It is hard to believe that the beginning of a new academic year is almost upon us. “Fall,” still blazing hot for many of us, is a time of great optimism each year. Freshman arrive with both trepidation and excitement to begin a new phase of life. Faculty hope for class sections that show up and are engaged and eager to learn. Students have no grades yet so the possibility of that oft elusive 4.0 still lives. Sports teams are all undefeated and so are hopes of a special season. August is an exciting time on campus, but with the arrival of new people and the beginning of new programming, we also need to recognize the additional risk it brings.

When the last academic year ended many institutions were dealing with protests over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Some institutions handled these protests well and some, well, not so well. As the conflict continues, so does the possibility that protests may resume this fall on any given campus. I’ve also heard rumors that there may be a presidential election this year and apparently some people get worked up over that. In any case, thinking about these potential issues is vital.

My friend and former colleague, Brian Keeter, wrote an excellent piece on crisis management for higher education. The article correctly states, “More than ever, clear and consistent issues and crisis communications are critical to a university’s stability and the confidence of its students, donors and other stakeholders.” Here are his suggestions:

4 Crisis Planning Steps Every University Leader Should Take

1. Prepare for various potential crises and have a plan for each type.
2. React proactively because a slow response can anger your stakeholders.
3. Know who will communicate in a crisis (and when) and what channels will be used to communicate.
4. Know the key players for each of the scenarios identified in step one.

You can read the full article here: Four Crisis Planning Steps Every University Leader Should Take (apcoworldwide.com)

Crisis management and communication is certainly worthy of our attention, but as you read here each month, we have many risks to consider. Therefore, we again invite you to review the events in higher education over the past month with a view toward proactive risk management. As always, we welcome your comments and suggestions.

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

Jul 19: Outage: A global technology outage caused by a faulty software update grounded flights, knocked media outlets offline, and disrupted hospitals, small businesses and government offices on Friday, highlighting the fragility of a digitized world dependent on just a handful of providers. The trouble with the update issued by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike affected customers running Microsoft Windows. It was not the result of hacking or a cyberattack, according to CrowdStrike, which apologized and said a fix was on the way. Businesses and governments experienced hours-long disruptions and scrambled to deal with the fallout. (link)

Jul 01: Cybersecurity: A vulnerability in the MOVEit file transfer tool is again raising alarms, with Progress Software urging customers to patch the "critical" issue" as hackers reportedly increase attempts to exploit the bug. Progress Software released an initial advisory on Tuesday about CVE-2024-5806 -- a new vulnerability that has alarmed experts because of its resemblance to another issue last year which was exploited to carry out one of the largest data theft campaigns on record. The company released a patch on June 11 and has been working with customers to resolve the issue since then. (link)

Fraud & Ethics Related Events

Jul 16: False Claims Act: The University of Maryland, College Park (UMD) has agreed to pay $500,000 to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by failing to disclose current and pending support from foreign sources for faculty members who were principal investigators (PI) or co-PIs of federal research grant proposals. The settlement relates to research grant support UMD received from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of the Army between 2015 and 2020. These agencies require grant applicants to disclose all current and pending support received by the institution, its PIs, and co-PIs. (link)

Jul 12: Donation Vetting: Florida A&M University President Larry Robinson is resigning as leader of the state’s only public historically Black university, a decision that comes amid a probe into a dubious failed $237 million donation that one key official labeled as an "embarrassment." That probe, led by the university and overseen by system officials, is anticipated to wrap up this month and should shed new light on a snafu that already sparked the resignation of Shawnta Friday-Stroud, FAMU’s vice president for university advancement and executive director of the school’s fundraising foundation. Robinson, who has led the school for nearly seven years, announced the decision Friday, although the specific timing for when he will step down as president is undecided. (link)

Jul 10: Occupational Fraud: Authorities allege that a doctor who lives on Staten Island illegally used a business credit card from SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn to pay for over $1 million in travel, pet care, fitness and other personal expenses. Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez and New York State Inspector General Lucy Lang announced the indictment of [a doctor], the 66-year-old former chairman of emergency medicine at SUNY Downstate, who faces charges that include grand larceny. During an audit, SUNY discovered the alleged thefts by [the doctor], who previously served as chief medical officer and acting head of Downstate Hospital and the medical school. (link)

