Case In Point: Lessons for the proactive manager

Volume 16 Number 10 | October 2024

Quotable .....

“ Cybersecurity doesn't have to be scary ”

As the leaves turn and the nights grow longer, the season of spooks and specters is upon us. But for institutions of higher education, the real scary story lurks in the shadows of our digital landscapes. The phantom of data breaches and cyberattacks (as regularly reported in this newsletter) is a chilling reminder that the horrors of data security are all too real.

Imagine this: a quiet campus, bustling with students and faculty, suddenly thrown into chaos as a malicious entity breaches the university's defenses. Sensitive information, from student records to research data, is exposed to the world. The aftermath is a nightmare of lost trust, financial damage, and a tarnished reputation.

This isn't a tale from a Stephen King novel; it's a reality that most institutions have faced. The villains? Ransomware, phishing scams, and other cyber threats that prey on the unsuspecting. The victims? Universities and their faculty, staff, and administrators who must navigate the treacherous waters of data security.

But fear not, for there are ways to ward off these digital demons. Here's how we can all be proactive in avoiding ghastly consequences:

Stay Vigilant: Just as you wouldn't leave your front door unlocked, don’t leave your digital doors open. Regularly update passwords and use multi-factor authentication to keep intruders at bay. Employ a secure password manager to allow you to have different passwords for each account. If you use the same password for multiple accounts, you increase your risk if the password is breached.
Educate yourself: Knowledge is power. Complete regularly assigned cybersecurity training sessions to ensure you are aware of the latest threats and how to avoid them.
Patch and Update: Outdated software is like candy to cybercriminals – and they are full of tricks. Keep all systems and applications up to date with the latest security patches.
Report suspected phishing emails: If you suspect an email is phishing for your personal information, it is important to report it to the cybersecurity team quickly. If you got a hair-raising email, others at the institution may have also gotten the same email. The cybersecurity team can help protect the less astute.
Promote a Culture of Security: Encourage your peers to take data security seriously. A culture of security awareness can help prevent many potential threats.

As we end Cybersecurity Awareness Month, let's remember that the terrors of data security are not just the stuff of frightful fantasies. By being diligent and proactive, we can all help protect the university from the disruptors of the digital world and ensure a safe and secure environment for all.

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

Oct 30: Data Breach: Saint Xavier University (SXU) is notifying certain individuals of a data security event that may impact the privacy of a limited amount of personal information. SXU is unaware of any misuse of individual information and is providing notice to potentially affected individuals out of an abundance of caution. In July 2023, SXU became aware of potential suspicious activity within our computer systems. Accordingly, SXU quickly took steps to contain the activity, confirm the security of our systems, and begin a comprehensive investigation to determine the full nature, scope, and impact of the activity. The investigation determined that an unauthorized actor downloaded certain files stored on limited SXU systems between June 29 and July 18, 2023. (link)

Oct 17: Data Breach: Between the hours of 8:00 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 16 and 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 17, confidential information regarding students and applicants to Georgetown since 1990 was leaked and widely accessible via Ellucian, Georgetown's data management system. This information included social security numbers, GPAs, financial aid information, disability and immigration status. According to an email from Doug Little, Georgetown's Chief Information Officer, the leak occurred after a scheduled maintenance period from 4:00 p.m. on Friday, October 11 to 8:00 a.m. on Wednesday, October 16. This maintenance was "part of ongoing efforts to modernize the Georgetown network environment." (link)

Oct 11: AI: In 2024, Duke University announced that it would no longer assign a numerical value to undergraduate college admissions essays when scoring an applicant. While the university would still ask students to submit essays, they couldn't be seen as an accurate reflection of writing ability. "They are not given a numerical rating, but considered as we think holistically about a candidate as a potential member of the Duke community," Dean of undergraduate admissions Christoph Guttentag told the Duke Chronicle. Over the last year, an increasing number of students have begun using platforms like ChatGPT and Caktus.ai to help complete their classwork. A recent survey found that ChatGPT was landing more and more high school kids in the principal's office for plagiarism and academic dishonesty. But the same pattern has emerged in college admissions--allowing applicants to subcontract the writing process. (link)

Oct 11: Cybersecurity: Seventy-nine percent of organizations suffered a cyberattack within the last 12 months, up 11 percentage points from 2023, and about half (47%) of all educational organizations faced unplanned expenses to fix security gaps due to a security incident, according to the latest survey by Netwrix Research Lab. While incognito hackers and dangerous malware tend to occupy our imagination when it comes to cybersecurity, one surprising stakeholder was identified as IT professionals' biggest risk to their cloud and on-premise infrastructure: company employees. IT workers in education were the loudest to report a lack of budget and being understaffed as their top data security challenges. (link)

