SAN DIEGO, CA — Community members will gather at the San Diego Civic Center Plaza for
a “Hands Off!” march on April 5 to protest DOGE and the Trump
administration’s attack on programs and services used by San Diego
residents. The local march will coincide with a nationwide day of
demonstrations expected to be attended by hundreds of thousands…
Organizers
describe the event as a collective response to policies impacting our
community. “San Diegans who are veterans, who are postal workers and
teachers, who rely on Social Security, Medicaid or Medicare, and who are
horrified at the Trump-Musk billionaire takeover of our government are
coming together to protest the Trump Administration’s attacks on the
rights and services they depend upon, many of them for survival” said
Angela Benson, a member of the organizing coalition.
Event Details:
What:
Over 10,000 San Diegans expected to peacefully demand “HANDS OFF!”
their rights and services in one of over 1,000 HANDS OFF! events
scheduled nationwide on April 5
Who: Coalition of San Diego Pro-Democracy Groups
When: Saturday, April 5, noon, 1 mile march to leave approximately 12:15 PM
Where: March starts at Civic Center Plaza Fountain by 1200 Third St., ends at Hall of Justice at 330 W Broadway
Transportation: Participants are encouraged to take public transit to the event
Planning group:
Change Begins With ME
CBFD Indivisible
Indivisible49
Indivisible North San Diego County
Democratic Club of Carlsbad and Oceanside
Encinitas and North Coast Democratic Club
SanDiego350
Swing Left/Take Action San Diego
Activist San Diego
50501 San Diego
Media Opportunities:
The following representatives will be available day-of the march for interviews.
If interested, please coordinate with Richard (770-653-6138) prior to
the event, and plan to arrive at the location marked below by 11:30 AM
Pacific
Representatives
Sara Jacobs – House of Representatives, CA-51 district
Scott Peters – House of Representatives, CA-50 district
Chris Ward – California State Assemblymember, 78 district
Stephen Whitburn – San Diego Councilmember
Reverend Madison Shockley II – Pilgrim United Church of Christ
Yusef Miller – Executive Director of North County Equity & Justice Coalition
Brigette Browning – Executive Secretary San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council and President, Unite Here!
Crystal Irving – President, Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
March brought layoffs, buyouts and the elimination of multiple academic programs as universities sought to plug budget holes wrought by sector challenges and state budget issues.
While many universities have announced hiring freezes and other moves due to the uncertainty of federal funding under Trump, the cuts below are not directly tied to the administration’s efforts to slash budgets and shrink the government. Instead, they are linked largely to dwindling enrollment or the loss of state funding.
University of Dayton
Officials at the private, Catholic research institution in Ohio announced cuts last month that affect 65 employees; 45 faculty members will not have their contracts renewed and 20 staff positions have been eliminated, The Dayton Daily News reported.
Affected employees will reportedly be offered severance packages.
Total cuts are projected to save the university $25 million over three years, the newspaper reported. Officials at the university said the moves were “focused on financial sustainability,” noting that while Dayton does not currently have a budget deficit, the change better positions it for the future.
Wagner College
The private liberal arts college in New York is looking to phase out as many as 21 programs in an effort to reverse recent enrollment declines, The Staten Island Advance reported.
The changes reportedly could affect up to 40 full-time faculty members.
Less popular academic programs—including anthropology, chemistry, English, history, math, modern languages, sociology, philosophy and physics—are among those that may be wound down. Officials told the newspaper that the process will be completed over the next 12 to 18 months.
Kent State University
Up to 30 administrative positions and nine majors are being eliminated at the public university in Ohio as part of a phased academic realignment that was approved by the board last month, WKYC reported. Kent State will also shrink the number of academic colleges from 10 to nine.
The changes are part of a phased plan to be completed in 2028.
The plans cites two goals: “First to strengthen academic affairs by reorganizing and realigning our academic units so that we are more cost efficient and therefore sustainable, and second, to ensure that we are providing the most in-demand, up-to-date and relevant academic programs and services for our learners,” executive vice president and provost Melody Tankersley said in an announcement last month following approval of the restructuring plan by Kent State’s board.
