In the break between the end of spring sports seasons and fall preseason, colleges and universities should use the summer to assess athletics operations and compliance. Athletics departments often operate on demanding timelines, making it even more important to pause before the season begins and ask the right questions.

We recently posted an article on Hunton’s Insurance Recovery blog regarding an important appellate victory the Hunton Insurance Coverage team won for clients St. John’s University and Hofstra University in a coverage dispute arising from United Educators Insurance Company’s (“UE”) categorical refusal to defend or indemnify the universities in student class action lawsuits filed after the universities transitioned to remote instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic. The decision is significant both for colleges and universities facing pandemic-related tuition refund suits, and for policyholders more broadly

Title VI issues continue to garner increased attention across higher education, making summer an important time for institutions to assess whether their policies are prepared for the year ahead. In addition to the risk of federal enforcement actions and lawsuits, student complaints, programming disputes, harassment allegations, bias incidents, and questions about institutional response can all test the clarity and adequacy of a campus policy framework.

Summer is a critical time for reviewing Title IX policies and procedures before the start of a new academic year. When students return, institutions need more than technically compliant language. They need policies that are current, internally consistent, and practical for the employees responsible for implementing them. Because Title IX obligations affect reporting, response, supportive measures, investigations, resolution processes, and training, even small policy gaps can create confusion at sensitive moments.

Summer is the ideal time to revisit and revise student conduct policies before orientation and move-in begin. Conduct systems sit at the intersection of legal compliance, institutional values, and student expectations. When policies are outdated, unclear, or inconsistent with legal requirements or campus practice, problems can arise quickly. A well-timed summer review helps institutions confirm that their conduct framework is not only compliant with the law, but also understandable to students, workable for student affairs staff, and better positioned to withstand legal and public scrutiny when difficult cases emerge.

University foundations currently face a more complicated set of demands than in prior years. Fundraising and stewardship remain central, but those responsibilities now sit alongside increased legal and regulatory attention, heightened expectations for governance, greater public scrutiny, and calls for closer alignment with institutional strategy and risk management.

For many foundations, the key issue is not one discrete challenge; it is the overlap of several. Changes in the regulatory environment may coincide with pressure on university budgets, questions about endowment spending, cybersecurity concerns, evolving donor expectations, or sensitive campus concerns and issues of national importance. That convergence makes it important for foundations to think more broadly about governance, preparedness, and coordination.

Before the semester begins, colleges and universities often focus on visible logistics such as move-in, orientation, course schedules, and staffing. Just as important, however, is ensuring that the right people are trained before students and faculty return. Institutions are better positioned when the employees most likely to receive complaints and reports understand their roles, reporting obligations, and institutional policies before the fall term is underway.

Summer is often the most practical time to reduce legal risk on campus. While most students are away and the academic calendar appears quieter, institutional leaders know this is when many of the decisions that shape the upcoming academic year are made. Policies are revised, trainings are scheduled, contracts are renewed, and the fiscal year turns over.

For colleges and universities, enforcement actions brought by federal government agencies, such as the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), the US Department of Justice (DOJ), or the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), raise a financial threat before any lawsuit is ever filed or before any federal funding is pulled. As the federal government increases its scrutiny of higher education institutions, responding to investigations can require significant expenditures on outside counsel, document production, and compliance efforts. Many colleges and universities may not realize until it is too late that these costs fall outside the scope of their insurance coverage.

In Sabatini v. Knouse, No. SJC-13781 (Mass. May 19, 2026), the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court held that, in the academic context, G. L. c. 214, § 1C permits a sexual harassment claim to proceed directly against an alleged individual perpetrator, not only against an educational institution. Massachusetts law, specifically, G. L. c. 214, § 1C, sets forth the right to be free from sexual harassment in Massachusetts and gives the Superior Court jurisdiction to enforce that right and award damages.