Oct 10: Data Breach Settlement: More than 750,000 former, current or even potential Lansing Community College students may be eligible for a portion of a $1.45 million class action settlement tied to an early 2023 data breach, according to mailers sent to some of those impacted. Compromised data, including names and Social Security numbers, could have been accessed by an "unauthorized actor" between Dec. 25, 2022, and March 15, 2023, said the mailers and documents submitted to U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan. Shub & Johns LLC, a Pennsylvania-based law firm, filed the class action lawsuit in July 2023. (link)

Oct 07: Data Privacy: [Arizona]'s three universities say the Senate Government Committee chairman is off base with his claims they are illegally selling data about their students. The schools and the Arizona Board of Regents say there is no legal basis for the charge by Sen. Jake Hoffman that they did something wrong in furnishing information that allowed Kamala Harris to send out tens of thousands of text messages urging students to vote for her. In fact, they say, the universities are required by federal law to make that information public unless students opt out, and just a small percentage of students have done that. None of that is satisfying Hoffman, a Queen Creek Republican. "The breach of students' personally identifiable information to a political campaign raises serious ethical and legal concerns,'' Hoffman told Capitol Media Services. (link)

Fraud & Ethics Related Events

Oct 24: Research Integrity: Penn State has taken the unusual step of revealing it has "indefinitely" prohibited a biomedical engineer from conducting research, after a review of her scientific papers found several contained "unreliable data." The investigation into the work of [the researcher] was sparked by allegations that the data in some of the dozens of scientific papers she has co-authored appeared problematic. Penn State asked external experts to review her work, and they "confirmed the presence of unreliable data in several papers," according to a university statement. The university has alerted the scientific journals that published the affected papers, as well as the federal agency that monitors research integrity. (link)

Oct 17: Research Integrity: Optical and Quantum Electronics, a Springer Nature journal, has retracted more than 200 papers since the start of September, and continues issuing retraction notices en masse. According to the notices, which have similar wording, the retractions come after the publisher identified problems with the articles including compromised peer review, inappropriate or irrelevant references, and nonsensical phrases, suggesting blind use of AI or machine-translation software. "These investigations are based on intelligence from past work alongside whistleblower information," Chris Graf, director of research integrity at Springer Nature in Oxford, UK, told Retraction Watch. (link)

Oct 01: Academic Fraud: When Darren Hick, a philosophy professor, first came across an AI-generated essay in late 2022, he knew it was just the start of something bigger. Almost two years later, Hick says the use of AI among students has become a "virus." "All plagiarism has become AI plagiarism at this point," Hick, who teaches philosophy at Furman University, told Business Insider."I look back at the sort of assignments that I give in my classes and realize just how ripe they are for AI plagiarism." Students were some of the earliest adopters of AI-text generators when they realized their potential to produce essays from scratch and help with assignments. This quickly resulted in a rise in plagiarism, false accusations of cheating from educators, and a new atmosphere of distrust between students and professors. (link)

Oct 01: Student Aid Fraud: Reports indicate a surge in suspicious college applications, perpetrated by humans and bots using stolen or fabricated identities to secure federal student aid. This scheme not only defrauds institutions but also taxpayers, with incidents escalating due to the widespread availability of stolen personal data. Bad actors exploit this data to forge fake identities or manipulate existing applications, undermining the integrity of admissions processes. Billions of people's data were published on the dark web around April 8, 2024, from a single breach of National Public Data. According to Cybersecurity Ventures, global cybercrime costs are projected to skyrocket to $9.5 trillion USD in 2024 and $10.5 trillion by 2025. (link)

Compliance/Regulatory & Legal Events

Oct 28: Employee Conduct: A candidate running against a Central Texas district judge is accusing her opponent of using his adjunct teaching position at Texas State University to encourage students to campaign and vote for him, violating state law. According to a letter sent to Texas State President Kelly Damphousse by a lawyer representing Alicia Key, [the instructor] emailed his students on Oct. 21 asking them to vote for him and to encourage their friends to do so as well. Any student who helped campaign for him at the on-campus polling location would receive a free campaign t-shirt and pizza, according to a screenshot of the email provided to The Texas Tribune by Key's attorney, Chevo Pastrano. (link)

