September 5, 2013:  The Papers Chase: Legal Issues Are Swamping Higher Education

As a West Virginia University grad, especially, it pains me to say this, but I'm beginning to think every college and university administrator must have a law degree.*  The Chronicle of Higher Education's "ticker" today is full of stories involving the law and college campuses.  These are the kinds of headaches we have to deal with daily:

1)  Just who exactly have we put in front of our students? In the case of University of Wisconsin, Superior, they discovered that they had a convicted sex offender teaching for them.  Criminal background checks have only become standard measures for most colleges and universities in the last decade, and so many of us could find a long-term faculty member (or janitor) convicted of a crime three decades ago.  Background checks that go across states take longer and may not always be entirely accurate.  Background checks may produce misdemeanors of actions that occurred when someone was 21 or 22.  Even though the Wisconsin-Superior case is serious and represents the worst-case scenario, for most of us, the background checks reveal a lot of indiscretions that occurred when a person was much younger. What is the PR damage control necessary if others find out your Information Security faculty member (a field where it can be difficult to find candidates) had a reckless driving and resisting arrest conviction from when he was 20 years old?  I suppose administrators need to be comfortable with a prior judgement.

2) Just what exactly will some faculty members say to students?  Academic freedom is a narrow tightrope that seems secure enough for many faculty members, but dangerously thin for their administrators.  Take this guy from Michigan State who makes all of us liberal-leaning types look bad.  He says the most outrageous opinions he can about republicans to his class of students.  What is the learning outcome?  What is the teachable moment?  This is a FREAKING creative writing class.  What is the point?  I happen to know that colleges and universities have many right-leaning faculty who can say as stupid things about the left; however, he merely reinforces the stereotype that all colleges and universities are leftist think tanks.  Academic Freedom is a constant warzone. Find me an expert on burdens of profs!

3) Just who exactly is roaming our campuses?  Oberlin College is under attack for compiling what many of us have to compile: a "no trespass" list that gives the institution the freedom to remove people who have demonstrated dangerous actions in the past.  If an incident occurs on campus with a person known to be violent, we know the legal, moral and ethical heat we would face, but apparently it is wrong to use knowledge of prior behavior as a way to remove potential problems.  Some of us, especially, community colleges, for example, are supposed to be open access, both in terms of enrollment but also in terms of supporting the community.  We can't be both open and closed to some people.  Do we need to start hiring reprobation officers?

4) Just how much exactly do we have to accommodate our students?  Creighton University apparently didn't do enough to accommodate a deaf student.  (It is the beauty of our legal system that such a pronouncement could be made, but deemed as unintentional!).  Given the length of most college classes these days (being forced more and more into a two-day or one-day a week schedule to accommodate working students), a college usually has to hire two deaf interpreters to sit with a student during a single class period.  Start to think of the costs that can add up, easily into the tens of thousands.  And a deaf student is a bit easier to deal with than a person with extreme agoraphobia (I have seen such requests, or should I say inquests).

5) Just what exactly do we allow in the classroom?  Winston-Salem State University (what is their mascot?  The fighting 'Rette?) may have broken rules about political activity in the classroom when a local politician campaigned in a class and arranged for students to get to a polling place.  During campaign season, I would love to get politicians on campus to talk about the nature of politics during election time, but I have to be careful that I don't appear to be favoring a democrat or a republican. The solution is often to get two politicians, one from each party, so that I have a fair and balanced ticket.  But, honestly, who wants to go hear TWO politicians speak as a campus lecture?  I guess we need to consider seguestration procedures.

6) Just what exactly do we allow our students to say?  St. Mary's University in Nova Scotia is investigating a chant by a student organization about underage sex.  First off, let me encourage you to go the CBC link within this Chronicle article to really understand the allegedly offensive chant (when you read it there, you are likely to be disturbed, like me, but the Chronicle article appears to be trying to hide the specific offense).  Beyond that, though, there is a real challenge to managing student speech.  We can see from item #2 above that managing our faculty speech is difficult enough.  Do we force our students to sign temporary refraining orders when they congregate on campus?

These just scratch the surface of the legal issues permeating higher education. I haven't even touched upon some other ones on the Chronicle ticker.  Does anyone know if Atticus Finch wants to be a college president?

*If you are wondering about the WVU connection, see the presidency of Mike Garrison, lawyer, and one of WVU's darker moments.