Higher Education Act

Leaders of the House Committee on Education and Labor have just introduced legislation to control illegal file sharing in higher education as part of the College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2007. The higher education community opposes a provision that requires campuses to develop new institutional plans for addressing infringement activities on their networks.

Please call (do not write or email) the offices of the House Committee on Education and Labor. Time is short. Markup is this coming Wednesday, November 14, 2007 at 9:00 AM.

For specific details please see our talking points.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

1. Coordinate your response to this challenge with your institutional executives and federal relations officers.

2. Call, do not write or email, as many of the Committee Members as possible, and express your strong opposition to this proposal. You can find a list of all the Committee members and their phone numbers.

Colleagues,

The following call to action has been sent to all EDUCAUSE Primary Reps on behalf of ACE, AAU, NASULGC, and EDUCAUSE. Please help us with IMMEDIATE CALLS or EMAILS, there is no time to waste!

Best regards,

Mark Luker

Vice President

EDUCAUSE

____________________________________________

TO: Institutional Primary Reps

RE: EDUCAUSE Urgent Request

URGENT, ACT TODAY: AMENDMENT HARMFUL TO HIGHER EDUCATION

Dear Colleague,

I am writing to ask your help in a matter of urgency to higher education in general and the IT community in particular: U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) intends to offer a very harmful amendment, involving illegal file sharing, to the Higher Education Reauthorization Act when the Senate turns to this issue on July 22-23. The amendment can be found at <http://tinyurl.com/2x45d2>. The amendment:

*  Makes the Secretary of Education an agent of the entertainment industry;

*  Requires the Secretary to take action using data given to her by the entertainment industry that is terribly inaccurate;