AI vendors are being deployed in schools and universities on standard commercial terms that don't satisfy FERPA's school official exception. The four contract provisions every institution needs before the next EdTech contract is signed.
AI governance in higher education is the operating discipline that determines which institutions absorb AI as capability and which absorb it as liability. The five components, the failure patterns, and what presidents should be asking.
Universities that institutionalized AI risk assessment operate with clarity. Those that haven't are absorbing risk they can't yet see — vendor IP exposure, FERPA breaches, accreditation challenges, hallucination liability.
The U.S. AI regulatory environment in education is no longer hypothetical. State-level disclosure mandates, federal Department of Education guidance, and the FERPA-AI intersection that universities now have to operationalize.
University crisis communications is not corporate crisis applied to a campus. FERPA, Title IX, Title VI, the Clery Act, a 12-constituency map, 8 crisis archetypes, pre-approved holding statements, and the AI engine layer. The master framework.