Oct 22: Discrimination Lawsuit: A prominent UCLA ecologist on involuntary leave filed a lawsuit against the University earlier this month, alleging wrongful suspension, harassment and racial discrimination. Ecology and evolutionary biology professor Priyanga Amarasekare joined UCLA in 2005, but she was suspended in July 2022 for a year with no pay by then-Chancellor Gene Block. He escalated recommendations made by an Academic Senate committee months earlier to censure Amarasekare, a widow from Sri Lanka with two children, and dock her pay. Amarasekare told the Daily Bruin earlier this year that her punishment was retaliation for speaking out against a departmental culture of racism and that it damaged her and her students' careers. (link)

Oct 20: Athletics Compliance: The SEC fined Texas $250,000 and will require the university to identify and punish fans involved with Saturday's chaotic scene with debris thrown onto the field during Georgia's 30-15 win in Austin. Seemingly upset by a controversial penalty against Texas, Longhorn fans at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium began to throw bottles and other trash onto the field and the game had to be stopped. The SEC is mandating Texas is "to use all available resources, including security, stadium and television video, to identify individuals who threw objects onto the playing field." The SEC then requires that those fans found at fault shall be prohibited from attending Texas athletics events for the rest of the 2024-25 academic year, and that the school undergo a review of its alcohol availability policies. (link)

Oct 18: Employee Conduct: A longtime West Texas A&M professor was terminated six days after his arrest for indecent assault of a student. According to information obtained from an open records request filed by ABC 7 News, [the professor]'s last day of employment was Oct. 2. That contradicts what Chip Chandler, the Director of University Communications and Media Relations, told ABC 7 on Sept. 30. "[The professor] is not employed at the University. We do not comment on personnel matters or ongoing investigations," said Chandler. [The professor] worked for the university for 24 years. Chandler wouldn't say whether the alleged assaults happened on campus. But at least one of the victims is a WT student. (link)

Oct 15: NCAA: The University of Nevada made it clear Monday that its Oct. 26 match against the San Jose State women's volleyball team would go on as scheduled, a day after the team's players released an independent statement saying they would forfeit. "We demand that our right to safety and fair competition on the court be upheld," the players' statement read. "We refuse to participate in any match that advances injustice against female athletes." Boise State, Southern Utah, Utah State and Wyoming previously forfeited matches this season against San Jose State, with none of the schools explicitly saying why. The athletic department also stated the university is "governed by federal law as well as the rules and regulations of the NCAA and the Mountain West Conference, which include providing competition in an inclusive and supportive environment." (link)

Oct 10: Antitrust Lawsuit: An antitrust lawsuit filed this week accuses some of America's wealthiest colleges and universities of overcharging students with divorced or separated parents. The federal class action that landed Monday in Illinois district court says 40 private colleges -- including Harvard University, Yale University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University -- conspired to keep prices high for students with "noncustodial parents." The schools require that students who want nonfederal financial aid use the CSS Profile, an application overseen by the College Board, which also administers the SAT and Advanced Placement courses nationwide. The case comes after an unrelated class action targeting many of the same schools over allegations of financial aid price-fixing yielded a $284 million settlement this year. (link)

Oct 09: Employee Conduct: A University of Kansas (KU) professor was placed on administrative leave after a viral video posted to X Wednesday morning showed him making unnerving remarks regarding men who won't vote for women based on their intelligence. The post, which has already garnered over 2 million views in less than seven hours, shows the professor speaking in a university lecture hall. In the video, you can hear him say, "What frustrates me, there are going to be some males in our society that will refuse to vote for a potential female president because they don't think females are smart enough to be president." He continued, "We could line all those guys up and shoot them. They clearly don't understand the way the world works." (link)

Oct 03: Employee Conduct: A former Texas A&M veterinarian and professor is the first faculty member at the vet college to face criminal charges. On Wednesday, a Brazos County district court jury took 63 minutes to find [the vet] guilty of Livestock Cruelty. Punishment on the felony crime ranges from probation to two years in a state jail. A sentencing hearing has been set for December 6, 2024. [She] was convicted of what the indictment says is intentionally and knowingly torturing a horse through the excessive use of an electrical device. [She] was treating the horse at the A&M vet hospital in December of 2019. (link)