Jul 01: Research Fraud: A neuroscientist whose work helped pave the way for an Alzheimer’s drug candidate was indicted by a federal grand jury on Thursday on charges of fraud. The indictment, announced Friday by the Justice Department, brings additional scrutiny to the work of [the scientist], who has had multiple studies retracted and faced an investigation by the City University of New York, his employer, that was later halted. The indictment charges him with one count of fraud against the United States, two counts of wire fraud and one count of false statements. It accuses [the scientist] of manipulating or adding to images of Western blots, a laboratory method that researchers use to identify proteins, in order to bolster evidence and help secure grants. (link)

Jul 02: Cronyism: A damning audit out of Utah State University Eastern found that an employee there had been failing to show up to work for two years -- but was still being paid. Administrators were aware of the situation with [the employee], the audit says, and allowed it to continue. That’s because they were friends with the staffer, including one associate department head who lived with him, and all covered for [him] so he could keep getting a paycheck, according to the findings. The 24-page internal report was released to The Salt Lake Tribune through a public records request. And it shows a troubling pattern where [the employee]’s absence was repeatedly reported, but three administrators ignored those concerns. (link)

Jul 01: Scholarship Fraud: A Reddit post unraveled a web of lies by a student at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. As it turns out, his entire application was made up. [The student], 19, pleaded guilty earlier this month in Northampton County. Lehigh had given [the student] a full scholarship to attend the school from his native India. [He] had been enrolled, but a Reddit moderator flagged one of his posts. It was blatantly titled: "I have built my life and career on lies." The post went on to describe how [he] falsified transcripts, financial statements and even provided a fraudulent death certificate for his father, who is actually alive. In a statement, Lehigh University said it "Appreciates the report to its ethics hotline and the diligent investigation by the Lehigh University Police Department that led to [the student]'s arrest." (link)

Compliance/Regulatory & Legal Events

Jul 26: State Law: Ohio governor Mike DeWine signed the Enact CAMPUS Act into law Wednesday, requiring the state’s public and private higher education institutions to adopt and enforce policies on racial, religious and ethnic harassment and intimidation, The Ohio Capital Journal reported. "We want to make sure that we are creating an environment where every student--no matter who they are, who they pray to, what ethnicity or religious background they have--have the best opportunity to learn and to live and be on campuses and be spaces of community," Democratic state representative Dontavius Jarrells, who co-sponsored the legislation, said last month. The law comes in response to a reported rise in antisemitic incidents on college campuses since the Israel-Hamas war started last October. (link)

Jul 26: Lawsuit Settlement: Western Iowa Tech Community College has agreed to settle the second of two federal lawsuits alleging the school conspired with others to engage in human trafficking. As reported by Iowa Public Radio earlier this week, WITCC of Sioux City has agreed to pay $2.3 million to settle a lawsuit initiated by 10 students from Brazil. In April, the school agreed to pay $3 million to settle similar claims brought by 13 students from Chile. Court documents confirm that while the lawsuits have yet to be dismissed, settlements between the school and the students have been finalized. The Sioux City college was accused of procuring visas for the students to enroll in the school’s international education program, and then steering them to work in area meat processing plants. The college then diverted money from the students’ paychecks to reimburse the school for the cost of the program, the lawsuits claimed. (link)

Jul 25: Title IX: A federal judge in St. Louis on Wednesday halted implementation of a Biden administration rule that extends protections for LGBTQ students, adding to the number of U.S. courts that have issued similar orders. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Rodney W. Sippel of the Eastern District of Missouri came in a lawsuit filed on May 7 by Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin and the attorneys general of Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota. Sippel’s ruling notes that his decision is consistent with other federal courts that have also blocked implementation of the Title IX rule. More than two dozen Republican attorneys general have sued over the rule and at least two federal appeals courts have upheld lower court rulings similar to the one issued Wednesday. The Title IX regulations are now temporarily blocked in 21 states and hundreds of colleges across the nation. (link)

Jul 25: Compliance: Haskell, a four-year college in Lawrence operated by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Education, has come under scrutiny over its response to allegations from students -- including a failure to act on sexual abuse claims and a culture of retaliation. Members of two U.S. House panels examined allegations of sexual assault, bullying and retaliation at the U.S. Bureau of Indian Education-operated Haskell Indian Nations University during a hearing this week. Haskell, a Lawrence, Kansas, school that is the only four-year college operated by the bureau, has come under scrutiny over its response to a range of allegations from students, which were documented in a scathing report from the Bureau of Indian Education, an agency within the U.S. Interior Department. (link)

