Case in Point

Volume 17 Issue 08 | August 2025
 

- Joseph Campbell

It’s hard to believe that August is already concluding and a new academic year is officially underway. I’ve often noted how August is the most optimistic month of the academic year. Few grades have been posted and hopes of solid academic performance are alive. Few games have been played and hopes of championships still abound. Fall is an exciting time to be on a college campus. 
 

We know that as our campus populations increase, so will our risk of something going wrong. I’ve been thinking about the concept of intuition lately. I recently read Gavin De Becker’s book, The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us From Violence. De Becker emphasized how important it is to trust our instincts because they are rarely wrong when it comes to personal protection. I think this concept actually applies beyond just our personal safety. As we enter this new academic year, I’d encourage you to think about trusting your instincts in more ways than you may have in the past.

For example, suppose a student seems to have some issues or something seems “off.”  Ask some questions and perhaps connect the student to someone who can help rather than ignore that signal. Suppose you approve financial transactions, and something seems odd about one. Rather than just approving it and moving on with your day, ask some questions. The possible ways to use intuition in our daily lives are endless and will almost certainly help you manage risk a little better. 

I think it might be appropriate to remind our readers of our purpose in Case in Point:
 

Our goal has always been very simple: we believe it's cheaper to proactively manage risk than to react and remediate crises from risk management failures. We provide an overview that allows you to scan the news events occurring throughout our industry each month and ask yourself, 'How can I prevent this from happening here?' If you realize you have a similar high-risk exposure at your institution from this review, you can do something to proactively reduce the risk. What that ‘something' is will depend on the risk, your role, and many other factors; however, doing nothing is a dangerous thing in the world in which we now operate. Our larger goal is to help develop risk-intelligent institutions. We should note that we are not anti-risk. Risk is always going to be with us in life, but we can consider risk and be wise in the actions we take. This is important because any money we spend on remediation, settlements, and investigations is money we aren't spending on education, research, and outreach.

We hope your 2025-26 academic year is filled with great things, but we can assure you it will be full of risks. We again invite you to review the events across higher education with a view toward proactively managing risks. As always, we welcome your feedback.

M. Kevin Robinson, CIA, CFE
Vice President
Institutional Compliance & Security
Office of Audit, Compliance & Privacy
Follow us on  LinkedIn
 

Aug 20: Cyberattack: A cyberattack Tuesday disabled the systems of the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas. The private Catholic institution shared details of the incident in an email to students and university employees on Wednesday. According to the notice, the university has not discovered that any data was compromised, but noted that servers had been placed offline just to be safe. (link)

Aug 15: Privacy: AI is now firmly entrenched in classrooms, but student privacy rules haven't caught up. Why it matters: Chatbots can expose troves of personal data in ways few parents, students or teachers fully understand. The big picture: The 2025-26 school year is shaping up to be one where educators feel that they must embrace AI to keep students competitive. Here are three top concerns with classroom AI, according to privacy advocates and AI companies Axios spoke to. (link)

Aug 08: Data Breach: Columbia University disclosed a significant cybersecurity incident that compromised personal information of 868,969 individuals nationwide, including 2,026 Maine residents, marking one of the largest higher education data breaches in recent years. The prestigious Ivy League institution discovered the security incident on July 8, 2025, nearly two months after the breach period concluded. The university has classified this as an "external system breach (hacking)," indicating that cybercriminals successfully penetrated Columbia’s network infrastructure from outside the organization. (link)

Aug 27: Research Security: Warning American colleges and universities about increasing foreign threats to research, a group of federal intelligence agencies and the Education Department released new guidance this week outlining how the institutions can better protect themselves. (link)

Aug 24: Financial Aid Fraud: According to recent reports, sophisticated criminal networks are using identity theft to disguise themselves as students at U.S. colleges. They flood colleges with applications in order to siphon off tens of millions of dollars in financial aid, taking up seats that real students need. Ali Rogin speaks with Fortune editor Amanda Gerut to learn more about this growing scam. (link)

Aug 19: Financial Oversight: A "culture of policy noncompliance" at Utah State University has led to largely unchecked spending by executive staff -- with a finger pointed, in particular, at the expenses of [a] former President. Auditors found that unnamed executive staff members at the northern Utah school were unilaterally approving contracts up to $430,000 without completing a set purchasing process. And the president’s office, they said, "significantly increased" purchases over the past two years, including spending three times as much on new cars. (link)

