Cases & Developments - National Association of College and University Attorneys

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Latest Cases & Developments

Date:
5/5/2023
Myrick v. Tex. State Tech. Coll. (E.D. Tex. Apr. 28, 2023)
Memorandum Opinion and Order denying Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss. Plaintiff, a former employee of Texas State Technical College, brought a Title IX retaliation claim against the College after she was terminated for violating the College’s Title IX policy. A male student had confided in her that a female employee had sent him an “odd” message inviting him to lunch and giving him her phone number. Plaintiff sought the guidance of a human resources official, hesitated initially to file a report, and then named the student only days later after she had been warned she was required to report his name. In permitting plaintiff’s claim to proceed, the court held that the College’s assertion that plaintiff had not engaged in Title IX protected activity is more properly addressed at the summary judgment stage.
Topics:
Discrimination, Accommodation, & Diversity | Retaliation | Students | Title IX & Student Sexual Misconduct
Date:
5/5/2023
Bueno v. Univ. of Miami (S.D. Fla. Apr. 26, 2023)
Order granting Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss. Plaintiff, a former student at the University of Miami, sued the University, alleging that it violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) by not correcting the amount of his outstanding student loan debt with two credit bureaus after it allegedly promised to absolve his loan balance. Plaintiff’s complaint failed, first, because he had alleged the existence of a legal dispute rather than a factual inaccuracy. Plaintiff also failed to allege that the University, rather than a third-party servicer, qualified as the relevant “furnisher of information” under the FCRA.
Topics:
Financial Aid, Scholarships, & Student Loans | Students
Date:
5/5/2023
U.S. Dep.’t of Education Updated Guidance on Justice System Involved Students (Apr. 28, 2023)
U.S. Department of Education, Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education Updated Guidance on Justice System Involved Students. With the upcoming reinstatement in July 2023 of federal Pell Grants for individuals who are incarcerated, the Department released an updated “Beyond the Box” guide for institutions addressing barriers to education for formerly incarcerated individuals.
Topics:
Accreditation, Authorizations, & Higher Education Act | Financial Aid, Scholarships, & Student Loans | Students
Date:
5/5/2023
Dep.’t of Education Letter to IHE Leaders on Changes to Federal Student Aid and FAFSA Process (Apr. 12, 2023)
U.S. Department of Education, Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) announcement of Letter to Presidents, Chancellors, and CEOs on Changes to Federal Student Aid and 2024-25 FAFSA Process. FSA’s Chief Operating Officer emailed institution leaders to highlight the potential impacts of implementation of the FAFSA Simplification Act and the Fostering Undergraduate Talent by Unlocking Resources for Education Act (FUTURE Act), noting that “[t]he successful implementation of both laws will greatly alter the current systems and procedures your school uses to award federal student aid.” Anticipated impacts include the need for more resources and training for financial aid leaders and staff; review of current admissions and financial aid deadlines and practices; increased staffing to support an increased number of students eligible for federal aid; impacts on enrollment and/or retention strategies; resources and training for updates for software, security, and systems updates; and increased risks associated with non-compliance, such as audit findings, fines, and/or liabilities. All changes will be fully implemented beginning with the 2024-25 academic year.
Topics:
Accreditation, Authorizations, & Higher Education Act | Financial Aid, Scholarships, & Student Loans | Students
Date:
4/28/2023
Minor v. La. State Univ. at Eunice (W.D. La. Apr. 25, 2023)
Report and Recommendation granting Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss. Plaintiff, a former nursing student at Louisiana State University at Eunice, brought disability discrimination and due process claims against the University and its Dean of Students after she received a zero on an exam for cheating and was dismissed from the program due to the failing grade. The court dismissed her disability discrimination claims against the University as time barred, in part due to lack of proper service. Turning to her due process claims, the court held that even assuming plaintiff’s appeal hearing was disciplinary in nature, plaintiff received sufficient procedural due process even though the University (1) did not present her original scratch paper and alleged cheat sheet or live witnesses, (2) did not consider an advisor’s email describing the way she used scratch paper to write out all of her knowledge at the beginning of an exam to manage her test-taking anxiety, and (3) permitted the allegedly biased Dean to remain with the hearing panel as it made its decision. Plaintiff’s substantive due process claim failed because she did not allege that her dismissal was arbitrary or shocking to the conscience.
Topics:
Academic Performance and Misconduct | Disability Discrimination | Discrimination, Accommodation, & Diversity | Students
Date:
4/28/2023
Lan v. Univ. of Tex. at San Antonio (W.D. Tex. Apr. 24, 2023)
