EDUCAUSE Policy
The EDUCAUSE policy staff watches for federal policy developments that have major implications for the role of IT in higher education, often in cooperation with other associations and organizations.
Key Issues
Information Security and Data Privacy
- Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Safeguards Rule (and Federal Student Aid (FSA) Compliance)
- Higher Ed Responds to Proposed Safeguards Rule Reporting Requirement
- Cyber Incident Reporting Under the Safeguards Rule?
- Policy Analysis: Revised, Highly Prescriptive FTC Safeguards Rule
- Historical Background
- FTC July [2020] Workshop on Safeguards Rule Changes
- FSA Notice on Handling Safeguards Rule Audit Findings
- Higher Ed Community Responds to Proposed Safeguards Rule Change
- The Safeguards Rule Audit Objective Is Here!
- FTC Announces Proposed Changes to the Safeguards Rule (Provides the Policy Team's summary analysis of the scope and potential impact of the FTC's 2019 proposed rule changes)
- U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) "CMMC 2.0" Overview Briefing
- EDUCAUSE Raises Concerns About DoD CMMC/800-171 Assessment Rule (Related to original CMMC framework, now superseded by "CMMC 2.0")
- CMMC and Fundamental Research: EDUCAUSE Joins Groups in Raising Concerns
- Congress and Cyber-Incident Reporting
- 800-171 Compliance on the Horizon (Related to Federal Student Aid)
Networking/Telecommunications
- Beyond Social Media: The Full Context of Section 230
- Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill Offers Some Opportunities for Higher Ed
- Closing the Institutional Digital Divide: The REN Infrastructure Proposal
- EDUCAUSE, Higher Ed Groups Push for Broadband Access and Infrastructure
- EDUCAUSE Supports Bill to Provide Broadband Access for Unserved and Underserved College Students
- Net Neutrality
- Biden Administration Promotes Net Neutrality
- Historical Background
- EDUCAUSE Joins Net Neutrality Amicus Brief
- FCC Says Good-Bye to Net Neutrality (Includes link to final higher education/libraries coalition letter to the FCC highlighting the faulty reasoning in the FCC's repeal order)
IT Accessibility
- Lawmakers Introduce the Online Accessibility Act
- EDUCAUSE Continues to Support Accessible Instructional Materials Legislation
- Bipartisan AIM HIGH Legislation Introduced in the Senate
- Accessible Instructional Materials Legislation Reintroduced in the House of Representatives
- Digital Accessibility Law and Regulation: Current Status and What to Do About It
General Analysis
- February 2021: Continuity and Change in Higher Education IT Policy
- March 2020: Higher Education Policy News
- February 2020 Policy Update (videos)