February 25, 2014: "You Ever Notice How Many Suits There Are Around Here These Days?"

Faculty members commonly lament the administrative bloat at their institutions.  I am not here to defend all levels of additional administration, but I do wonder if these complaining faculty members truly understand how changed the higher education environment is from when they went to college.

Off and on, I have blogged about an array of legal issues in higher education; all of them hit home with a monthly newsletter that I receive, read, and then share with our security and HR staff: “Higher Education Legal Alert.”  I wonder if such a newsletter even existed in the mid-80’s when I was in college.  If so, it probably was thinner. 

Monthly “Higher Education Legal Alert” provides synopses of recent legal cases, whether in the early stages of a suit filed or in the latter stages of a final appeals decision.  It’s my monthly dose of downers.  Take for instance the issues this month:

• Nursing students sue College of the Mainland in Texas for changing a policy. {Gee, like this has never happened.  I am surprised this kind of lawsuit doesn’t occur daily.};

• Indiana University student sues the university for violation of his Fourth Amendment and due process rights when the campus police found a marijuana plant, pipes, bongs and 89 “separate” grams of marijuana and subsequently suspended him.  {I so want to understand what the distinction “separate” really means!  More importantly, like the nursing student lawsuit above, this kind of lawsuit has to be a daily occurrence.};

• Ohio State University Master’s student sues institution for First Amendment and Civil Rights Act violation in her suspension for plagiarism. {Maybe she can "borrow" another lawsuit and simply insert her name.};

• College of DuPage student sues after tripping on uneven pavement and falling into a revolving door. {There is something almost cartoonish in this image, although I know there is nothing funny about the potential injury.};

• Fayetteville State University student sues institution after slipping on black ice on university walkway. {The interesting twist here is that the institution is only obligated to let students know of slippery spots when it clearly knows of them prior to the incident, which basically goes against everything black ice is known for.};

• Franciscan University of Steubenville security guard sues institution after slipping on recently mopped floor. {Did someone forget to put out the “wet floor” sign?};

• A student at an unnamed New York university is found guilty of “unlawful surveillance” for secretly recording sex with women and threatening to post the videos online. {I won’t even begin to say something funny about this; I am, however, not sure why this made the newsletter, as the college appears to be a non-party in the lawsuit.}

• Parents of a University of California, Berkeley, student sue the university for not addressing domestic violence complaint that preceded the death of their daughter and her toddler at the hands of her boyfriend. (Again, there is nothing funny I can say here.  However, the woman did tell the campus security that she had “resolved” the situation with the boyfriend.  The death then came as the result of the boyfriend driving intoxicated.  Am I missing the stones that allow me to step over this raging torrent?};

• A Five Towns College faculty member sues the college for retaliation when she was fired after making complaints about another professor’s harassment of students. {A whistle-blower calling out a wolf-whistler?};

• Parents of a University of Southern California student sue university for the death of their child during an off-campus robbery. {Nothing funny here, but “off-campus!”  Come on, how much can we control and monitor the world off of our campuses?};

• A University of Illinois, Chicago, medical student sues the university regarding due process after being dismissed for a number of violations. {There are plenty of off-shore medical schools that would take this student.};

• A religious institution sues Northwestern University after the university ends their affiliation because of alcohol being served to students under the age of 21 at the religion institution. {What the heck? Shouldn't this be the other way around?  And what is this church?  I would've joined when I was 18!};

• Pasadena City College is sued by a student in its band who claimed the college was negligent and violated his civil rights when it didn’t protect him from repeated “pantsing” by another band student. {I guess band camp hijinks continue well into the next school year.}

The sad part is that we know this only scratches the surface of the legal wrangling that is going on around campuses everyday.  Sure, most of these are being thrown out by the courts, meaning that the only real nuisance is the time and money needed to prepare for such cases. Additionally, it is no solace to think that some of these are bullshit lawsuits that merely reflect why our country is going to hell in a handbasket.  Nevertheless, they are the reality and a cadre of student services people and legal people are needed on campuses these days to document, process and mitigate the risks related to these stories.

In at least one case, the Pasadena City College one, I find it hard to believe that the college was “let off the hook.”  When you read that one student pantsed another student at least twice in front of hundreds of people (including one time when the “pantsing” revealed the “full monty") with college personnel witnessing them, you wonder just how much protection colleges and universities can offer your child as you send him or her off to college?

Why did this story appeal to me all of a sudden?  Well, last week, we ended up with an intense snowstorm for 4 -5 hours from late afternoon through evening.  Because of the late starting nature of the snowfall, cancelling  night classes and closing the college was never an option. As usual, I expected faculty to make the best decision for their classes and to have them contact students if they had to cancel.  Nevertheless, I got two angry voicemails over the course of the evening.  The first from the mother of a student who told me I was keeping the college open only for the bottom line (needless to say, I did not call her back and point out that I have her son’s tuition money regardless of whether I have classes that night or not) and that if her son got in an accident she would sue.  The second call came from a student who “hoped” (maybe not her exact wording, but who remembers) that someone got killed in an accident and we got sued. 

Certainly these are mindless threats made by people in the passion of the moment, but I am comforted to know that I have a legal staff to whom I can forward all of these complaints.  If even one of these frivolous lawsuits succeeds, a college is dramatically affected.  And that will affect the faculty classroom -- empty as it will be.