Oct 01: First Amendment Lawsuit: Michigan State University's Board of Trustees is being sued by a faculty member over allegations two trustees damaged his career and retaliated against him for speaking out about allegations of misconduct on the board. Former Faculty Senate Chair Jack Lipton claims that former board Chair Rema Vassar and Trustee Dennis Denno encouraged students to attack him and label him a racist. He also said the board used a comment he made comparing some onlookers' actions at the Oct. 27, 2023, meeting to "mob rule" to further retaliate against him. MSU's own investigation of allegations of misconduct by trustees supported some of Lipton's claims in the lawsuit. Lipton, who remains on faculty at the university, filed his complaint in the U.S. Western District Court and is seeking unspecified monetary damages, court costs and attorney fees, and anything else the court deems just. (link)

Oct 01: First Amendment Ruling: A pro-Palestinian student group at the University of Maryland at College Park said Tuesday it plans to move forward with an Oct. 7 interfaith vigil to mourn people killed in Gaza during the war with Israel. It comes after a federal judge granted a request by U-Md.'s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine to halt the university's decision to cancel student-led events next Monday, which marks one year since Hamas militants attacked Israel and took hostages, prompting a significant military response from Israel. SJP filed a lawsuit, saying the cancellation violated students' First Amendment rights. (link)

Oct 01: First Amendment Lawsuit: A former UNC-Chapel Hill business professor is suing the university for retaliation after his contract was not renewed this summer, a move that followed administrators recording the professor's classes without notice to him. Larry Chavis, who worked as a clinical professor in the Kenan-Flagler Business School for 18 years, filed the federal lawsuit Thursday. In the complaint, he alleges the university used "unlawful and unconstitutional employment practices" against him in violation of the First Amendment. He also alleges the university ended his employment in retaliation "for his public criticisms" of the university after he learned that business school administrators had recorded several of his lectures this spring and for his comments "regarding discriminatory practices at the business school." (link)

Oct 01: Title IX: In the middle of an undefeated start of the season for San Jose State Women's Volleyball, the team has become the target of attacks from conservative media amid a lawsuit over a player's gender. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, challenges the NCAA's Title IX protections regarding transgender athletes in women's sports. Those who joined the lawsuit include former Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines and SJSU volleyball's co-captain Brooke Slusser. In the lawsuit, Slusser claims she overheard a teammate saying she was transgender after a rumor. Slusser went on to allege there were concerns about whether it was safe or fair for her and her teammate, or their opponents, to share the court with a transgender athlete. Since then, Boise State and Southern Utah have both forfeited matches against SJSU but did not release further details on why. (link)

Oct 01: Title VI: Muhlenberg College, which recently fired a professor for social media activity expressing her views on the Israel-Hamas conflict, has entered into an agreement with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights to settle concerns over how the college investigated complaints against her. While Maura Finkelstein was not directly named in Monday's announcement, a letter from the OCR in Philadelphia to Muhlenberg College President Kathleen Harring links to a change.org petition that called for Finkelstein's firing. Finkelstein, who is Jewish and worked for the college as a tenured professor of nine years, was fired in May for sharing on her personal Instagram account a post written by a Palestinian poet Remi Kanazi, as originally reported by The Intercept. (link)

Campus Life & Safety Events

Oct 28: Campus Protests: Brown University suspended its chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine after the group led a rally protesting the university's decision not to divest its endowment from certain companies that support Israel. Chapter members were told of the suspension on Oct. 24, the group said, nearly a week after their Oct. 18 protest. The suspension is a "retaliatory, politically-motivated ploy to defame protestors, fracture the student movement, and detract from their complicity in the extermination of the Palestinian people," the group said in a statement Sunday. Brown University said that because of the "severity of alleged threatening, intimidating and harassing actions," the university has initiated a review of SJP and required the chapter to "cease all organization activities." (link)

Oct 25: Campus Protests: Harvard Library suspended roughly 25 faculty members from entering Widener Library for two weeks after they conducted a silent "study-in" protest in the library's main reading room last week -- an extraordinary disciplinary action taken by the University against its own faculty. The faculty study-in protested the library's decision to similarly suspend student protesters who conducted a pro-Palestine study-in last month. The University's decision to suspend students from the library had already come under fire from free speech groups, including the Council on Academic Freedom at Harvard. Though the University has previously disciplined faculty members for academic misconduct or violating policies on sexual harassment, the decision to suspend professors from a library for protesting appears to be unprecedented. (link)