Report and Recommendation granting-in-part and denying-in-part Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss. Plaintiff, a former doctoral student and research assistant at the University of Texas at San Antonio who is Chinese, proceeding pro se, brought discrimination and retaliation claims against the University after she twice failed her comprehensive exam and was terminated from her research assistantship. As a threshold matter, the court found that plaintiff sufficiently alleged at this stage of the proceedings that she was an employee of the University. The court permitted her discrimination claim to proceed, finding that although she had not identified a comparator who retained an assistantship after twice failing a comprehensive exam, she sufficiently alleged that non-Chinese research assistants were graded more leniently. It also permitted her retaliation claim related to denial of her request for reinstatement to proceed because she alleged that two professors who knew of her grade grievance participated in the decision. Her retaliation claim related to her initial termination failed, however, because that occurred months before she filed her grievance.
Topics:
Academic Performance and Misconduct | Discrimination, Accommodation, & Diversity | Race and National Origin Discrimination | Retaliation | Students
Date:
4/28/2023
Rudman v. Oklahoma (W.D. Okla. Apr. 23, 2023)
Order granting-in-part and denying-in-part defendants’ motions to dismiss. Plaintiff, a former student and member of the Cheer Team at the University of Central Oklahoma (UCO), brought deliberate indifference, retaliation, equal protection, and due process claims against UCO and its Senior Director of Student Engagement who oversaw UCO’s Spirit Teams, stemming from an off-campus, “unofficial” Cheer initiation event at which new members were allegedly subjected to sexual exploitation and harassment hazing. The court permitted her Title IX deliberate indifference claim against the University and her §1983 equal protection claim against the Senior Director to proceed, finding she sufficiently alleged that the Senior Director had knowledge of similar conduct at past unofficial events and “consciously acquiesced in that conduct by refusing to respond reasonably to it.” However, it dismissed her §1983 due process claims against the Senior Director, finding that (1) the factual allegations were insufficient to allege that she deliberately created an intolerable environment on campus in order to force plaintiff to leave UCO and (2) plaintiff had not shown that a right against “constructive expulsion” was clearly established.
Topics:
Constitutional Issues | Discrimination, Accommodation, & Diversity | Equal Protection | Retaliation | Students | Title IX & Student Sexual Misconduct
Date:
4/28/2023
V.E. v. Univ. of Md. Balt. (D. Md. Apr. 21, 2023)
Memorandum Opinion granting Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss. Plaintiff, a former student at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, brought a Title IX deliberate indifference claim against the University, alleging an inadequate response to her reports of abuse, harassment, and relationship violence perpetrated by J.W., a former romantic partner who was also a member of the Swimming and Diving Team. The court held the plaintiff’s claims were time barred. Plaintiff asserted that she was unaware of missteps in the University’s response to her reports of abuse until May 2022, when it released an independent report on alleged sexual misconduct at the University. The court held, however, that her post-assault deliberate indifference claim accrued no later than Fall 2018 when, after having already reported the abuse, she decided not to live in the dorm out of continued fear of J.W.’s presence.
Topics:
Students | Title IX & Student Sexual Misconduct
Date:
4/28/2023
Felkner v. R.I. Coll., et al. (R.I. Apr. 20, 2023)
Opinion affirming summary judgment in favor of Rhode Island College. Plaintiff, a former student in the Master of Social Work Program at Rhode Island College who describes himself as a “conservative libertarian,” brought First Amendment claims against the College and multiple officials, alleging that his instructors rejected several advocacy project proposals aligned with his political perspective and then retaliated against him by assigning poor grades and by granting him only one conditional extension on the due date for his final project. In affirming summary judgment in favor of the defendants, the Supreme Court of Rhode Island held that plaintiff’s claim was barred by qualified immunity, noting that in the context of the “great deference” afforded to “academic decisions concerning grades, coursework, and progress within an academic program” it would be unreasonable to expect that faculty would have “had fair warning that their conduct potentially violated his constitutional rights.”
Topics:
Academic Performance and Misconduct | Constitutional Issues | Discrimination, Accommodation, & Diversity | First Amendment & Free Speech | Retaliation | Students
Date:
4/28/2023
Fowler v. United States Dep’t of Educ. (E.D. Pa. Apr. 20, 2023)
Memorandum granting defendants’ motions to dismiss. Plaintiff, who was a graduate student and Fontaine Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania in the 1980s, brought a contract claim against the University asserting that she was unaware that she had also borrowed $62,000 in federal student loans until she was placed on the federal Credit Alert Verification Reporting System and her credit was negatively impacted. She asserted that by processing her fellowship application, the University “agreed to properly process all matters related to her attendance.” Her contract claim failed, however, because she did not identify an explicit contract with the University and “breach of an implied promise is not cognizable under Pennsylvania law in the higher education context.”
Topics:
Financial Aid, Scholarships, & Student Loans | Students

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