Case in Point

Jun 26 : Cybersecurity: Tightening budgets and reduced staffing affect all aspects of a college or university. It may pose an especially significant risk to your college’s cybersecurity and the privacy of sensitive data, suggests a new survey from EDUCAUSE. The higher education technology advocacy nonprofit collected nearly 150 responses from staff members working in cybersecurity and privacy. It highlighted the increasing workload brought on by insufficient staffing and the need for professional development in artificial intelligence. While more than two-thirds of respondents reported excessive workloads, 30% stated that no actions have been taken to address the issue. Furthermore, only 21% said their unit was currently equipped with enough staff to meet its goals. Positions surrounding privacy were particularly understaffed, according to the report. (link)

Jun 25: Cybersecurity: Columbia University officials are investigating a potential cybersecurity incident after students reported widespread technology outages and strange images appearing on screens across campus. The school’s website and other systems have been intermittently offline since Tuesday morning, and Columbia officials said the New York Police Department is now involved in the response. "Yesterday morning, Columbia University IT systems experienced an outage affecting systems on our Morningside campus," a spokesperson told Recorded Future News.Students took to social media to share images of digital signs on campus that were taken over and replaced with images of President Donald Trump. (link)

Jun 06 : Cybersecurity: Katie Arrington, who is performing the duties of the Pentagon’s chief information officer, told industry to stop "complaining" that the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program is "too hard." Arrington, who was the lead creator of the CMMC program during the first Trump administration, said that by communicating to the world that the program is too difficult, companies are not only admitting to the Pentagon and other customers that they are not compliant, but are also making themselves a target to China, Russia and other adversaries. "Going on LinkedIn and complaining to the world that the CMMC is too hard ... you’re -- and I want to say [with] the most respect I can to anybody -- you’re foolish in what your statement is, because your company has been contracted since 2014 to institute the 110 requirements of the NIST 171. What you’re saying is you’re noncompliant," Arrington said during an INSA Coffee Series webinar on Thursday. (link)

Jun 04: Privacy: On May 23, the North Shore University Sleep Disorders Center in New York notified HHS that 13,332 patients were affected by a breach that it coded as "Unauthorized Access/Disclosure" of data located "Other." While the number affected might not seem unusually disturbing in this day and age of big breaches, the circumstances of the breach certainly are, as this was a sickening insider wrongdoing incident. "The Nassau County District Attorney’s Office (the "DA’s Office") recently charged one of our former employees with crimes relating to unlawful surveillance in connection with allegations that he secretly video recorded certain individuals in the restrooms of the Center using an unauthorized, personal recording device." (link)

Jun 09 : Financial Aid Fraud: It was an unusual question coming from a police officer. Heather Brady was napping at home in San Francisco on a Sunday afternoon when the officer knocked on her door to ask: Had she applied to Arizona Western College? She had not, and as the officer suspected, somebody else had applied to Arizona community colleges in her name to scam the government into paying out financial aid money. When she checked her student loan servicer account, Brady saw the scammers hadn't stopped there. A loan for over $9,000 had been paid out in her name -- but to another person -- for coursework at a California college. The rise of artificial intelligence and the popularity of online classes have led to an explosion of financial aid fraud. Fake college enrollments have been surging as crime rings deploy "ghost students" -- chatbots that join online classrooms and stay just long enough to collect a financial aid check. (link)

Jun 09: Occupational Fraud: Florida A&M University’s vice president and Director of Athletics, and the former CEO of the Florida Sports Foundation (FSF), has turned herself into authorities. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) announced her arrest Monday. [She] faces one felony count each of grand theft and scheme to defraud, and four misdemeanor counts of false claims on travel vouchers. [The director] is accused of using her FSF-issued credit card to make wire transfers and cash withdrawals totalling more than $24,000. Officials say the charges were made at casinos while [she] was on business trips. Investigators claim she misrepresented the spending as business meals. (link)