Oct 23: Campus Climate: To one group, UCLA has become a hotbed of antisemitism and anti-Israeli bias, a campus led by an administration that has not taken enough action to address pro-Palestinian demonstrations that violate university rules and veer into anti-Jewish tropes and slogans. To another, the university has become a site of repression against Muslim, Arab and Palestinian American voices, with excessive security patrols and strict free expression rules that clamp down on pro-Palestinian protesters and their demands that the university divest from ties to Israel's military. UCLA's Task Force to Combat Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias this week publicly released a 93-page report submitted to the university's interim Chancellor Darnell Hunt describing "broad-based perceptions of antisemitic and anti-Israeli bias on campus" that have increased over the last year. (link)

Oct 21: Campus Protests: Eleven people were arrested Monday after University of Minnesota officials released an emergency alert on Monday afternoon, saying protesters stormed Morrill Hall in Minneapolis. The building, located on Northup Mall on the East Bank campus, is home to the university's administrative headquarters. The alert stated protesters were "causing property damage and restricting entrance and exit from the building," and they had advised people inside to "safely exit" the premises immediately if possible. Monday's protest was organized by the group UMN Students for a Democratic Society, which is calling on the university to divest from companies that support Israel -- which the Board of Regents declined to do in August following weeks of pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus. (link)

Oct 18: Hazing: Five University of Alabama students have been arrested and charged with hazing in incidents at a fraternity house in August. The court documents mention a video showing pledges on their hands and knees being "yelled at, stepped on, pushed, had items thrown at them and had beer poured on them." Video also shows pledges in what is believed to be an initiation where they're lined up doing wall sits and pushups and being yelled at by "active members" of the fraternity. (link)

Oct 17: Infrastructure: The sewer systems at two Los Angeles community colleges are about to fail -- "catastrophically." Nearby, in Torrance, a community college shut down multiple buildings, some for weeks at a time, because the heating and cooling system is so old it broke. Seismic engineers delivered a dire prediction to a Sacramento community college last year: a central building on campus might collapse. Even if it's approved, the bond money will only help a fraction of the colleges that need repairs or new facilities. Nguyen said the state's 116 community college campuses would need at least $28 billion to address all of their facilities needs -- and that's just the current list. (link)

Oct 17: Disaster Recovery: Campus repairs and other costs associated with recovery from Hurricane Helene for the UNC System will total about $32 million, university officials said Thursday. Helene, which devastated western North Carolina in late September, forced closures and knocked out critical infrastructure at UNC-Asheville, Appalachian State University and Western Carolina University, among other campuses. Repairs to structural damage on UNC System campuses are estimated to cost about $18 million, chief financial officer Jennifer Haygood told the University of North Carolina Board of Governors. Multiple campuses saw buildings flood, and a 4-H youth camp and PBS NC also sustained infrastructure damage. Additional costs from debris removal, cleanup, minor repairs and mutual aid will total another $14 million. (link)

Oct 17: Hazing: Syracuse University has suspended a fraternity after videos of a "repugnant" hazing incident went viral on social media. The incident is alleged to have occurred at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house on Syracuse's campus in New York, according to a statement from Chancellor Kent Syverud. "The university was recently made aware of videos showing repugnant conduct that put the well-being of some of our students in jeopardy. The videos in question show acts alleged to have occurred at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house," Syverud said in a statement. Syverud added that Syracuse immediately suspended the fraternity, pausing all of its activities while the university investigates the alleged hazing. (link)

Oct 16: Campus Protests: Columbia University has temporarily banned pro-Israel professor Shai Davidai from campus for "repeatedly harassing and intimidating" school employees, according to a university spokesperson. "Because Assistant Professor Davidai repeatedly harassed and intimidated University employees in violation of University policy, we have temporarily limited his access to campus while he undertakes appropriate training on our policies governing the behavior of our employees," a university spokesperson said in a statement to CNN. Davidai's temporary ban was issued about a week after he participated in a memorial service on campus for October 7th in which he posted videos online confronting a university official. Davidai told CNN he encourages people to watch the videos and assess for themselves whether they think they are harassment. (link)

Oct 15: Campus Security: Officials on Tuesday said GW Police Department Chief James Tate has resigned from his role effective immediately, following The Hatchet's reporting late last month on former officers' allegations of departmental gun safety violations and inadequate training. Tate's resignation follows a Hatchet investigation last month that detailed previously undisclosed departmental safety violations and internal disarray, including two firearms unregistered in D.C. carried by the force's top two officers during the first month of GW's arming rollout, insufficient firearms training and high staff turnover due to a poor workplace culture in the past year. (link)