Jul 23: State Law: New College of Florida overpaid faculty and administrators, accidentally paid vendors more than once and failed to collect more than $160,000 in student payments, according to a state report chronicling the school’s recent financial activities in recent years. The practices were among several negative findings -- including violations of state law -- in the state auditor general’s most recent operational audit of the university. The report, which was filed last week, audited transactions and records mostly between January and December 2022, prior to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ appointment of six new trustees to the university’s board that soon ousted the former president with hopes to recast the school. It also included some records that led to or stemmed from financial activities in 2022. (link)

Jul 23: State Law: The three University of Alabama System campuses on Tuesday shuttered diversity, equity and inclusion offices -- and opened new offices -- to comply with a new Republican-backed law attempting to ban the programs on public college campuses in the state. The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, along with the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the University of Alabama in Huntsville, issued statements announcing the closure of diversity, equity and inclusion offices of each campus and the creation of a new university division or office. Each university said the change was made to comply with the new state law. The law, which takes effect Oct. 1, prohibits public universities, K-12 school systems and state agencies in Alabama from maintaining DEI offices. However, it’s unclear how much the law will impact the outreach and support functions previously performed by DEI offices. (link)

Jul 23: Lawsuit Settlement: Hamline University reached a settlement this week with a former art history instructor whose contract wasn't renewed after she showed centuries-old artworks in class that depicted the Prophet Muhammad. The details of the settlement between the St. Paul private school and former adjunct instructor Erika López Prater are under seal and are expected to remain so indefinitely, according to Rebeccah Parks, a spokesperson for the U.S. District Court in Minnesota. Many academics rallied around López Prater, saying that she had done more than most instructors to prepare her students for the images and that they feared the decision not to renew her contract would have a chilling effect on professors who teach controversial material. (link)

Jul 15: State Law: The California State University system will be required to establish clear policies and guidelines for how sexual harassment cases are investigated and tracked under a bill Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Monday. The new law obligates the 23-campus network to implement recommendations from a 2023 state audit that examined how officials investigated and tracked complaints at the nation’s largest public four-year university system following outcry over the failure to properly handle sexual misconduct cases across multiple campuses. (link)

Jul 15: Title IX: A federal judge last week granted a temporary injunction, blocking expanded Title IX protections for LGBTQ+ students from taking effect in August in Texas. The changes to Title IX, announced by the U.S. Department of Education in April, clarify that it also protects against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk wrote that the changes "inverts the text, history, and tradition of Title IX: the statute protects women in spaces historically reserved to men; the final rule inserts men into spaces reserved to women." Kacsmaryk’s ruling in Texas makes the Lone Star state the 15th state with an injunction blocking the expanded Title IX protections. (link)

Jul 09: Discrimination Settlement: New York University has settled a lawsuit filed last November by three Jewish students who said they had been subjected to "pervasive acts of hatred, discrimination, harassment, and intimidation" since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. NYU and the plaintiffs’ attorneys announced the settlement Tuesday. It includes undisclosed monetary terms and a commitment from NYU to update its antisemitism language in its Guidance and Expectations for Student Conduct. NYU officials also said they would dedicate additional academic resources to Judaic studies and the study of antisemitism and strengthen the university’s existing relationship with Tel Aviv University. (link)

Jul 08: Title VI Settlement: Brown University has reached an agreement with federal education officials following an investigation into dozens of alleged discriminatory incidents on campus since the Oct. 7 terror attacks in Israel. The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights on Monday announced that Brown had entered an agreement to resolve a complaint filed in December that violated a federal bar on discrimination based on race, color, or national origin for entities receiving federal money. According to authorities, Brown has received some 75 reports of alleged antisemitic, anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim harassment since October and took little action in response beyond listing resources and requesting a meeting with the individual complaining, consistent with the policies then in effect. (link)

