As the University of Georgia prepares to compete in the NCAA College Football Playoff championship, it’s also fighting another battle, on another playing field: defending itself against public record lawsuits following its refusal to disclose its athletes’ “name, image and likeness” contracts.
The conversation on the disparity between coach pay, revenue generated by the NCAA and higher education institutions from sports, and student-athletes seeking compensation for their participation is evolving.
In August, Senator Brian Schatz introduced the Beyond the Box for Higher Education Act (Senate Bill 2634) in the U.S. Senate.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, in Klaassen v. Trustees of Indiana Univ., upheld Indiana University’s right to mandate vaccines for students returning to campus.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (“OCR”) recently issued a “Notice of Interpetation” confirming that Title IX protects students from harassment and discrimination based on their sexual orientation and/or gender identity.
The NCAA recently announced an interim policy that allows student-athletes from all three divisions to monetize their name, image and likeness (often referred to as “NIL”). The new policy went into effect on July 1, 2021.
On June 8th, 2021, the U.S. Senate passed the United States Innovation and Competition Act (“USICA”), which is bipartisan legislation that would authorize billions of dollars in funding for technology research in the United States. A significant amount of funding is aimed at institutions of higher education.
On April 23, 2021, the University of Michigan announced that all students who choose to live on its Ann Arbor campus during the 2021 fall term will be required to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that a university professor plausibly pled claims that his employer’s enforcement of its policy requiring employees to refer to students by their preferred pronouns violated his constitutional rights under the free speech and free exercise clauses of the First Amendment.