COLLEGE PARK, Md., May 9 (ZFJ) — Instructure and impacted schools have been recovering from the Canvas defacement cyberattack on Thursday, May 7.
Data extortion group ShinyHunters defaced university Canvas instances on Thursday with a pay-or-leak ransom note following repeated failed attempts to get Instructure to negotiate a payment to prevent the release of data stolen from the company.
This cyberattack, which occurred during the end of the semester and finals season for many universities, meant students were no longer able to submit assignments or access course resources via Canvas.
COLLEGE PARK, Md., May 8 (ZFJ) — A cyberattack on Instructure resulted in its Canvas learning management system going down on Thursday, May 7.
Instructure, a platform used by thousands of universities and K12 schools in the U.S. and globally, was compromised by extortion gang ShinyHunters, which claimed on its Tor data leak site that it had exfiltrated over 3.65 terabytes of personally identifiable information (PII) and private messages sent via Canvas Inbox for nearly 9,000 schools.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 28 (ZFJ) — The federal government has been unconstitutionally targeting pro-Palestinian foreign students for deportation for protected speech, ruled a district judge on Sept. 30, 2025.
U.S. District Judge William G. Young, a Ronald Reagan nominee, came to the conclusion that Secretaries Kristi Noem and Marco Rubio of the departments of Homeland Security and State “acted in concert to misuse the sweeping powers of their respective offices to target non-citizen pro-Palestinians for deportation primarily on account of their First Amendment protected political speech” after a nine day bench trial in Massachusetts.
EDISON, N.J., Dec. 27 (ZFJ) — Anjana Patel, a member of the Edison Board of Education (EBOE), received a 30 day suspension from the state on Dec. 12 for an ethics violation.
The state School Ethics Commission (SEC) found on Oct. 28 that Patel violated the School Ethics Act by failing to file her Personal/Relative and Financial Disclosure statements on time.
Patel was elected to the board of education in the 2023 general election as part of the Students First team and was sworn in as a board member starting January 2024.
EDISON, N.J., May 26 (ZFJ) — The Edison Board of Education abolished Policy 5756, the transgender students policy, during a marathon action meeting on Tuesday, May 20.
Policy 5756 was issued by the N.J. Department of Education as guidance to local school districts. It directs schools to accept a student’s asserted gender identity and, controversially, eliminates an “affirmative duty” (in other words, an obligation) for staff members to notify parents of the student’s new gender identity.
COLLEGE PARK, Md., Dec. 25 (ZFJ) — Students at the University of Maryland, College Park, will have an annual two-day fall break starting in the fall 2025 semester, announced President Darryll J. Pines in a campus wide email on Dec. 2.
The break, the result of a “years-long effort,” will take place on the second Monday of each October—Indigenous People’s Day/Columbus Day—and Tuesday.
Staff and faculty will observe Indigenous People’s Day/Columbus Day on the Monday of fall break.
COLLEGE PARK, Md., Nov. 25 (ZFJ) — A power outage is affecting University of Maryland, College Park, buildings around McKeldin Mall.
A University of Maryland Police Department advisory sent out at 11:27 a.m. reports that Facilities Management is responding to a multiple building power outage.
Classes in the following buildings were initially cancelled until at least 2:00 p.m. A later campuswide email sent at 2:37 p.m. announced that classes would not meet in the affected buildings for the rest of the day.
EDISON, N.J., Nov. 3 (ZFJ) — The Edison Board of Education voted 6-3 against abolishing Policy 5756, which concerns transgender students, in a second reading during a marathon action meeting lasting five hours on Tuesday, Oct. 29, in which many members of the public spoke in support of the policy.
The board previously voted 5-3 in favor of abolishment after Vishal Patel made a motion on the floor to do so.
EDISON, N.J., Oct. 19 (ZFJ) — The Edison Board of Education voted 5-3 to abolish Policy 5756, which concerns transgender students, at their action meeting on Monday, Sept. 30. Since they didn’t properly follow the procedure to abolish a policy, it is still in effect.
The abolishment was not on the publicly posted agenda for the night and arose from a motion made from the floor.
This move follows the abolishment of Policy 5756 by many other school districts in N.
COLLEGE PARK, Md., Oct. 13 (ZFJ) — A vigil held by UMD Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) on McKeldin Mall on Monday, Oct. 7, took place without incident.
On Sept. 1, the University of Maryland, College Park, attempted to limit all demonstrations on campus on Oct. 7 after thousands of people wrote objecting to SJP’s permit to protest on that day. The significance of Oct. 7, 2023, is that it was the day when Hamas militants stormed into nearby Israeli towns from the blockaded Gaza Strip to kill and take hostage hundreds of civilians.