Lakeland Community College
Facing a $2 million budget deficit, the public two-year college in Ohio is laying off 10 faculty members and not replacing 14 professors set to retire, Ideastream Public Media reported.
Another eight faculty members who will retire next year will also not be replaced.
Between the cuts and retirements, Lakeland expects to save $2.3 million this year and another $800,000 next year. It will reinvest $225,000 in three faculty positions in manufacturing, welding and electrical engineering as it prioritizes workforce development.
Lakeland also plans to close an unspecified number of low-enrollment programs.
St. Norbert College
The private, Catholic college in Wisconsin announced plans last month to lay off 27 professors and cut more than a dozen programs to address its budget deficit, Wisconsin Public Radio reported.
Cuts will shave an estimated $5 million off the $12 million budget deficit. Of the 27 affected faculty members, 21 are set to lose their jobs in May, and the remaining six will be let go in 2026.
Averett University
Grappling with financial pressures, the small, private institution in Virginia announced plans last month to eliminate 15 jobs as part of cost-cutting measures, The Chatham Star-Tribune reported.
Additionally, Cardinal News reported this week that Averett listed its equestrian center for sale.
The university has navigated steep financial issues since last summer, when officials discovered a financial shortfall brought about by unauthorized withdrawals from the endowment by a former employee. While they said there was no evidence of embezzlement or misuse of the funds, the fiscal mismanagement prompted Averett to take a series of ongoing measures to fix its finances.
Oklahoma State University
Fallout continues at Oklahoma State, where the university laid off 12 Innovation Foundation employees after a recent audit uncovered financial missteps there, Oklahoma Voice reported.
Affected staffers will not receive severance but will remain employed through June 1.
In February, Oklahoma State president Kayse Shrum stepped down abruptly amid a review of improper transfers of legislatively appropriated funds. An audit later found that $41 million in state appropriations “were not properly restricted and in some instances were co-mingled with other funds” in violation of state laws and policies. In one instance, $11.5 million intended for other programs had been directed without board approval to OSU’s Innovation Foundation instead.
St. Joseph’s University
Officials offered buyouts to some faculty and staff last month as the private Jesuit university seeks to close a budget deficit following recent mergers, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
St. Joseph’s absorbed the University of the Sciences in 2022 and added Pennsylvania College of Health Sciences in 2023, which officials told the newspaper left them with a “small deficit.” President Cheryl McConnell did not specify a dollar figure in an interview with the Inquirer.
She added that there was no specific target number for buyouts, but when asked about potential layoffs, McConnell said it “depends on the nature of voluntary separation plan results.”
Utah State University
Voluntary buyouts are on the table and layoffs could be on the horizon at the public university following $17.3 million in budget cuts from the State Legislature, The Cache Valley Daily reported.
Those cuts were spread across two years, with the university taking a $12.5 million hit this year. However, USU could restore that money through the state’s strategic reinvestment initiative, which allows universities to regain funding if leaders can identify areas for cuts and shift resources toward strategic initiatives favored by the state.
Weber State University
Elsewhere in Utah, Weber State is also grappling with budget issues imposed by the state.
With anticipated budget cuts of $6.7 million due to the same strategic realignment initiative, Weber State is also offering voluntary separation incentives to employees, Deseret News reported. The university also plans to restructure some academic programs, including the College of Education.
Budget changes in Utah will also affect the other six state institutions, but not all have made their plans public yet.
Welcome back for another edition of The Fifteen. For the past two weeks, it seems like there have only been two stories in higher education: the Trump attacks on higher education and the QS world subject rankings. We cover the first, of course, but also stories of growing pains, corruption, ambition and blatant rent-seeking from places as far afield as Korea, Italy, Brazil, Vietnam and China. Enjoy.
The Trump administration is, understandably, a magnet for media attention that can make keeping up with stories about anything else difficult. While the news can often look bleak, there are always new and exciting things happening around the world of higher education. We’re cutting through the noise by bringing you stories you’ll be hard-pressed to find anywhere else. Have a good weekend.
The women’s tournament officially kicks off Friday.