Jul 03: Title IX: The Biden administration’s Title IX rule is now blocked in 14 states and a hodgepodge of other locations across the country after a third federal judge issued a temporary order on July 2 preventing it from taking effect in four additional states. U.S. District Judge John Broomes’ order is the latest development in a set of eight lawsuits challenging the Biden administration rule, which explicitly protects LGBTQ+ students and staff from discrimination by adding gender identity and sexual orientation to the definition of "sex discrimination." The order halts the rule in Alaska, Kansas, Utah, and Wyoming. The latest order leaves it to the Biden administration "to determine whether patchwork enforcement of the [Title IX] rule is feasible and worth the risk," Broomes, a judge in Kansas appointed by former President Donald Trump, said in his ruling. (link)

Jul 02: Title IX: Utah State informed football coach Blake Anderson on Tuesday that he will be fired for cause after an external review of allegations that he hadn’t complied with Title IX policies regarding the reporting of sexual misconduct cases. Nate Dreiling, who had been Utah State’s defensive coordinator and defensive ends coach, will serve as interim coach during the upcoming season. Athletic director Diana Sabau met players and staff Tuesday to inform them of the move, the university announced in a news release. Utah State also said associate vice president and deputy athletic director of external affairs Jerry Bovee and football director of player development and community Austin Albrecht were fired "for violations of university policies related to the reporting of sexual and domestic violence and failures of professional responsibilities." (link)

Jul 02: Discrimination Lawsuit: A conservative group filed a lawsuit against Northwestern University’s law school on Tuesday, claiming that its attempts to hire more women and people of color as faculty members violate federal law prohibiting discrimination against race and sex. The complaint, coming just over a year after the Supreme Court struck down the use of affirmative action in college admissions, is expected to be among the first in a wave of new legal challenges attacking the way that American universities hire and promote professors. The lawsuit, which was filed in Federal District Court in Chicago, calls that process "a cesspool of corruption and lawlessness." It says Northwestern has deliberately sidelined white male candidates for faculty positions at the law school, giving preference to candidates of other races and gender identities. (link)

Jul 01: SCOTUS Decision: The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Chevron doctrine on Friday in Loper Bright Enterprises et. al. v. Raimondo, Secretary of Commerce, et. al., in a blow to federal agencies. In a 6-3 vote, the high court overruled a 1984 decision in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council that established the doctrine, which required federal courts to give deference to agencies’ reasonable interpretation of ambiguous statutes. Higher education and legal experts have predicted that the overturning of the Chevron doctrine could hamper the U.S. Department of Education’s ability to write and enforce regulations. Federal agencies will "likely face more challenges to their rules and regulations" and "the agencies might publish fewer and more modest regulations going forward," labor and employment firm Littler explained in a blog post earlier this year. (link)

Jul 01: Federal Regulations: Colleges and universities, still burdened by the botched FAFSA rollout, face an unusually busy summer, as several new federal regulations will go into effect. The regulations touch on many aspects of campus operations and, in some cases, are complex overhauls of existing systems. Below is a brief overview. Digital Accessibility Requirements, Federal Overtime Salary Threshold Increase, Financial Responsibility, Administrative Capability, Certification Procedures, and Ability to Benefit, Financial Value Transparency and Gainful Employment, Net Neutrality. (link)

Jul 01: NCAA: As part of a US$2.75 billion class action settlement struck in May 2024 between former student-athletes and several dozen universities involved in big-time sports, schools will be allowed to pay future players with something more than scholarships. They can give them cash. That’s about all we know. The rest is uncharted territory. There are many more questions than answers. In House v NCAA, about 14,000 former college athletes enrolled between 2016 and 2020 sued over lost opportunities and profits in the era before 2021. [T]he future in this unprecedented new world of paid student-athletes is impossible to know. In fact, the actual settlement itself has yet to be published. The answers to these five questions, then, will determine what it all means. (link)

Campus Life & Safety Events

Jul 26: Assault: University Police Services said they are seeking a suspect who robbed and "fondled" a victim outside Greenspun Hall Friday morning. Police said the incident happened around 5:50 a.m. in the exterior courtyard of UNLV’s Greenspun Hall. According to a notice from College of Southern Nevada, the suspect approached the victim, battered her and took her phone. Officers say the suspect fled the area eastbound across Maryland Parkway. The suspect is believed to be the same person arrested for open and gross lewdness in the women’s restroom at the College of Southern Nevada’s North Las Vegas campus on July 8. (link)