Aug 13: Plagiarism: Gov. Mike Braun said he wants Indiana University’s Board of Trustees to move quickly if it's found that President Pamela Whitten committed plagiarism. Braun said he read about the allegations Monday, though the Chronicle of Higher Education first published an analysis of plagiarism claims in January. A recent report alleges a more serious plagiarism offense than what was reported previously. Experts told WFIU/WTIU News they believed Whitten committed plagiarism in her doctoral dissertation in the 1990s at the University of Kansas, though her actions didn’t seem malicious. (link)

Aug 26: State Law: Governor Kathy Hochul has signed legislation targeting discrimination on college campuses. The legislation will require Title VI anti-discrimination coordinators on every New York College Campus. Hochul said the coordinators will work with students and staff to confront discrimination and promote safe learning environments for all students. (link)

Aug 22: State Law: Student activists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign are celebrating a new state law they helped enact. Gov. JB Pritzker signed a law Friday that requires public universities to offer contraceptives and medication abortion starting this school year. The University of Illinois McKinley Health Center previously told IPM News it did not have the expertise to provide abortions and would refer students to other providers nearby. (link)

Aug 22: Title VI: The Trump administration turned up the heat Friday on George Mason University, Virginia’s largest public school, accusing its president of unlawfully promoting diversity in hiring and promotions. The Education Department notified George Mason that a federal civil rights investigation had found the university had acted unlawfully. It demanded a public apology from the president, Gregory Washington, as well as other corrective actions, within 10 days. (link)

Aug 21: SCOTUS Decision: The Supreme Court on Thursday overturned by a 5-4 decision a lower court order, deciding at least temporarily that the National Institutes of Health does not need to continue paying out approximately $783 million in research grants to projects that the NIH has since stopped funding. (link)

Aug 21: Wrongful Termination: Northwestern University has reached a settlement with former longtime football coach Pat Fitzgerald two years after he sued the prestigious school amid a team hazing scandal, attorneys and the school announced Thursday. The private university in the Chicago suburb of Evanston has been reeling from the scandal that rocked the athletic department. Former football players filed the first lawsuits in 2023, alleging sexual abuse and racial discrimination (link)

Aug 21: Discrimination: An investigation substantiated three of the four complaints alleging members of the Lane Community College Board of Education ... engaged in abusive and bullying behavior toward others, including the LCC president. The report, by LCC outside counsel, said the "factual findings support a conclusion of a pattern" from [the member] of "dismissive and disrespectful conduct" toward [the] LCC President. That behavior has been "perceived by [the] President and others who have witnessed the conduct to be microaggressions" based on [the president]’s race and sex, the report found. (link)

Aug 18: Lawsuit Settlement: Michigan State University reached a $2.45 million settlement in July with another survivor of the Feb. 13, 2023 campus shooting, according to documents obtained by The State News. Hanyang Tao was struck in the spine as he was trying to exit Berkey Hall room 114 when the shooter opened fire. There was no exit wound and there are still bullet fragments in his back. Tao filed an intent to sue MSU in June of 2023, claiming that the university had been negligent and "failed to protect students" after ignoring complaints of potential safety hazards. (link)

Aug 14: Employee Conduct: A Texas A&M University professor set to begin teaching this fall has been arrested on a charge of indecent exposure stemming from an alleged incident earlier this year at the University of Texas at Austin. Court documents obtained by KBTX allege [the professor] exposed his genitals and touched himself inappropriately at the William C. Powers Student Activity Center on the UT campus around 9 p.m. on April 29. A staff member reportedly witnessed [him] masturbating while looking at students. (link)

Aug 15: DEI: A federal judge on Thursday struck down two Trump administration actions aimed at eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs at the nation's schools and universities. In her ruling, U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher in Maryland found that the Education Department violated the law when it threatened to cut federal funding from educational institutions that continued with DEI initiatives. (link)

Aug 15: Employee Conduct: Delaware State University president Tony Allen is charged with Driving Under the Influence. Court documents first obtained by the News Journal/Delaware Online say Allen was pulled over around 12:30 a.m. on July 21 on Route 1 and Exit 114, south of Smyrna. There, his blood alcohol level was alleged to be found at zero-point-128 percent, exceeding the legal limit of zero-point-zero-eight. (link)