Tyler Schank/NCAA Photos/Getty Images
Women’s basketball has experienced a surge in popularity of late, and this year is no different. The Athletic reported that regular season viewing of women’s college basketball was up 3 percent on ESPN—even if this year’s Big Ten championship didn’t quite hit the record-breaking viewership of 2024’s, fueled by fans of then–University of Iowa point guard Caitlin Clark.
Here at Inside Higher Ed, though, we celebrate the start of March Madness a little differently from the 1.44 million people who tuned in earlier this month to this year’s Big Ten championship face-off between the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles. For every tournament since 2006, we’ve created a bracket of who would take home the trophy if the winners were selected based on academic, rather than athletic, achievement.
If you’re new here (or you didn’t see the men’s bracket from yesterday), here’s how it works: Matchups are decided by which team had the higher academic progress rate—the NCAA’s own metric for measuring academic performance—based on the most recent data available, from 2022–23. The academic progress rate measures student athlete retention and academic eligibility, though some outside experts have criticized the metric for painting an incomplete picture of a team’s academic achievement.
There are, inevitably, at least a handful of ties every year. In those cases, we used several different graduation metrics to select winners. First, we used the team’s 2023–24 graduation success rate, which shows whether athletes graduated within six years of entering an institution. If teams tied again, we then turned to the teams’ federal graduation rates, which are more inclusive than the NCAA’s metric. Finally, when teams were matched up on all three of those measures, we turned to the institution’s overall GSR across their athletics programs.
It’s worth noting that federal graduation rate data is not available for Ivy League teams, so for GSR ties involving Ivies, we skipped right to the overall GSR metric. That caused some chaos in a bracket that ended up seeing a total of seven ties featuring Ivy League institutions.
Another note on methodology: Although two of the First Four games were decided before publication, we used academic metrics to select the winners of those matchups as well.
This tournament was intense. There were not two, not three, but four matchups in the second round in which both teams had perfect APRs of 1,000. Kudos to those teams!
The championship matchup was between two Ivies, Harvard University and Columbia University, both of which had perfect APRs and GSRs and whose overall GSRs were perfectly matched at 99. We’ve never seen this before in Inside Higher Ed’s 19 years of academic March Madness, so, although not ideal, we had to resort to a (virtual) coin flip. Naturally, Harvard was heads, because both start with “H.”
But, in the end, we got tails. Congratulations to the Columbia Lions—who have now won Inside Higher Ed’s academic tournament two years in a row!
March Madness officially begins Thursday with a match-up between the University of Louisville and Creighton University.
Michael Allio/Icon Sportswire/Getty Images
No shame if you forgot National Collegiate Athletic Association’s Division I basketball championships were coming up—after all, this March has been filled with more than enough madness in higher ed, even without paying attention to basketball.
Nonetheless, the biggest event in college sports kicks off this week. If you’ve been a little too concerned with the news cycle to fill out your bracket, we’re here to help. Every year since 2006, Inside Higher Ed has determined which teams would win in the men’s and women’s tournaments if the results were based on academic, rather than athletic, performance.
To determine the winners, we used the NCAA’s key academic performance metric, known as the academic progress rate, for the 2022–23 academic year, the most recent data available. The academic progress rate measures student athlete retention and academic eligibility, though some outside experts have said the metric paints an imperfect picture of a program’s academic performance.
(Full disclosure, we did use this metric to determine the winners of the First Four matchups, even though two of the four games will be determined before publication Wednesday morning.)
If two colleges had the same APR, we used 2023–24 graduation success rate, the proportion of athletes who graduated within six years of entering an institution, as tiebreakers. If teams tied again, we turned to the team’s six-year federal graduation rates, which is a more inclusive metric.
Luckily, none of the teams tied in all three categories. Still, there were a handful of nail-biting victories. For instance, the Clemson University Tigers tied the Liberty University Flames on both the academic progress and graduate success rates. But when looking at the overall graduation rate, Clemson won by one point. After besting the Flames in the Final Four, the Tigers beat out the University of Louisville to win the whole thing.
Now, the Inside Higher Ed bracket likely won’t win you any money. But there’s no bad time to celebrate the academic achievements of student athletes alongside their athletic prowess.
