title IX Violations: The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has concluded that the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) mishandled a sexual assault investigation and violated its Title IX obligations to prevent gender discrimination on its campus. The OCR investigated the university's handling of a 2022 incident in which a female student accused a male student of sexually assaulting her twice, stalking her and then violating an Active Avoidance Order. According to the OCR's summary, SFCM "violated Title IX at every stage of investigation and resolution." (link)

Jan 10: Settlement: The University of Arizona and Arizona Board of Regents have reached a settlement agreement with the family of UA professor Thomas Meixner, who was shot and killed on-campus in Oct. 2022, by alleged shooter and former graduate student Murad Dervish. "As part of the multi-million-dollar resolution, the University of Arizona will provide critical assistance to those most immediately impacted by Dr. Meixner's death," the press release said. "Significantly, since the murder, the University has earmarked substantial funding designed to protect the well-being of the University." The settlement totals to $2.5 million and includes an endowed professorship in the Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences in the name of Thomas Meixner. The university will also provide continuing mental health treatment to HAS faculty, staff and students as well as waive tuition/fees to certain HAS students impacted by the Oct. 5 shooting. (link)

Jan 07: Covid Settlement: In a landmark development, George Washington University (GWU) has agreed to a $5.4 million settlement with former students who claimed the institution breached its contract by swiftly transitioning to online-only classes at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The settlement, approved by a district judge in Washington, D.C., signals a resolution to a three-year legal saga, shedding light on the complexities universities face when navigating the uncharted territory of pandemic-induced disruptions. (link)

Jan 04: Financial Aid Program Compliance: The Ohio auditor's office executed search warrants Thursday at Eastern Gateway Community College in Steubenville, months after the U.S. Department of Education ordered the college to halt enrollment over a possible violation of federal law over how it pays for students to attend classes. State auditors were joined by U.S. Secret Service agents, Ohio State Highway Patrol's computer crimes unit, Jefferson County Sheriff's office and others, according to a statement from the office of Ohio Auditor Keith Faber. In a video statement, Faber said they are investigating matters of financial irregularities at the college. (link)

Jan 02: Discrimination Lawsuit: A Rutgers University law student is suing the school, claiming discrimination and retaliation after he spoke out against antisemitism on campus. Yoel Ackerman says a fellow student sent him a video containing false statements that denied Hamas' actions during the attack in Israel in October. He reported the video to the Jewish Law Students' Association, as he was instructed. Ackerman says Rutgers then filed charges against him for sharing the video. He could face possible suspension or expulsion. "What has resulted since is nothing more than an attempt by Rutgers and other students to silence my right to speak out against antisemitism," he said. (link)

Jan 02: DEI State Law: The new state law that bans diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) offices at Texas public universities is now in effect. Senate Bill 17 effectively bans public universities in the state from utilizing admissions or hiring and training practices based on race, ethnicity, gender identity or sexual orientation. While the new law went into effect Monday, the University of Houston has been preparing for it since August. Donna Cornell, the vice chancellor for the UH system, said during a board meeting in August that the university still planned to provide needed services to its students and staff. Cornell said the academic side of the university is unaffected by the law. (link)

Jan 02: Employee Conduct: The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents unanimously fired the UW-La Crosse Chancellor on Wednesday after discovering videos posted on porn websites featuring him and his wife. The chancellor, 63, and his wife appear in videos on several porn websites using "Sexy Happy Couple" as the account name, a moniker also used on at least two social media accounts. The couple also published two books under pseudonyms detailing their experiences in the adult film industry. Both books and the social media accounts feature photos clearly showing the couple. "In recent days, we learned of specific conduct by [the chancellor] that has subjected the university to significant reputational harm," UW System President Jay Rothman said. "His actions were abhorrent." (link)

Jan 02: Settlement: Michigan State University has reached a $15 million settlement with the families of three students who were killed in a shooting on campus in February. Dan Kelly, a university trustee, announced the settlement on Friday during a public board meeting, according to Emily Gerkin Guerrant, a spokeswoman. "While no amount of compensation can ever replace the loss of a life, we do hope this brings some closure, support and relief to these impacted families," Mr. Kelly said in a statement. "Our clients remain steadfast in their call for ongoing reform to the safety measures utilized in MSU's buildings, public buildings across Michigan and throughout the country," Ven Johnson, a lawyer for the Anderson and Fraser families, said in a statement on Monday. (link)

