Ties Between Colleges and Students Increasingly Look Like Contracts

If a hearing-impaired student asks for a sign-language interpreter during a semester abroad in Ireland, is his home university required to accommodate the request?

Campus officials took up that question and others here on Tuesday at the annual conference of the National Association of College and University Attorneys. The short answer: no, unless the home university administers the foreign program. But agreements between students’ home and host institutions should include provisions for disability accommodations, one lawyer said.

Training faculty members who lead foreign study or service trips in legal and risk-management issues has also become increasingly important, said Nancy E. Tribbensee, general counsel for the Arizona Board of Regents. She recommended developing solid orientation programs for professors: “Have them become experts in misconduct.”

The session, on the legalization of the institution-student relationship, also highlighted trends in lawsuits against universities. Students are alleging breach of contract, fraud, misrepresentation, and deceptive trade practices, said Barbara A. Lee, a private lawyer in New Jersey and professor of human-resource management at Rutgers University. An increasing number of cases are against for-profit institutions, she said.

The presenters offered a number of recommendations to the roomful of higher-education lawyers for limiting liability. Among them were the following:

• Conduct reviews of potential academic dismissals two or three levels above the decision maker, especially in cases involving disabilities.
• Encourage more training around alcohol use and abuse to try to reduce sexual misconduct on the campus.
• Peruse the institution’s pamphlets and other marketing materials with an eye toward contractual obligations those materials may be establishing.