The article reflects on the UK’s AI Opportunities Action Plan, aiming to position the country as a leader in AI development rather than merely a consumer. It highlights the crucial role of education in addressing AI skills shortages and emphasizes the importance of focusing both on the immediate needs around AI literacy, but also with a clear eye on the future, as the balance moves to AI automation and to a stronger demand for uniquely human skills.
These guidelines include recommendations for researchers, recommendations for research organisations, as well as recommendations for research funding organisations. The key recommendations are summarized here.
OpenAI has launched the ‘NextGenAI’ consortium, committing $50M to support AI research and technology across 15 institutions, including the University of Michigan, the California State University system, the Harvard University, the MIT and the University of Oxford. This initiative aims to accelerate AI advancements by providing research grants, computing resources, and collaborative opportunities to address complex societal challenges.
José Luis Cruz Rivera, President of Northern Arizona University, shares his AI exploration journey. « As a university president, I’ve learned that responsible leadership sometimes means […] testing things out myself before asking others to dive in ». From using it to draft emails, he then started using it to analyze student performance data and create tailored learning materials, and even used it to navigate conflicting viewpoints and write his speechs – in addition to now using it for daily tasks.
This study investigates the relationship between AI tool usage and critical thinking skills, focusing on cognitive offloading as a mediating factor. The findings revealed a significant negative correlation between frequent AI tool usage and critical thinking abilities, mediated by increased cognitive offloading. Younger participants exhibited higher dependence on AI tools and lower critical thinking scores compared to older participants. Furthermore, higher educational attainment was associated with better critical thinking skills, regardless of AI usage. These results highlight the potential cognitive costs of AI tool reliance, emphasising the need for educational strategies that promote critical engagement with AI technologies.
In this opinion piece, Simon Bates, Vice-Provost and Associate Vice-President for Teaching and Learning at UBC, reflects on how the ‘fricitonless efficiency’ promised by AI tools comes at a cost. « Learning is not frictionless. It requires struggle, persistence, iteration and deep focus. The risk of a too-hasty full scale AI adoption in universities is that it offers students a way around that struggle, replacing the hard cognitive labour of learning with quick, polished outputs that do little to build real understanding. […] The biggest danger of AI in education is not that students will cheat. It’s that they will miss the opportunity to build the skills that higher education is meant to cultivate. The ability to persist through complexity, to work through uncertainty, to engage in deep analytical thought — these are the foundations of expertise. They cannot be skipped over. »
The article discusses the increasing use of generative AI tools like among university students, with usage rising from 53% in 2023-24 to 88% in 2024-25. It states that instead of banning these tools, instructors should ofcus on rethinking assessment strategies to integrate AI as a collaborative tool in academic work. The authors share a list of activities, grounded in the constructivist approach to education, that they have successfully used in their lectures that leverage AI to support teaching and learning.
The authors share three reasons why AI tools are only deepening existing divides : 1) student overreliance on AI tools; 2) post-pandemic social skills deficit; and 3) business pivots. « If we hope to continue leveling the playing field for students who face barriers to entry, we must tackle AI head-on by teaching students to use tools responsibly and critically, not in a general sense, but specifically to improve their career readiness. Equally, career plans could be forward-thinking and linked to the careers created by AI, using market data to focus on which industries will grow. By evaluating student need on our campuses and responding to the movements of the current job market, we can create tailored training that allows students to successfully transition from higher education into a graduate-level career. »
Each month, CUPA-HR General Counsel Ira Shepard provides an overview of several labor and employment law cases and regulatory actions with implications for the higher ed workplace. Here’s the latest from Ira.
Federal Judge Orders a Halt to Part of the Trump Administration’s Executive Orders Targeting DEI Plans It Considers Illegal and Discriminatory
A federal district court judge in Baltimore issued a preliminary injunction that temporarily halts enforcement of the Trump administration’s executive orders targeting government contractors’ DEI plans. The judge granted in part the petitioner’s request for an injunction, holding that several provisions of the executive orders are unconstitutionally vague. Other executive order provisions were held to violate the Constitution’s free speech provisions. The lead plaintiff is the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, who was joined by the American Association of University Professors, the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, and the City of Baltimore (National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, et al v. Trump, et al (D. Md., No. 1:25-cv-00333. 2/21/25)).
