NACUANET Protocols

Updated March 2025

1. Purpose and General Information
   1. NACUANET is a platform for discussion of higher education legal issues and is for the benefit of NACUA member institutions only.
   2. NACUANET communities are subgroups within the NACUANET platform and are subject to these protocols.
2. General Guidelines for Use
   
   1. General Conduct Expectation
      Discussion and other interaction should remain professional, collegial, respectful, and in alignment with NACUA’s values.
   2. For Members Only
      The NACUANET platform and NACUANET messages are for the exclusive use of NACUA members. Use by individuals other than NACUA members is not permitted.
   3. Do Not Share NACUANET Messages
      NACUANET messages should never be forwarded to, printed for, or shared in any way with someone who is not a NACUA member.
   4. Reply Using NACUANET
      Whenever possible, reply to the NACUANET post rather than privately so that your response is included in the message thread and visible to other members. The exception to this is when replying to a request for referral (see Protocol # 6).
   5. Non-Legal Higher Education Messages Allowed
      Members may post messages related to general higher education issues in addition to legal issues. The subject line of such messages should start with “NONLEGAL”.
   6. No Legal Advice
      Information shared via NACUANET is intended to be helpful non-legal information. Care should be taken by members to avoid providing information in such a way that it may be construed as legal advice in their respective jurisdictions.
   7. Sharing Documents and Files
      Members may share documents and files as attachments, which will be appended to their message, as well as stored in the document library within NACUANET. Members may only share files which they are authorized to share, including with appropriate copyright permissions.
3. No Expectation of Privacy or Confidentiality
   1. No Expectation of Privacy or Confidentiality – Generally
      NACUANET messages are not completely private or confidential. They may be accidentally shared with non-members, retained in email accounts under the control of non-member entities, or subpoenaed and, as a result, produced as discovery in litigation or investigations.
   2. No Expectation of Privacy or Confidentiality – Anonymous Posting
      Messages posted using the “anonymous” feature are not completely anonymous in all circumstances. In addition, members should take care to omit identifying information, such as signature lines and institution names if they wish to avail themselves of the “anonymous” posting feature. NACUA and other authorized parties may obtain the identity of the anonymous poster from the NACUANET service provider under certain circumstances such as when subject to a subpoena or court order
4. Advertising or Soliciting Business Not Allowed
   1. Advertising and soliciting business is not permitted.
   2. Offering Services
      It is assumed that members who post or respond to a post over NACUANET offering services or offering the services of a colleague, such as an initial consultation or conversation, will not charge for the offered service.
   3. Law Firm / Consulting Firm Resources and Materials
      Materials(or a link to them) produced by law firms or consulting firms, may be posted when directly responsive to another member’s question on NACUANET. However, members from law and consulting firms may not initiate a thread with such materials.
5. Position Announcements Not Allowed
   Position announcements may not be posted on NACUANET. Members should use the NACUA Career Center to post job listings, which includes a free basic posting option for NACUA member institutions.
6. Requests for Referrals
   1. Requests for referrals are allowed only on the Referral Requests NACUANET community. They are not allowed on the main NACUANET discussion forum. Members wishing to post requests for referrals should join the Referral Requests NACUANET community. Members can join and leave the community on their own at any time.
   2. Threads in the Referral Requests NACUANET community may only be initiated by a request for a referral; proactive advertising or solicitation is not allowed.
   3. Requests for personal referrals unrelated to the members’ service on behalf of their institution, such as for divorce or traffic ticket defense, are not allowed.
7. Conference, Meeting, Training, or Other Event Announcements
   1. All announcements for non-NACUA conferences, meetings, trainings, or other events must receive prior approval from a NACUA staff member prior to posting. Requests to post such announcements should be sent to law@nacua.org.
   2. All requests to post such announcements are reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Factors considered by NACUA staff include, but are not limited to: relationship to higher education law, the organization hosting event, overlap and/or competition with NACUA programming or resources, and fee charged to attend or participate.
   3. NACUA reserves the right to decline to allow non-NACUA event information to be posted via NACUANET for any reason.
8. Surveys
   Members wishing to survey other members through NACUANET on more than two questions must share a third-party hosted survey link. Original posters are also required to share the results of the survey by replying to the thread containing their original post.
9. Antitrust Compliance
   NACUANET may not be utilized in any manner that violates federal or state antitrust laws or other laws prohibiting anticompetitive practices. The antitrust laws generally prohibit any agreement or understanding inconsistent with the right and obligation of competitors (which includes NACUA’s member institutions) to exercise independent business judgment in pricing their products or services, dealing with their students and suppliers, and selecting the markets in which to compete, among other business practices. No express agreement or understanding is required; one can be inferred from statements or conduct. While most topics are appropriate for discussion, some messages, especially those related to institutional financial practices could prompt such consequences. It is critical that NACUANET not be used to discuss competitively sensitive issues, including but not limited to the following:
1. Peer information sharing regarding matters such as salaries, tuition, housing and meal costs, refunds, staff compensation and employee benefits
2. Jointly establishing financial aid methodologies
3. Prospective budget-building information
4. Any topics that could lead to or constitute price-fixing, group boycotts / concerted refusals to deal, market allocation, bid-rigging, output limitations (such as admissions restrictions), application deadlines, or other competitively sensitive topics.
10. Management of NACUANET by NACUA
    NACUA retains the exclusive right to remove posts, lock threads, or take other action within its sole judgment and discretion for posts not in compliance with these protocols, or for any other reason.