The Law of Higher Education. William A. Kaplin
tenured faculty member may have been accused of sexually harassing a student by requiring the student to complete a project that the student finds offensive. What standards and processes should be used to determine whether the faculty member should be discharged, disciplined, or reprimanded?
A student religious organization may approach the dean of students seeking recognition or an allocation from the fund for student activities. If membership is limited to students of a particular faith, or if the student organization does not admit gays or lesbians, how should the administration respond?
A group of students petitions the administration to develop a “hate speech” code because they believe it will reduce the number of bias incidents on campus. Can a public institution enforce such a provision?
A wealthy alumna may call the vice president for student affairs and offer to make a multi-million dollar donation for scholarships on the condition that they be awarded only to African American students from disadvantaged families. Can and should the vice president accept the donation and follow the potential donor's wishes?
To assist students and instructors who wish to study, research, or teach about issues such as these, and innumerable others, we have prepared this Student Version of our two-volume work, The Law of Higher Education, 6th Edition (“LHE 6th” or “full 6th Edition”). The Student Version provides foundational information, in-depth analysis, and practical suggestions on a wide array of legal issues faced by public and private institutions. The discussions draw upon pertinent court opinions, constitutional provisions, statutes, administrative regulations, and related developments. In order to enhance readability and keep the Student Version of manageable size, we have only occasionally included text or footnote citations to resources for further study and research, such as selected journal articles, books, and websites. We have, however, included a bibliography of such resources at the end of this book. In addition, we have created a convenient crosswalk from the various sections of the Student Version to the corresponding sections of the full 6th Edition, which are chockfull of text citations, footnotes, and annotated bibliographies (at the end of each chapter) that will be highly useful for any student or instructor seeking such resources. The crosswalk appears in the front matter of this book.
How the Student Version Was Developed
We have designed this special edition of LHE 6th for use in higher education law and higher education administration courses. Guided by our own experiences teaching courses and workshops in higher education law, and by the suggestions of teaching colleagues, we have selected the topics from the full 6th Edition that we believe are of greatest importance and interest to students of higher education law and their instructors. We have given primary consideration to the significance of the topic for the development of higher education law and policy, the topic's currency or timelessness for administrators of colleges and universities, and its usefulness in illustrating particular legal problems or the application of particular legal principles. The issues we have emphasized for each topic are usually ones that administrators, faculty members, or students could encounter at virtually any institution of higher education in the country (or, sometimes, in the world). In developing these issues, we have focused not only on the applicable law but also on pertinent policy considerations and on implications for practice.
We had to make difficult choices about which topics to omit or to treat much less expansively than they were treated in the full 6th Edition. For example, we included most of the topics and discussion in the chapters from the full 6th Edition involving institutional liability for tort claims, faculty employment issues, academic freedom, student affairs, and academic issues concerning students. On the other hand, we omitted many of the topics and discussions involving the employment of administrators and staff members. We also omitted most of the full 6th Edition's discussion of government regulation of higher education—although we retained overviews of each level of government and illustrative examples of regulatory activities at each level. For the federal government, for example, we retained a discussion of federal copyright law and a discussion of federal civil rights laws (such as Title IX) prohibiting discrimination in programs that receive federal funding. Similarly, we omitted most of the material in the full 6th Edition that discusses the various private educational associations, in particular the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), the accrediting agencies, and the intercollegiate athletics associations and most of the material on college and university relationships with the business world. But we retained overviews and illustrative examples for each of these topics. (The material on the AAUP is in Section 6.1.3.) Researchers interested in further information on topics or issues that we have compressed are invited to consult the crosswalk to LHE 6th; and to consult the Table of Contents of LHE 6th for topics we have omitted from the Student Version.
Besides re-editing and reorganizing the materials that we have adapted from LHE 6th, we have updated these materials to account for the most important developments occurring from the press deadline for LHE 6th to the press deadline for this Student Version; and we occasionally have made small insertions of new material to capture points of particular interest to students. In addition, we have prepared numerous study aids designed specifically for students and instructors, and integrated them into this book. These enhancements are:
Introductory materials, titled “General Introduction to the Study of Higher Education Law,” that lay the foundation for, and facilitate the study of, the subject matter, and also include a section providing guidance for students who do not have background or training in the law.
An appendix (Appendix B) that provides an overview of the American system of courts and highlights key distinctions between federal and state courts, and between trial and appellate courts.
Another appendix (Appendix C) that provides practical guidelines for reading and analyzing judicial opinions.
Another appendix (Appendix D) that presents a glossary of legal terms used in this book.
Overviews at the beginning of chapters (in italics) that introduce the topics and concepts to be addressed in each chapter.
Figures spread throughout the book that illustrate particular legal concepts and distinctions.
A crosswalk (in the front matter) connecting each section in the Student Version to the corresponding section in the full 6th Edition and designed for readers who may seek additional discussion, cases, or bibliographical resources available in LHE 6th.
In addition to these study aids that are incorporated into this Student Version, we have also prepared a separate volume of edited cases and practice problems, keyed to the Student Version, which is available to instructors for distribution to students. (See “Notice to Instructors” in the front matter.)
Developments in Higher Education Law Since the Publication of the Fifth Edition
In the six years since publication of the fifth edition and then its updates, many new and newly complex legal concerns have arisen on America's campuses—from the ever-greater and more complex implications of the explosion in social media on faculty and student conduct and rights, to the continuing challenges to affirmative action in admissions and financial aid, to the membership practices of student religious organizations in the context of institutions' nondiscrimination policies, to the clash between faculty and “institutional” academic freedom, to the rights of intercollegiate athletes. Indeed, it is difficult to identify any other entities—including large corporations and government agencies—that are subject to as great an array of legal requirements as colleges and universities are. To serve the needs occasioned by this continual growth of the law, this Student Version of LHE 6th retains the material