The judge concluded that the challengers are likely to prevail on their allegations that the executive orders’ threatened enforcement, including contract termination, is “unconstitutionally vague on their face.” The injunction does not block the attorney general from pursuing investigations into allegedly illegal DEI programs.
Education Department “Dear Colleague” Letter Broadly Interprets the Supreme Court Decision in SFFA v. Harvard to Apply to All Campus Activities
The acting assistant secretary for the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights issued a “Dear Colleague” letter late Friday, February 14, that broadly interprets the Supreme Court decision outlawing the use of race in college admissions in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard to apply to all campus policies and activities. The letter warns colleges and universities against using race as a preference in any policy and activity, and encourages anyone believing that an institution has violated civil rights laws to contact the Office for Civil Rights (OCR).
The letter directly criticizes the development of DEI activities on campus and warns that the department will not tolerate overt or covert race discrimination, which, it concluded, has become “widespread at our nation’s educational institutions.” The letter asserts that educational institutions have “toxically indoctrinated” students with the false premise that the U.S. is built upon “systemic and structural racism.” The letter indicates that the department would take appropriate steps to assess compliance with the civil rights laws no later than 14 days after the letter was issued.
On March 1, the Education Department released an FAQ offering further guidance.
Disparate Impact Legal Liability Being Targeted as Unlawful in Anti-DEI Litigation
The disparate impact legal theory of employer liability allows plaintiffs to prevail in discrimination litigation without proving discriminatory intent. Under the disparate impact liability theory, an employer can be held liable for unlawful discrimination if a neutral policy applied to all employees has a statistically adverse impact on a minority group. In such a circumstance, the employer is held liable without the necessity to prove that the employer intended to discriminate against any particular group.
The Supreme Court adopted the disparate impact liability theory in the landmark case Griggs v. Duke Power in 1971. Conservatives have long held that the disparate impact liability theory unfairly punishes employers for unintentional practices and overemphasizes protected traits in HR decision-making. It will take a Supreme Court decision to reverse current precedent. The Trump administration may adopt an enforcement position at the Department of Justice and elsewhere in which they do not prosecute disparate impact cases. Such an enforcement decision, should it be made, would likely be subject to court challenge.
Collegiate Baseball Player Sues NCAA for Anti-Trust Violation Regarding Four-Year Eligibility Restriction
A collegiate baseball player has sued the NCAA, claiming its four-year eligibility restriction on Division I baseball violates anti-trust laws (Sanchez v. NCAA (E.D. Tenn., No. 3:25-cv-00062 Comp Filed 2/12/25)). The plaintiff is seeking to play baseball at the University of Tennessee this spring. He previously played one year at a junior college and then the last three years at the University of North Carolina. Under NCAA rules, he is not allowed to play this spring because his junior college playing year used up one of his four eligibility years.
In response to a similar lawsuit (Pavia v. NCAA), the NCAA granted a limited waiver of the four-year eligibility rule for the 2025-26 season for Division I football. That waiver, however, does not apply to spring sports such as baseball.
Civil Rights Groups Sue Trump Administration to Stop Anti-DEI Initiatives and Elimination of Transgender Protection of Federal Government Employees
A group of civil rights organizations lead by the National Urban League have sued the Trump administration in an attempt to stop the administration’s anti-DEI initiatives and its elimination of protection of transgender federal government employees (National Urban League v. Trump (D.D.C. 1:25-cv-00471, Complaint 2/19/25)). The lawsuit seeks to halt the enforcement of three Trump executive orders: “EO 14151: Ending Radical and Wasteful DEI Programs and Preferencing,” “EO 14168: Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” and “EO 14173: Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.”
The lawsuit alleges that the executive orders are unconstitutional because they suppress free speech. The groups allege that the executive orders target specific “content” and “viewpoints” and use “vague and subjective terms.” The plaintiffs argue that this makes them “constitutionally void for vagueness” under past Supreme Court precedent.
