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  • Date:

    Ostrowski v. Ind. Univ. (Ind. App. May 28, 2024)

    Memorandum Decision affirming denial of worker’s compensation benefits. Appellant, a former employee of the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University who experienced atrial fibrillation and hip arthritis, filed a work injury claim and a federal Rehabilitation Act claim against the University after she found it too difficult to walk from the closest parking area to the campus building housing the Institute. After the parties settled the federal case, the Worker’s Compensation Board of Indiana affirmed the University’s denial of her work injury claim, finding that her symptoms did not constitute a compensable injury because they were “temporary and could have occurred anywhere.” In affirming the denial, the Court of Appeals of Indiana held that neither the Board’s factual conclusion that the walk on the hilly campus was routine and everyday, nor its legal conclusion that her symptoms were temporary and did not worsen her pre-existing medical conditions were clearly erroneous.  

    Topics:

    Accessible Facilities | Compliance & Risk Management | Disability Discrimination | Discrimination, Accommodation, & Diversity | Indemnity & Insurance

  • Date:

    GASB Statement on Certain Risk Disclosures (Jan. 8, 2024)

    Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) Statement No. 102 on Certain Risk Disclosures. This Statement will require government entities to disclose in financial statements concentrations or constraints that may limit their ability to acquire resources or control spending, along with assessments of their vulnerability to a substantial impact and the likelihood that events associated with the concentration or constraints have occurred, begun to occur, or are more likely to occur within 12 months of the financial statement. The requirements of the Statement are effective for fiscal years beginning after June 15, 2024, and earlier application is encouraged.  

    Topics:

    Compliance & Risk Management | Compliance Programs, Policies & Procedures | Risk Management

  • Date:

    CFPB Report on College Banking and Credit Card Agreements (Dec. 19, 2023)

    Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Report to Congress on College Banking and Credit Card Agreements. The Report examines financial products, including deposit and prepaid accounts and credit cards, offered and marketed to students by institutions or affiliated entities and provided through agreements with third-party financial services providers. Noting that the institutions or affiliated entities marketing these financial products may have interests independent from those of their students, the Report identifies products and services that may be more expensive for students than other available options and itemizes by institution and financial service provider the arrangements that are most expensive to students and those that provide the largest payments by the provider to the institution or affiliated entity.   

    Topics:

    Accreditation, Authorizations, & Higher Education Act | Compliance & Risk Management | Compliance Programs, Policies & Procedures | Financial Aid, Scholarships, & Student Loans | Students

  • Date:

    MOU between the NLRB and OSHA on Interagency Cooperation and Coordination (Oct. 31, 2023)

    Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to facilitate interagency cooperation and coordination. The MOU establishes “a process for information sharing and referrals, training, and outreach between the agencies” aimed at enhancing enforcement of the National Labor Relations Act and the Occupational Safety and Health Act. The agencies also co-released a resource on Building Safe & Healthy Workplaces that Promote Worker Voice to provide guidance to employers and employees on establishing collaborative safety and health programs in the workplace.  

    Topics:

    Collective Bargaining | Compliance & Risk Management | Faculty & Staff

  • Date:

    Ogdon v. Grand Canyon Univ. (D. Ariz. Aug. 8, 2023)

    Order granting-in-part and denying-in-part Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss.  Plaintiff, a former student in an online master’s degree program at Grand Canyon University who sought to become a mental health therapist, on behalf of herself and a putative class, brought RICO, and California False Advertising Law (FAL), Unfair Competition Law (UCL), Consumers Legal Remedies Act (CLRA), and unjust enrichment claims against the University and multiple individual officials after she completed the program and learned that it would not be accepted by California licensing authorities.  Plaintiff alleged that University counselors and staff assured her both before and after enrolling that the program would meet her needs.  The court dismissed her RICO claim because she had not plausibly alleged that the defendants conducted a separate, distinct enterprise and because she had not alleged they had committed at least two acts of racketeering activity.  It permitted her FAL, UCL, and CLRA claims to proceed, however, finding she had alleged with sufficient particularity that false or misleading statements about the University’s professional programs’ accreditation were targeted at current and prospective students.  It also permitted her unjust enrichment claim to proceed, finding the University’s enrollment agreement was outside of the scope of the pleadings. 

    Topics:

    Accreditation, Authorizations, & Higher Education Act | Admissions | Compliance & Risk Management | Program Integrity & Gainful Employment | Students

  • Date:

    Sherman v. Itawamba Cmty. Coll. (N.D. Miss. Aug. 1, 2023)

    Memorandum Opinion denying Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment. Plaintiff, a former residence hall director and manufacturing extension partnership coordinator at Itawamba Community College, brought retaliation, malicious interference with employment, and whistleblower claims against the College and multiple officials after she was placed on a performance improvement plan (PIP) and then terminated. Plaintiff alleged that her PIP and termination were a result of her report to college officials and the State Auditor of regulatory noncompliance and other violations in the College’s Workforce Training Program. In permitting plaintiff’s First Amendment retaliation claim to proceed, the court found that her reports of wrongdoing to the State were sufficiently outside of her ordinary job duties to demonstrate that she spoke as a citizen. The court also permitted her malicious interference and whistleblower claims to proceed, holding that she had presented sufficient evidence to raise questions of material fact as to whether her termination resulted from her report to the State Auditor.  

    Topics:

    Compliance & Risk Management | Compliance Programs, Policies & Procedures | Discrimination, Accommodation, & Diversity | Retaliation

  • Date:

    J.L. v. Rockefeller Univ. (N.Y. Sup. Ct. May 25, 2023)

    Decision and Order granting-in-part and denying-in-part Defendant’s Partial Motion to Dismiss. Plaintiff alleged that he was sexually assaulted by a doctor employed by Rockefeller University Hospital between 1957 and 1966, when he was between the ages of seven and sixteen, during appointments for physical exams. The court permitted plaintiff to proceed in his negligent hiring, retention, supervision and/or direction claim, finding that he had sufficiently alleged that hospital staff were aware that the doctor was abusing children and that he had taken inappropriate photographs of his victims while they were patients in the hospital. It dismissed his intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress claims, finding the allegations duplicative of the negligence claims. In dismissed his breach of duty in loco parentis claim, finding that because the hospital did not have long-term custody or supervision of plaintiff, the duty applicable to schools as contemplated in the case law did not apply to the hospital.  

    Topics:

    Compliance & Risk Management | Discrimination, Accommodation, & Diversity | Employee Sexual Misconduct | Litigation, Mediation & Arbitration | Sex Discrimination | Tort Litigation

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