Aug 15: NCAA Compliance: Michigan received a series of fines that could eclipse $30 million but avoided punitive penalties such as a postseason ban or the vacating of victories, including during the 2023 national championship season, as the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions ruled on the Wolverines' advance-scouting case Friday. The NCAA also imposed an additional game suspension for coach Sherrone Moore, which will be served for the first game of the 2026 season. Moore is expected to serve a two-game suspension in the upcoming season, which ESPN reported in May that the university proposed to self-impose. He also received a two-year show-cause penalty. (link)

Aug 12: Title VI: Donald Trump’s administration says it has determined that George Washington University (GWU) has violated federal civil rights law, making it the latest higher educational institution to be targeted by the White House over last spring’s campus protests against Israeli military strikes in Gaza. In an announcement on Tuesday, the Trump-led justice department accused the Washington DC-based university of failing to take "meaningful action" to combat antisemitism during demonstrations there. (link)

Aug 11: Trademark Infringement: Baylor University has sued Boston University for the private university's use of the interlocking "BU" logo design. The lawsuit, which was filed in Texas federal court on Aug. 8, is against the Trustees of Boston University and for federal trademark infringement, federal unfair competition and false designation of origin under the Trademark Act of 1946, Texas statutory trademark infringement and common law trademark infringement. (link)

Aug 08: Antitrust Litigation: Columbia University, Duke University, the University of Pennsylvania and 29 other elite U.S. colleges and universities were accused on Friday in a proposed class action of conspiring to inflate tuition costs for tens of thousands of students through the popular "early decision" admissions process. The lawsuit, opens new tab, filed in federal court in Boston by former students at Wesleyan University and two other schools, said colleges are using early-decision commitments to charge more for both early and regular-admission students. (link)

Aug 07: Federal Compliance: U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday signed a memorandum that requires universities to collect admissions data to prove they are not engaged in efforts to shape their student bodies along racial lines, according to the White House. But the largest higher education policy and lobbying organization in the U.S. said the wording of the memo was vague. The American Council on Education also said it may be illegal for schools to collect the data on race that the White House seeks. (link)

Aug 02: Trademark Infringement: Outerwear retailer Columbia Sportswear has sued Columbia University over alleged trademark infringement and a breach of contract, saying that the university’s merchandise looks too similar to its own offerings and can confuse shoppers. In a lawsuit filed on 23 July in federal court in Oregon, Columbia Sportswear, whose roots date back to 1938, alleges that the Ivy League university in New York City intentionally violated an agreement the parties signed on 13 June 2023. That agreement dictated how the university could use the word "Columbia" on its own apparel and accessories. (link)

Aug 01: Title IX: Wagner College, a small, private liberal arts college on Staten Island in New York has agreed to comply with the Trump administration’s restrictions on transgender student-athletes following a federal investigation that stemmed from an incident at a women’s fencing competition in March, the Education Department announced Friday. (link)

Aug 01: Title VI: The Trump administration is cutting research funding from UCLA, the university’s leader announced, the latest prestigious university to be targeted in President Donald Trump’s war on higher education. In a letter to the campus community Thursday night, university Chancellor Julio Frenk said the school had been notified that the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, along with other agencies, are "suspending certain research funding" to the school. (link)

Aug 01: Title VI: The Trump administration has reached a multimillion-dollar agreement with Brown University to restore federal funding -- its second major deal with an elite university after last week’s $221 million settlement with Columbia University. In return for Brown agreeing to several measures aimed at dismantling certain diversity, equity and inclusion programs, the federal government will reinstate all frozen grants from the Department of Health and Human Services, restore the school’s eligibility for future funding, and close all pending investigations into the university, a White House official said. (link)

Aug 01: Title VI: An official in the University of Iowa's Division of Student Life openly admits in a new undercover video obtained by Fox News Digital that she and others at the university are actively "finding ways to operate around" state and federal directives intended to end the practice of reverse discrimination in the name of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). The official, Drea Tinoco, assistant director for Leadership and Student Organization Development at the University of Iowa, pointed out in the undercover recording how in early spring the university's leaders began directing an end to DEI initiatives and policies. (link)