OFCCP Is Preparing to Cut Staff by Approximately 90% and Reduce Offices from 55 to 4
The acting director of the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs announced on February 25 in a memo it is preparing to cut employees from 479 to 50 and reduce offices from 55 to four. The OFCCP has already halted audits and investigations of government contractors’ affirmative action plans pursuant to direction from the Trump administration’s executive orders. As a result of these executive orders eliminating much of the OFCCP’s responsibilities, the OFCCP will have statutory authority to enforce only Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Vietnam War Veterans Readjustment Act.
Under the OFCCP reduction plan, the office would eliminate its Division of Enforcement, which is comprised of labor economists and statisticians who worked on enforcement and analysis of systemic cases, which will no longer be part of the OFCCP enforcement responsibilities.
Because of the unprecedented and fast-changing pronouncements of the new presidential administration and the intervening court challenges, the developments contained in this blog post are subject to change. Before acting on the legal issues discussed here, please consult your college or university counsel and, as always, act with caution.
Each month, CUPA-HR General Counsel Ira Shepard provides an overview of several labor and employment law cases and regulatory actions with implications for the higher ed workplace. Here’s the latest from Ira.
Dartmouth College May Appeal NLRB’s Decision Allowing Basketball Players to Unionize
The Dartmouth College men’s basketball team voted 13-2 to unionize, selecting the Service Employees International Union Local 560 to represent them in collective bargaining. While student-athletes at Northwestern University voted to unionize some 10 years ago, the National Labor Relations Board declined jurisdiction in that case. Here, the NLRB appears to be taking a different approach and has affirmed the regional director’s decision that the basketball players are employees of the college.
Bloomberg reports that Dartmouth stated it has “deep respect” for its unionized workers but does not believe this path is “appropriate” for basketball players. Dartmouth has argued to the NLRB that its student-athletes are not employees and that its basketball players are participating in a voluntary extracurricular activity. The NLRB, with one dissenting vote, denied Dartmouth’s motion to stay its decision, ruling that the basketball players are employees of the institution. The legal path forward is complex, and we will report on developments as they occur.
Separately, the NLRB is conducting a hearing on the West Coast involving an unfair labor practice complaint filed against the University of Southern California, the Pac-12 Conference and the NCAA regarding their refusal to bargain with a union representing football and basketball players at USC. The NLRB general counsel has publicly stated that she believes student-athletes are employees who should be able to unionize.
Student-Athlete Employee Status Could Lead to Student Visa Problems
The classification of college student-athletes as employees could lead to F-1 visa problems for international athletes enrolled in U.S. colleges and universities. The F-1 visa restricts work to 20 hours per week when classes are in session and 40 hours per week when classes are not in session. The F-1 visa is used by roughly 20,000 international athletes enrolled in U.S. colleges and universities.
Possible workarounds are either the P-1 visa, which is a nonimmigrant visa used by professional athletes, or an O-1 visa, which is used by individuals with extraordinary ability. Commentators conclude that these workarounds are not feasible on the scale necessary to accommodate the number of international student-athletes involved. A legislative solution will probably be necessary to address this problem should the employee status of college athletes be confirmed by the NLRB, or in other litigation under statutes such as the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Union Membership and Strike Activity Rose Dramatically in 2023
Bloomberg Law’s statistical analyses show that union membership and strike activity rose considerably in 2023 to levels not seen in years. Unions organized almost 100,000 new workers in NLRB-supervised elections in 2023, the largest single year total since 2000. This is the fourth-largest total one-year organizing gain since 1990, according to Bloomberg Law statistics. This is also the first time since 1990 that unions have managed to increase their annual headcount for three years in a row.
The news is similar on the strike activity front. Over 500,000 workers participated in work stoppages in 2023. This is the second-highest number since Bloomberg Law began collecting this data in 1990. The only year that saw more strike activity since 1990 was 2018, the year of multiple city- and state-wide teacher strikes.
SpaceX’s Challenge to NLRB’s Administrative Procedures Is Transferred From Texas to California
A federal district court judge in Texas recently granted the NLRB’s motion to transfer SpaceX’s constitutional challenge from federal court in Texas to federal court in the Central District of California, where the underlying facts, NLRB hearing, and decision took place (SpaceX v. NLRB (S.D. Tex., No. 24-00001, Motion Granted 2/15/24)).