Oct 11: Campus Protests: Three protesters were arrested at the University of Chicago Friday afternoon, days after the anniversary of the start of the Israel-Hamas war, according to the university. In a statement, university officials said a group of protesters marched from a campus rally and "used locks" to block access to campus through a gate on 57th Street around 3:20 p.m. Friday. Protesters began spray-painting buildings and public art near the intersection of South Ellis Avenue and 57th Street, according to the statement. "Protesters instigated confrontations with police by physically surrounding a police car, further vandalizing and damaging property, blocking the public road, and striking police officers who responded," the statement said. (link)

Oct 10: Free Speech: In May, at the end of the spring semester, Norwich University's student newspaper pledged to its readers that it would resume publishing after the summer break. "The Guidon, your trusted student-run newspaper, will be back in action for the Fall 2024 semester, bringing you the latest news, features, and updates from our campus community," reads a May 12 article from the paper's staff. But the newspaper has not published a single story since then. For the entirety of this semester, which began Aug. 26, the paper has been suspended by the university's administration -- a move that has raised concerns on campus over what some see as censorship. (link)

Oct 08: Racial Issues: On Tuesday, a viewer reached out to us to look into an incident at Buffalo State University that resulted in a student being arrested and suspended from the university. An email sent Tuesday morning to students and faculty, the administration said: "Dear Buffalo State Community, Yesterday an incident occurred on our campus that goes against the values we hold dear. A student was involved in a bias-related incident, which resulted in the student's arrest and immediate interim suspension from campus, pending a student conduct hearing. This type of behavior will not be tolerated at Buffalo State University." Although details of the incident have not been released, the Buffalo Jewish Federation is highly concerned about the rising antisemitism in the country. In 2023 the NYS Comptroller's Office reported a more than 12% rise in hate crimes. (link)

Oct 07: Natural Disaster: As colleges and universities across the western Carolinas start the cleanup from Hurricane Helene, administrators say a full recovery will take not just days or weeks, but months and possibly even years. Still, they remain confident that their institutions will be able to provide the required number of instruction hours, meet accreditation standards and complete the term. "After any disaster, some of the most trying moments come when shock turns to exhaustion, and the outside attention seems to fade," University of North Carolina system president Peter Hans told Inside Higher Ed. "But every campus plans to resume instruction as soon as the basic infrastructure is restored -- The bottom line is we will resume classes and finish the semester." (link)

Oct 06: Campus Climate: As a junior at George Washington University, Ty Lindia meets new students every day. But with the shadow of the Israel-Hamas war hanging over the Washington, D.C., campus, where everyone has a political opinion, each new encounter is fraught. "This idea that I might say the wrong thing kind of scares me," said Lindia, who studies political science. "You have to tiptoe around politics until one person says something that signifies they lean a certain way on the issue." He has seen friendships -- including some of his own -- end over views about the war. In public, he keeps his stance to himself for fear that future employers could hold it against him. A year after Hamas' attack in southern Israel, some students say they are reluctant to speak out because it could pit them against their peers, professors or even potential employers. (link)

Oct 02: Student Protests: Temple University issued an interim suspension to the organization Students for Justice in Palestine on Tuesday after protesters disrupted a job fair last week. The demonstration on Thursday, Sept. 26, at a College of Engineering event inside the Howard Gittis Student Center led to four arrests, including one student, by campus police. A group of 12 to 15 people chanted, shouted and cursed through a megaphone, according to the statement. (link)

Oct 01: Hazing: The former president and vice president of a Penn State fraternity where pledge Timothy Piazza fell and later died after consuming a large amount of alcohol received jail sentences Tuesday. The former president of the now-defunct chapter of Beta Theta Pi in 2017, the former vice president and pledge master were sentenced in Centre County Court to two to four months behind bars, followed by three years of probation and community service. Each will be eligible for work release. They both pleaded guilty in July to 14 counts of hazing and a single count of reckless endangerment, all misdemeanors. They were the last two criminal defendants to be sentenced in a case that prompted Pennsylvania lawmakers to crack down on hazing. (link)

Other

Oct 03: National Security: Five University of Michigan graduates from China have been charged in a federal countersurveillance probe at the Camp Grayling military facility. An FBI complaint filed Oct. 1 charged [five people] with conspiracy, making false statements to investigators and destroying records during the federal investigation. The 28-page complaint details how the five students were seen at Camp Grayling, the training facility for the Michigan Army National Guard in northern Michigan. They were found with cameras near military vehicles and classified communications equipment during the Northern Strike training exercise in August 2023. A U.S. sergeant major found the students taking photos near classified equipment and soldiers sleeping in tents, records show. (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.