Aug 27: Swatting: A self-proclaimed leader of an online group linked to the violent extremist network The Com tells WIRED he is responsible for the flurry of hoax active-shooter alerts at universities across the US in recent days as students return to school. Known online as Gores, the person says he coleads a group called Purgatory, which is offering its followers a menu of services, including hoax threats against schools--known as swatting--for just $20, while faked threats against hospitals, businesses, and airports can cost up to $50. (link)

Aug 26: Hazing: Two fraternities at the University of Georgia have been accused of "hazing" freshmen students including allegations of physical abuse and forcing alcohol on them. Accusations have been leveled at the Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Sigma Chi fraternities, with the latter being forced to suspend membership while police investigations continue. (link)

Aug 26: Free Speech: n part due to Ohio’s new anti-DEI higher education law, Senate Bill 1, Ohio State University dorm rooms have a much narrower theme this year. In years past, resident advisers, or RAs, have decorated the residence hall floors they lead with creative themes, often featuring pop culture references and famous media. But spokesperson Dave Isaacs confirmed RAs were asked to stick to Ohio State spirit themes this year. (link)

Aug 26: Harassment: The Memphis Police Department has arrested and charged a man accused of harassing students on the University of Memphis campus. On August 25, officers responded to a report of a suspicious person on the University of Memphis campus near University Street. When officers arrived, they learned that a suspect, later identified, was harassing students on campus grounds. (link)

Aug 20: Racial Issues: The University of Missouri’s Black student government organization announced Wednesday that the university canceled its welcome event, named the "Black 2 Class Block Party," over the word "Black" in the name. The Legion of Black Collegians said in a Wednesday Instagram post that MU told the organization on Monday the event was canceled. The event was set to happen Friday. MU replied to the post with a statement from UM System President Mun Choi that had been emailed to the Legion. In the statement, Choi called the block party’s name exclusionary. (link)

Aug 18: Chemical Exposure: A former Michigan State University research assistant on Monday announced a lawsuit against the school, alleging that exposure to dangerous pesticides led to her being diagnosed with thyroid cancer. LingLong Wei was enrolled at MSU as a graduate student between 2008 and 2011, where she pursued a master’s degree in horticulture. According to her complaint, Wei was required, as part of her research, to spray "dangerous amounts of hazardous pesticides and herbicides, including but not limited to; paraquat, glyphosate, and oxyfluorfen." (link)

Aug 14: Hazing: Penn State University officials have announced a four-year suspension of the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity's Lambda Lambda chapter, following an investigation into allegations of repeated hazing and abuse. The fraternity's dean and president were charged in May after Ferguson Township police conducted a lengthy investigation into several complaints. (link)

Aug 10: Campus Safety: [A] LSU Tigers freshman running back turned himself in to authorities as he faced accusations that he harbored two men accused of murder in his dorm. [Two men were] wanted for armed robbery and second-degree murder charges in Louisiana, the Alexandria Police Department said. The U.S. Marshals Service apprehended both suspects on Monday in the LSU dorms. The two were accused of killing a 17-year-old in May. (link)

Aug 06: Infrastructure: Declining student numbers, funding reductions, rising personnel costs and policy changes at the state and federal level pose the biggest financial risks to institutions, according to Inside Higher Ed’s recent annual survey of chief business officers with Hanover Research. Those issues are consistent with an overall threat to higher education: that federal policy and economic uncertainty are stressing a sector already teetering on enrollment and demand cliffs. Yet underneath those challenges lies another, less headline-grabbing danger: delayed upkeep and repairs to infrastructure and assets. (link)

Aug 01: Free Speech: Environmental advocates are questioning the actions of a private university in Louisiana after the resignation of a scientist who researches the health and job disparities in a heavily industrialized part of the state known as Cancer Alley. Kimberly Terrell served as a director of community engagement and a staff scientist with Tulane University’s Environmental Law Clinic before resigning and accused university leaders of trying to censor the work she is doing to spotlight the harms to local communities plagued by industrial pollution. (link)

Aug 01: Hazing: Penn State has placed the Sigma Pi fraternity on an indefinite suspension following a misconduct and hazing investigation, effective July 17. An investigation was launched in March after Penn State received multiple reports of alleged physical and mental abuse, forced alcohol and substance consumption, forced physical activity, and forced servitude. (link)