SpaceX argued that the Texas venue was proper because SpaceX has operations and employees in Texas who received and were subject to a company letter, distributed nationally, that the NLRB ruled violated employee rights under the National Labor Relations Act.
The Texas federal judge rejected SpaceX’s arguments, concluding that the underlying California-based administrative proceedings were brought against a California-based company and involved its California employees. With the transfer of the case to California, SpaceX lost a potentially more favorable appeals court precedent and appellate review. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (covering Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas) is viewed as more conservative than the 9th Circuit, which covers California. In addition, the 5th Circuit has in the past ruled that aspects of decisions by other federal agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, violate the U.S. Constitution.
Employer Risk Associated With Targeting Remote Workers for Termination
Remote work is not in and of itself a protected classification under federal or state civil rights laws. Nonetheless, the reasons for remote work could be protected, such as a disability-related concern. Bloomberg Law commentators conclude that remote workers are more likely to be laid off or miss out on promotional opportunities than peers who work in the office or in hybrid environments. Also according to Bloomberg Law, studies demonstrate that remote workers are more likely to be women, persons of color and those with disability accommodations. Evidence that any of those protected factors contributed to the termination, layoff or failure to promote could give rise to a successful challenge of the employment action under either the Americans with Disabilities Act or applicable state or federal civil rights statutes.
Disney Actor Tests California State Law Protecting Employees From Discharge for Off-Work Political Comments
An actor in the Disney show “The Mandalorian” filed a lawsuit claiming that she was unlawfully terminated from the show because of political comments she made outside of the workplace. Actor Gina Carano claims she was terminated after social media posts comparing the treatment of Trump supporters to how Jews were treated during the Holocaust. The plaintiff also alleges that Disney took issue with other comments she made on the COVID-19 vaccine, gender identity and voter fraud during the 2020 election.
The lawsuit has been filed in federal court in the Central District of California and is being funded by Elon Musk. The suit was filed under a California statute that has broader protections than Title VII in protecting off-work political comments and has no cap on damages. Section 1101 of the California Labor Code protects a worker’s right to political expression outside of work, including speaking up for a candidate or cause.
The plaintiff also alleges sex discrimination and that Disney treated male actors more favorably in similar circumstances. She alleges that male stars Mark Hamill and her co-star Pedro Pascal were treated more favorably when they engaged in off-work political statements. The breadth of the protection and scope of the California statute will be tested by this litigation brought against Disney.
NLRB Reverses Decision, Finds Home Depot Violated NLRA Over Employee’s Black Lives Matter Slogan
A three-member panel of the NLRB ruled 2-1 that Home Depot violated the NLRA when it told an employee that he could not work with a “BLM” slogan on his company-issued apron, thus forcing his resignation (Home Depot USA (NLRB Case no. 18-CA-273796, 2/23/24)). The NLRB panel reversed the decision of the administrative law judge who had handled the trial of the case and had ruled in favor of Home Depot, holding that the company had the right to maintain its rules about company uniforms.
The NLRB panel reversed, concluding that Home Depot violated the NLRA because the record demonstrated the employee’s protest was in furtherance of earlier group complaints about racism in the Home Depot workplace. In these circumstances, the NLRB concluded that the employee’s action in working with a Black Lives Matter slogan on his work apron was protected, concerted activity under the NLRA, as a “logical outgrowth” of earlier employee protests of race discrimination at the specific Home Depot store. The dissenting board member stated in his decision that the majority holding was an “unprecedented extension” of the “logical outgrowth” theory.
I’m very excited to be attending the upcoming The PIE Live TNE & Tech event March 22-26, 2021.
I’m a big fan of the work of our colleagues at The PIE Newsin advancing international education. Information and registration is available at https://thepielive.com/tneandtech/en/page/thepielive. If you are unable to attend The PIE Live you can follow the backchannel on Twitter via #PIELive21.
Note: I received free registration for this event but I receive no other compensation.
