What higher education leaders must know about regulations and risk today

Across the country, boards of nonprofit colleges and universities are having the same conversations. Recent legislative and regulatory moves, from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to anti-DEI and anti-hazing trends at the state level, are reshaping the risk landscape for higher education. For boards and administrators, it’s not just about understanding these developments but determining how to respond.

Let’s review some of the recent regulatory shifts, what they mean for nonprofit higher education governance and how tools like BoardEffect can help boards protect your institution and preserve public trust.

Recent legislative and regulatory changes impacting nonprofit colleges

At the federal level, several shifts are directly affecting higher education:

• Signed in mid-2025, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) introduced caps on federal student loans, including graduate loans, eliminated subsidized loans and expanded Pell Grants to short-term job training programs.
• The reinstatement of the 2020 Title IX rules and rollback of DEI protections under new executive orders are having a significant impact on gender issues on campus.
• Accreditation reform is allowing institutions to switch accreditors more freely while also allowing new reviews of accrediting agencies, while adding increased federal scrutiny.
• Additionally, higher-education institutions are facing antitrust scrutiny of their financial aid practices and athlete compensation frameworks.

Here’s a snapshot of recent state-level legislation shaping higher education closer to home:

• Florida: New laws prohibit spending on DEI programs and impose limits on academic content, creating legal and reputational risks for public colleges. Some faculty have filed lawsuits in response, adding litigation exposure. The state is also creating an alternative accreditation board, introducing uncertainty around recognition and compliance with federal standards.
• California: The Stop Campus Hazing Act mandates that colleges and universities strengthen prevention programs and publicly report all hazing incidents.
• Illinois: Updates to the Preventing Sexual Violence in Higher Education Act expand training and reporting requirements. Institutions must prominently display prevention policies, train students and employees and file annual reports with the state attorney general. Illinois has also adopted the federal Stop Campus Hazing Act, adding further reporting requirements for administrators.
• Virginia: Virginia has turned its focus to institutional financial stability, after several state universities reported declining enrollment and infrastructure challenges. Boards are being urged to strengthen financial oversight and risk planning. The state’s Adam’s Law also requires mandatory hazing prevention and training, emphasizing proactive campus safety measures.
• Washington: The University of Washington and other institutions are implementing the federal Stop Campus Hazing Act while expanding their own risk management frameworks. New transparency and disclosure requirements heighten compliance risk, while recent cybersecurity legislation across several states underscores the need for stronger data protection and crisis response protocols.

Additionally, in 2025, several states introduced or passed legislation related to cybersecurity for educational institutions, prompted by the rising risk of cyberattacks.

The types of risks institutions face now

As the examples above illustrate, boards may find their schools facing new risks in one of several key areas:

1. Compliance and legal exposure
2. Financial instability and funding uncertainty
3. Operational and reputational risks
4. Governance challenges in adapting to change
5. Funding volatility due to federal budget cuts and shifting grant priorities
6. Legal and compliance exposure from changing interpretations of Title IX, DEI and accreditation standards
7. Operational strain from student loan changes, enrollment pressures and cybersecurity threats
8. Reputational risk tied to political scrutiny and public skepticism of higher education

For boards, a shift from an oversight role to one that requires accountability is changing how members must approach these risks. Dale Waterman, a regulatory and compliance expert with Diligent, discusses this shift toward accountability: “What's changed now is they're actually making it a legal obligation. Take acts like some of the operational resilience laws: they ask the management body to actually take responsibility for some of the decision-making.

“If it's cyber resilience, for example, you need to understand cyber risk as a board member because you're now accountable. You now have a duty to understand what the risks are. You have a duty to approve the measures that will be implemented. And then you have a role of actually ensuring that they're implemented from a control perspective. Board members are going to have a lot more skin in the game.”

But risk management is not just about what could go wrong. Leaders must have a clear idea of what their institutions are working to achieve as well. With that in mind, boards can more clearly understand what elements could stand in the way of institutional goals.

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What education governance teams should do now

These issues can seem overwhelming, but the examples above illustrate the very real need for boards of directors to stay aware and flexible when addressing risk at the institutional level. So how can a team prioritize? Governance teams must first and foremost pay attention to the changes both already underway and on the horizon. As seen with the anti-hazing legislation, actions in another state can create a domino effect, so leaders must look beyond state borders to larger trends.

In addition to staying aware, boards should, as in all aspects of governance, embrace transparency, accountability and agility:

Transparency

Stakeholders from every direction, from students and families to staff to regulators, need to be able to see the discussions and actions boards are taking to guide their schools through these turbulent times. Boards and administrators need to embrace the tools and processes that allow for easy, quick sharing of information.

Accountability

Every governance leader needs to be an active, informed participant in decision-making, and it falls to the administrative staff to ensure each board member has ready access to the materials needed to support deliberations and decisions.

Agility

Hand-in-hand with staying aware of new or reemerging issues and trends, boards and administrators need to be prepared to accommodate new discussions quickly in board meetings.

In all of these cases, boards should examine their processes for taking in new information, passing policies, evaluating procedures and building a strong team capable of guiding the organization through these changes. A strong board management solution can help with all of these areas.

How BoardEffect helps institutions stay ahead

For nonprofit colleges and universities, today’s governance responsibilities are only becoming more complex, but the right board management software can effectively support your board’s strong risk governance. Designed for volunteer and mission-driven boards, it provides a secure, centralized and easy-to-use platform that keeps governance teams organized, compliant and engaged.

Consider what BoardEffect can do for your board:

• Strengthen board engagement. Newsfeeds, surveys and polls help administrators share updates and confirm board members’ understanding of new regulations or policy changes.
• Centralize and secure board information. Store policies, meeting materials and compliance documentation in one encrypted platform, simplifying responses to audits, accreditation reviews and legal requests.
• Track decisions with confidence. Built-in audit trails and version control create transparency and accountability for every board action, ensuring alignment with governance best practices.
• Protect sensitive information. Role-based permissions ensure that only authorized users access confidential data, helping institutions meet privacy and data protection requirements.

BoardEffect also introduces AI-supported features that save time and strengthen the quality of board oversight. With AI Smart Summary, board members can turn lengthy board books into concise, actionable insights with a single click, helping leaders focus on what matters. To support better meeting preparation, AI Smart Prep surfaces key topics, questions and decisions from meeting materials, ensuring every participant arrives informed and ready to contribute meaningfully.

These and other intelligent features make governance faster, clearer and more secure, helping higher education boards focus less on administrative tasks and more on advancing their institutional mission.

Read further resources on managing risk for mission-driven organizations and financial risk and higher education.

We work with higher-ed teams to understand what is ahead, both in risk and in opportunity. Request a demo today to learn how BoardEffect can support your higher education institution and board to meet your goals for student success.