Jan 02: Discrimination Claim: Dr. Christine Johnson McPhail, the former president of Saint Augustine's University, is claiming a hostile work environment, including race and gender bias from a male-dominated Board of Trustees. Civil rights law firm Sanford Heisler Sharp on Tuesday filed a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on behalf of McPhail, who alleges that Saint Augustine's University and its leaders subjected her and other Black women to discrimination. McPhail was appointed as Saint Augustine's 13th president in 2021. McPhail told WRAL News that she learned she would be dismissed from the role she held for less than two years when separation papers were delivered to her on Nov. 4. Her firing was effective immediately. (link)

Jan 01: Discrimination Settlement: The University of Massachusetts Lowell has settled a bias lawsuit with a former student baseball player who alleged that he was dismissed from the team because he complained in his diary about the head coach's alleged racism. Cedric Rose had played in 52 of the team's 58 games last year, including an 18-game hitting streak, and made the New England Collegiate Baseball League All-Star team. The school brought in an outside lawyer to investigate the allegations of racial discrimination. She determined that though former head coach Ken Harring may have directed harsh words toward Rose, who is Black, the coach's behavior did not violate the school's policies on harassment and retaliation. UMass Lowell, however, found that the interactions between coach and player did not "align with the university's commitment to an inclusive and welcoming environment." (link)

Jan 01: Discrimination Settlement: A King County jury on Thursday hit the University of Washington with a $16 million verdict stemming from a lawsuit in which five Black university police officers outlined years of racist comments and discrimination by white supervisors and colleagues. The six-week trial included dozens of witnesses, including university President Ana Mari Cauce, and involved testimony about dozens of instances of hostility and racism aimed at the Black officers, according to their attorneys. According to the 2021 complaint and trial testimony, the officers were targets of routine racial slurs that were part of a hostile work environment. The lawsuit alleged the UW administration knew of the issues, which smoldered for years, but did little. (link)

Campus Life & Safety Events

Jan 23: Student Safety: The NYPD and federal authorities are investigating a possible hate crime targeting pro-Palestinian students who were blasted with suspected "skunk spray" while rallying at Columbia University. The students were part of a coalition of roughly 100 student groups called the Columbia University Apartheid Divest. At around 1:50 p.m., protesters began alerting authorities they'd been hit with what the NYPD believes is "skunk spray," a non-lethal chemical. Six students submitted complaints with police saying the spray irritated their eyes and made them nauseous, according to NYPD Detective Annette Shelton. The students refused medical attention at the time. (link)

Jan 21: Campus Speech: On October 25, hundreds of people participated in a sit-in at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, calling on school administrators to cut ties with weapons manufacturers involved in Israel's occupation of Palestine. It was part of a wave of activism around Israel's siege of Gaza on university campuses around the country, and it ended in increasingly typical fashion: Campus police arrested 57 of the demonstrators for trespassing because they remained in the university's Whitmore Administration Building after it had closed at 6 p.m. The incident at Amherst is reflective of a broader university crackdown against students participating in a form of protest with deep roots in the American civil rights movement: the sit-in. (link)

Jan 12: Free Speech: Generations of Americans have held firm to a version of free speech that makes room for even the vilest of views. It's girded by a belief that the good ideas rise above the bad, that no one should be punished for voicing an idea — except in rare cases where the idea could lead directly to illegal action. Today, that idea faces competition more forceful and vehement than it has seen for a century. On college campuses, a newer version of free speech is emerging as young generations redraw the line where expression crosses into harm. (link)

Jan 12: Death: The president of Lincoln University in Missouri was placed on paid leave Friday after students and alumni called for his ouster following a senior administrator's death by suicide this week. The president volunteered to be placed on paid leave while a third party reviews personnel issues and concerns about mental health after Antoinette "Bonnie" Candia-Bailey died Monday, the university's board of curators said in a news release. Candia-Bailey, who was the vice president of student affairs, took her own life in Illinois, her mother and husband told NBC News in interviews Friday. She was 49. They said that she had been terminated by the president on Jan. 3. The school did not respond to a request for comment about Candia-Bailey's termination and referred to her as a "beloved alum and leader" in a Facebook post announcing her death. She started in the role May 1. (link)

