INTRODUCTION - On February 14, 2025, the Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights (the “Assistant Secretary”) at the United States Department of Education (the “Department”) circulated a Dear Colleague Letter (the “DCL”)...more
2/24/2025
/ Affirmative Action ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Colleges ,
Dear Colleague Letter ,
Department of Education ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Educational Institutions ,
Equal Protection ,
SCOTUS ,
Students ,
Title VI ,
Universities
President Biden has signed the Stop Campus Hazing Act (the “Act”) into law. The Act, the first federal anti-hazing law, is the result of a bi-partisan effort and comes after several years of patchwork efforts to address...more
On November 7, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit found, in the case of Joseph v. Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, that Title IX does not provide an implied right of action...more
With the recent emergence of Name Image Likeness ("NIL") compensation, alumni associations focused on raising funds to compensate student athletes have been on the rise. But alumni associations in some form or another have...more
On February 20, 2024, the United States Supreme Court denied a petition for a writ of certiorari in Coalition for TJ v. Fairfax County School Board. Coalition for TJ involves an admissions policy at a prestigious public...more
In an effort to combat discrimination and harassment based on caste, numerous colleges and universities have amended their nondiscrimination policies to explicitly prohibit misconduct based on caste. Institutions of higher...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently held that harassment based on perceived sexual orientation constitutes sex discrimination under Title IX, extending the holding from the U.S. Supreme Court's Title VII...more
On January 26, 2023, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) published a letter and resolution agreement regarding a December 2020 complaint (OCR Complaint # 04-21-2060) filed against Troy...more
On April 28, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Cummings v Premier Rehab Keller, P.L.L.C. that emotional distress damages are not recoverable in a private action to enforce several civil rights statutes. While Cummings...more
The Department of Justice (“DOJ”) published, on March 18, 2022, new “Guidance on Web Accessibility and the ADA” (the “Guidance”). For colleges and universities, the Guidance offers some help as to how to best satisfy their...more
On October 6, 2021, the Philadelphia Department of Public Health (DPH) announced a series of extensions designed to allow healthcare employers and institutions of higher education to comply with the City’s vaccine mandate....more
On August 10, 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice (the “Department”) announced that it entered into a settlement agreement with Brown University to ensure that students with mental health disabilities have equal access to...more
On August 13, 2021, Philadelphia’s Department of Public Health (“DPH”) announced an emergency regulation mandating COVID-19 vaccines that will affect healthcare institutions and the City’s colleges and universities. Many of...more
On July 20, 2021, the U.S. Department of Education’s (the “Department”) Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) issued its Questions and Answers on the Title IX Regulations on Sexual Harassment (“Q&A”), which clarifies OCR’s...more
On June 16, 2021, the U.S. Department of Education’s (the “Department”) Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) issued a Notice of Interpretation explaining that it will enforce Title IX's prohibition of discrimination on the basis...more
The Department of Justice recently filed a Statement of Interest in Thomas v. Bd. of Regents of the University of Nebraska, a case pending in the United States District Court for the District of Nebraska asserting peer...more
Background - On December 13, 2016, the 21st Century Cures Act (the “Cures Act”) was signed into law and made changes to the Public Health Service Act related to health information technology. The Office of the National...more
On April 6, 2021, the U.S. Department of Education’s (the “Department”) Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) provided a roadmap for carrying out President Biden’s recent Executive Order on Guaranteeing an Educational Environment...more
Earlier this month, Princeton’s President sent a letter to the Princeton community to outline the University’s next steps to “address systemic racism at Princeton and beyond.” President Eisgruber showed his support for...more
Late last week, with no apparent public discussion, the Department of Education (the “Department”) withdrew a number of Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) guidance documents relating to Title IX in the wake of the new Title IX...more
Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr’s Higher Education Practice continues to monitor the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the higher education industry. The below summarizes some recent issues being contended with unionized...more
On June 28, 2019, Governor Wolf signed into law Act 16 of 2019, which requires institutions of higher education in Pennsylvania to meet two new categories of requirements related to sexual misconduct in their programs and...more
On January 16, 2020, the Department of Education (the “Department”) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (“NPRM”) with the stated aim of implementing at colleges and universities certain Trump administration initiatives...more
On Monday, July 22, 2019, the Federal Student Aid Office of the U.S. Department of Education (ED) announced that the Distance Education Rules that were originally scheduled to go into effect on July 1, 2018, and were then...more
Esports -
Electronic sports (esports), also known as competitive video and computer gaming, continues to boom in popularity. Esports is a spectator-driven phenomenon: some reports estimate the global esports audience will...more
6/26/2019
/ Colleges ,
Department of Education ,
Educational Institutions ,
eSports ,
Executive Orders ,
Free Speech ,
Hazing ,
NCAA ,
Students ,
Title IX ,
Universities