Jun 04: Occupational Fraud: A Tiffin man is facing several charges for allegedly stealing and attempting to sell $60,000 worth of medical and construction equipment from the new University of Iowa Health Care campus in North Liberty. [The man], 56, was booked in the Johnson County Jail Tuesday. He’s charged with Ongoing Criminal Conduct, Theft, and several other charges. According to court documents, [he] is accused of using his job as a contractor to access and take medical and construction equipment over a several month period while the hospital was being built. [He] would advertise the stolen equipment as "new" on websites like eBay and Facebook Marketplace and would sell the items at a discounted rate. (link)

Jun 30 : Federal Compliance: The YouTube video is titled "CAUGHT ON TAPE: UNC Administrator Admits They Ignore DEI Ban." Heart-pumping music plays. A hidden camera records a Black woman--labeled in the video as [...] a University of North Carolina at Charlotte employee--speaking to people out of frame. Since April 14, AIM--a nonprofit whose donors are mostly private--has released a series of what it says are undercover videos capturing employees at six public universities saying that their institutions are circumventing state DEI bans. (North Carolina doesn’t clearly ban DEI, though the UNC system has taken multiple actions to stamp it out.) Inside Higher Ed was unable to reach any of the employees to confirm that they are the ones in the videos. Three employees whom AIM allegedly recorded--at Charlotte, Asheville and Western Carolina--are no longer employed. (link)

Jun 27 : Federal Compliance: The Trump administration on Friday secured perhaps the most significant victory in its pressure campaign on higher education, forcing the resignation of the University of Virginia’s president, James E. Ryan, over the college’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. The extraordinary wielding of federal power to oust the 58-year-old college president showed the unusual lengths the administration would go to pursue President Trump’s political agenda and shift the ideological tilt of academia, which he views as hostile to conservatives. Mr. Ryan’s resignation also presents new challenges for other colleges negotiating with the government, including Harvard, whose officials have been repeatedly attacked by Mr. Trump and his allies. While the administration has stripped billions of dollars from universities in pursuit of Mr. Trump’s policy goals, Mr. Ryan’s departure marks the first time a university has been coerced into removing its leader. (link)

Jun 26 : Civil Rights Lawsuit: A group is suing Wayne State University, claiming the school violated its members' constitutional rights during a 2024 protest against Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza. A complaint was filed Tuesday in Detroit's U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan by Troy law firm Akeel & Valentine PLC on behalf of four students, three WSU graduates and a parent. The group is seeking a jury trial for damages, the court document said. It names several defendants: Wayne State University, its police department, the dean of students, the assistant dean of students and seven university police officers. The complaint alleges the school violated the students' First Amendment, Fourth Amendment and 14th Amendment rights "through (the defendants') violent raid, mass arrests, and continuing retaliation against a peaceful student protest." (link)

Jun 23 : State Law: Texas is asking public colleges and universities to identify which of their students are living in the country illegally so they can start paying out-of-state tuition, as required by a court ruling earlier this month. In a letter to college presidents last week, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Commissioner Wynn Rosser said undocumented students who have been paying in-state tuition will need to see tuition adjustments for the fall semester. A spokesperson for the agency said it has no plans to provide further guidance on how schools can go about identifying undocumented students. Undocumented students who have been living in Texas for some time lost their eligibility for in-state tuition soon after the U.S. Department of Justice sued the state over the Texas Dream Act, a 2001 state law that allowed those students to qualify for the lower tuition rates at public universities. (link)

Jun 10: Settlement: Three victims of the 2023 mass shooting at Michigan State University have settled with the university for $29.75 million, nearly two years after taking legal action against the school. Attorneys Mick Grewal and Scott Weidenfeller, of Okemos-based Grewal Law, and William Azkoul, of Gruel Mills Nims & Pylman law firm in Grand Rapids, announced the settlements June 10 for three of the five people wounded in the shooting: Nate Statly, Yukai "John" Hao and Troy Forbush. Grewal Law represented Statly and Forbush, and Azkoul represented Hao. Amber McCann, spokesperson for MSU said in a statement sent to the State Journal that the university "understands the depth of the impact of the events of February 13 and extends our deepest condolences to those injured and to their families and loved ones." (link)

