Trusteeship Articles By Topic: Legal Issues And Compliance

Acting to head off claims and shoring up internal systems can save an institution millions in financial penalties and legal fees.

A recent portrait of undocumented immigrants by the Pew Hispanic Center reveals that most children of undocumented residents living in the U.S. are actually citizens. According to "A Portrait of Unauthorized Immigrants in the United States," 73 percent of children in undocumented or mixed-status families (with a parent or sibling undocumented) were born in the U.S. That adds up to approximately four million young people, contrasted with a million and a half undocumented youths.

In a trio of executive orders, President Obama has strengthened workers' rights. These actions and emerging federal legislation have significant implications for colleges and universities which, like other employers, are grappling with ways to respond to current downturns in funding, gifts, and investment income, as well as operating budget shortfalls.

Notwithstanding the enactment of the more flexible Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act (UPMIFA) in more than 40 states, boards of trustees remain on the hook for making prudent decisions when it comes to permanent endowment fund spending and investing.

In August, President Bush signed the Higher Education Opportunity Act into law and in doing so completed the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. The six-year effort spanned three Congresses and required 14 short-term extensions of the underlying law to ensure that student-aid benefits would remain available while deliberations continued. The bill itself totals 1,158 pages, establishes roughly 70 new spending programs, and imposes more than 100 new reporting and record-keeping requirements on colleges and universities. Congress approved it overwhelmingly.