Dive Brief:

• The American Council on Education, a higher education lobbying group, has sent a copy of its law firm’s controversial webinar about how to respond to U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill's sexual assault survey to the senator herself.
• McCaskill (D-MO) began pushing for the release of the webinar in early May, when she accused the lobbying group of using the presentation to interfere with her survey, which was sent to 450 colleges and universities in April.
• The presentation was obtained by Inside Higher Ed hours before its release to McCaskill, and it does not specifically advise colleges not to respond to the survey — though it does emphasize the risks involved.

Dive Insight:

The American Council on Education had to know that the presentation was going to be made public eventually, so was it really worth the ill will it created with a U.S. senator by trying to keep the webinar a secret? Or did the group raise its standing with members by fighting the big, bad regulating lawmaker? McCaskill plans to propose legislation addressing the issue of sexual violence on campuses, and more than 300 colleges have responded to her survey so far. Inside Higher Ed obtained the presentation through a public records request at a public university in Florida, which it did not name.