Jan 11: Free Speech: The X platform owned by free-speech absolutist Elon Musk helped a student win an appeal against the University of Illinois and avoid disciplinary action with the help of X lawyers, a post revealed Wednesday. After Juan David Campolargo was threatened with losing his on-campus job and student housing for a post he made about free food at a campus event that wasn't open to the public, X hired the Schaerr Jaffe law firm, at no cost to the student, to submit an appeal to defend his right to free speech. The university said Mr. Campolargo‘s post violated the student code of conduct. The lawyers argued in a letter to the university that Mr. Campolargo was within his First Amendment rights, and if the school didn't reverse the findings, it would "result in a violation of his rights." (link)

Jan 11: Free Speech: The first American retrospective of Samia Halaby, regarded as one of the most important living Palestinian artists, was abruptly canceled by officials at Indiana University in recent weeks. Dozens of her vibrant and abstract paintings were already at the school when Halaby, 87, said she received a call from the director of the university's Eskenazi Museum of Art. The director informed her that employees had shared concern about her social media posts on the Israel-Gaza war, where she had expressed support for Palestinian causes and outrage at the violence in the Middle East, comparing the Israeli bombardment to a genocide. Halaby later received a two-sentence note from the museum director officially canceling the show in Bloomington, Ind., without a clear explanation. (link)

Jan 10: Free Speech: Indiana University has suspended Dr. Abdulkader Sinno for helping a student group host an event on campus, a move Sinno and other faculty members are alleging is unjust. The professor of political science was suspended for bypassing formal procedure when he assisted the Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) in organizing a public event on the Israel-Hamas war. IU political science professor Jeffrey Isaac and other faculty members wrote in a letter Isaac circulated that Sinno's suspension for the spring 2024 and summer 2024 semesters is both an act of censorship by the administration, and a violation of a Bloomington campus-specific policy that grants faculty members facing severe sanctions a hearing by a faculty board. (link)

Jan 04: Safety: In a major overnight action, University of California police took control of People's Park and secured the perimeter with walls of shipping containers despite efforts by dozens of protesters to stop the takeover. UC Berkeley said in a public statement that it made the move in anticipation of building "much-needed housing for students and unhoused people" on the storied 2.8-acre site just off Telegraph Avenue. Seven activists were arrested on suspicion of trespassing and taken to jail before they were released, Dan Mogulof, a spokesperson for UC Berkeley, told SFGATE. For the next three to four days, “surrounding streets will be closed to traffic while crews install a secure perimeter consisting of double-stacked shipping containers,” the university said in its statement. Most Cal students have not yet returned to campus; the spring semester begins on Jan. 9. (link)

Jan 01: Trespassing & Vandalism: Officials at Howard University are investigating a break-in to one of its shuttered buildings on its East Campus in D.C., after a video showing the intrusion and vandalism went viral. The video posted to Instagram has since been taken down, but it showed a group of people breaking into Benjamin E. Mays Hall at 14th and Shepherd streets in Northeast. The building housed the university's School of Divinity until 2015. The video showed the group entering the boarded-up hall. Once inside, the intruders could be seen rummaging through old books and files -- even activating a fire extinguisher. (link)

Jan 02: Campus Speech: Two University of Texas at Austin teaching assistants (TAs) say they were fired after they provided students with mental health resources in response to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. The TAs' message was sent through a student portal, which the university argues was "unprofessionally misused." They say they sent the message to students over the school's communication portal, Canvas. The TAs say they then received "reassignment letters" from the dean of the School of Social Work, calling their message inappropriate and unprofessional. The letters also stated that the TAs will not be reappointed as TAs next semester. On Friday, UT told KVUE that the TAs used a platform meant for coursework to send a personal political message. (link)

If you have any suggestions, questions or feedback, please e-mail Kevin Robinson at robinmk@auburn.edu or Robert Gottesman at gotterw@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.

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