Interesting Policy Reads: Consensus in ED’s Negotiated Rulemaking, Consumer Privacy Preferences, and Online Education Trends

With our "Interesting Policy Reads" blog posts, the EDUCAUSE Policy Office highlights recent articles on federal policy issues and developments that are directly relevant to members or provide insights on higher education policy in general.

• National American University in Sioux Falls to Close as Classes Shift Online, Argus Leader, March 25, 2019. (National American University, a for-profit college, announced its intention to close all physical locations and transition to online offerings instead; the college's leadership cites revenue issues and shifting student preferences as reasons for the decision.)
• Due Process for Alleged Student Hacker? Inside Higher Ed, March 29, 2019. (A Tufts graduate student was expelled for hacking into the university's systems to alter her grades, but the student claims innocence, arguing instead that her laptop was compromised.)
• The Privacy Paradox, Axios, April 1, 2019. (Buried beneath the debate over federal privacy legislation is an overarching pattern of behavior among consumers: they claim to care about the use of their data but seldom take steps to share less or manage their own data preferences.)
• Going Outside to Grow, Inside Higher Ed, April 3, 2019. (While the institutions that lack the resources or infrastructure to stand up online programs on their own have historically turned to online program management companies to do it for them, observers note that increasingly institutions that have already established their own online programs are now turning to these same companies to help them remain competitive.)
• Consensus on New Rules for Accreditors, Inside Higher Ed, April 4, 2019. (The Department of Education's anticipated negotiated rulemaking process has ended in consensus, with negotiators reaching agreement on a number of changes to federal regulations governing higher education.)
• Moving Forward (at Last) on Federal Rule Changes, Inside Higher Ed, April 9, 2019. (The Department of Education's negotiated rulemaking resulted in notable changes to online education program regulations, including providing clarification with respect to definitions specific to "regular and substantive interaction" and tweaking language specific to state authorization rules for online programs.)
• U.S. Senate Republican Leader Calls Net Neutrality Bill 'Dead on Arrival', Reuters, April 9, 2019. (A Democrat-backed bill restoring net neutrality rules has passed the House of Representatives, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has characterized the measure as "dead on arrival" in the Senate.)
• In-Person Bachelor's and Online Maser's—at the Same Time, Inside Higher Ed, April 17, 2019. (A new partnership between the University of Notre Dame and the College of Holy Cross will allow senior undergraduates at the latter to enroll in a Notre Dame online masters' program.)

Kathryn Branson is an associate with Ulman Public Policy.