Jun 06: NCAA Compliance: A federal judge Friday granted final approval of the House v. NCAA settlement, a watershed agreement in college sports that permits schools to directly pay college athletes for the first time. The settlement, which resolves a trio of antitrust cases against the NCAA and its most powerful conferences, establishes a new 10-year revenue sharing model in college sports, with athletic departments able to distribute roughly $20.5 million in name, image and likeness (NIL) revenue to athletes over the 2025-26 season. Previously, athletes could earn NIL compensation only with outside parties, including school-affiliated donor collectives that have become instrumental in teams’ recruiting. (link)

Jun 25 : Hazing: The fraternity’s pledges were blindfolded and didn’t know until they could see again that they had been brought -- without the option to refuse -- to a South Salt Lake strip club. The members who organized the visit called themselves "The Strip Club Club." And they weren’t just senior leaders of the fraternity. Many were alumni, representing generations of past members. Some were 50 or older. That fall 2024 trip was one of 14 documented instances of hazing that "more likely than not" happened at the University of Utah’s Sigma Nu fraternity over the last school year, according to an investigation the university conducted in May. Based on those findings, the school has moved to shut down the fraternity, terminating any affiliation with it. Sigma Nu cannot reapply for recognition at the U. until at least 2031 -- "allowing enough time for current members and leaders of the chapter to graduate," the school said. (link)

Jun 23: Free Speech: Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a bill that would restrict expressive activities on college campuses, partly reversing a 2019 bill meant to protect Texans’ rights to protest on public campuses. The new legislation (SB 2972), signed by Abbott on June 20, includes limitations on how, when, and where people can demonstrate on college campuses. Under the new bill, college leaders will get to decide which areas are public forums. Conversely, the 2019 bill (SB 18) had established all common outdoor spaces on a public campus could be used as traditional public forums, Inside Higher Ed reports. The new law also bans encampments, demonstrations during the last two weeks of classes, wearing masks or other disguises to hide one’s identity, and lowering the U.S. flag or Texas flag in order to raise another nation or organization’s flag. (link)

Jun 06: Hazing: A three-month-long Drexel University Student Conduct & Care investigation into Phi Kappa Psi concluded on May 21, when recognition of the fraternity was suspended for hazing charges. Eight Phi Kappa Psi brothers moved into a satellite house in Powelton Village in September 2024. Before they unpacked into 3209 Baring Street, the family in the neighboring house had friendly relations with their neighbors on all sides. Phi Kappa Psi’s president told the Triangle that their house had been vacant for years, saying the absence of activity made the move a "rough adjustment" for their neighbors. However, according to a Zillow listing, the residence was actively used to house veterans as recently as 2023 and had been the home base for The Veterans Group since 2007. (link)

Jun 06: Campus Protests: The University of Michigan is using private, undercover investigators to surveil pro-Palestinian campus groups, including trailing them on and off campus, furtively recording them and eavesdropping on their conversations, the Guardian has learned. The surveillance appears to largely be an intimidation tactic, five students who have been followed, recorded or eavesdropped on said. The undercover investigators have cursed at students, threatened them and in one case drove a car at a student who had to jump out of the way, according to student accounts and video footage shared with the Guardian. (link)

Jun 05: Threat: Memphis police detained a man who allegedly made threats to commit a school shooting. Officers responded to the threat on Monday at the Tennessee College of Applied Technology. Police were told a student sent another student a text to not come to school because he was going to "shoot up the classroom and kill himself." Security at the school was able to pull over the student outside the bookstore, where MPD assisted and detained him. A Glock was found in the door of the car. [The student] is now facing charges for threatening mass violence at a school and carrying a weapon. (link)