Jul 22: Campus Protests: As pro-Palestinian demonstrations rocked college campuses this spring with protests of the war in Gaza, many university administrators found themselves eager to quell the action however they could. Some negotiated with the demonstrators. Many sent in the police. When Columbia University called in the police in April to break up an encampment, it was the first major detainment of protesters. Since then, more than 3,100 people have been arrested or detained on campuses across the country. Most were charged with trespassing or disturbing the peace. Some face more serious charges, like resisting arrest. But in the months since, many of the charges have been dropped, even as some students are facing additional consequences, like being barred from their campuses or having their diplomas withheld. (link)

Jul 15: Campus Protests: UNC police filed a search warrant for the Instagram account of UNC Students for Justice for Palestine, an activist group on campus, to determine how the South Building got damaged during an anti-Israel protest. UNC SJP posted about damage to the building on its Instagram page. The search warrant requests the Instagram account's "basic subscriber information (BSI) including: name, address, phone number, credit card information, account creation information, IP address, direct messages, location data, device data and connection between the dates of May 2 and May 13." (link)

Jul 10: Campus Climate: Ted Roberts is keeping his job as an instructor at Tarleton State. The university has reversed its decision to terminate the popular senior instructor who taught ROTC cadets in the history department for the past 12 years. Roberts said he received a call on Saturday that the university was prepared to offer him a new contract as a senior instructor with the College of Leadership and Military Science. The offer reportedly includes the same pay and title as his previous contract. In April, Roberts spoke up about concerns over $400 parking fees for faculty and staff during a "listening session" with Tarleton president Dr. James Hurley. He was fired two weeks later for allegedly showing "intolerable" behavior toward the president. The backlash was swift. (link)

Jul 10: Campus Protests: Harvard University reversed the suspensions this week of five pro-Palestinian protesters after pressure from the school’s faculty. The student newspaper, citing an anonymous source familiar with the disciplinary decisions, reported that the harshest probationary period of the five students is one semester, whereas the initial suspensions would have forced at least one student to withdraw for three semesters. Reducing the punishments appears to be a reversal from the initial footing of the school, which saw the administrative body responsible for carrying out the school’s policies, the Administrative Board, strip degrees from 13 students at commencement in May. (link)

Jul 10: Student Death: Police are looking into whether hazing played a role in the death of a Dartmouth College student whose body was found in a river over the weekend. Won Jang was last seen around 9:30 p.m. Saturday by docks on the Connecticut River, and he was reported missing Sunday afternoon, police in Hanover, New Hampshire, said. His body was found at about 7:30 p.m. Sunday in the water about 65 feet offshore, police said. Two of Jang's friends wrote in an email to The Dartmouth, the college's student newspaper, that he had attended a joint event Saturday night of his fraternity, Beta Alpha Omega, and Alpha Phi, a sorority. The event had involved alcohol, the two friends said. Police Chief Charles Dennis told WMUR-TV of Manchester that they would be looking into whether hazing was involved. (link)

Jul 09: Campus Protests: The University of Florida set aside recommendations from recent disciplinary hearings to lightly punish some of the college students arrested after pro-Palestinian protests on campus and kicked them all out of school for three to four years. The decisions by the new dean of students overruled what were effectively sentencing recommendations by the juries, known as hearing bodies, who heard testimony and watched police video of the protests and arrests during the disciplinary cases. The students were among nine people who university police and Florida state troopers arrested April 29 during a demonstration on a plaza on the University of Florida campus. They were among the first college arrests in Florida, and all remain banned from university property. (link)

Jul 09: Vandalism: Officials at the University of Houston said on Tuesday that a vandal attacked Shahzia Sikander’s sculpture "Witness," beheading the work, which is a monument to women and justice installed on campus. Footage of the destruction, which occurred early Monday morning amid the harsh weather of Hurricane Beryl and power outages, was obtained by campus police, officials told the artist. Sikander, a Pakistani American artist, often creates works that examine questions of politics, language and empire. The damaged statue was one of the artist’s first major public sculptures in a nearly 30-year career. (link)

Jul 08: Campus Climate: Three Columbia University administrators have been removed from their posts after sending text messages that "disturbingly touched on ancient antisemitic tropes" during a forum about Jewish issues in May, according to a letter sent by Columbia officials to the university community on Monday. The administrators are still employed by the university but have been placed on indefinite leave and will not return to their previous jobs. The announcement came about a month after a conservative website published photos that showed some of the text messages sent by the administrators. (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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