91-865, Legal Issues in Higher Education

6 units

Prerequisites: None

Required for: All students in the Leadership in Higher Education concentration

Delivery Format: On-Campus

Description:

The primary goal of this course is to provide the student with an introduction to legal precepts that influence American higher education and the practice of higher education administrators. This course is designed to expose the student to a range of administrative issues at the postsecondary level that entail legal implications. The course experiences should ultimately help current and prospective administrators to envision the legal dimensions of collegiate-level decision processes.

The course will be conducted in a mixed seminar and presentation format. The instructor will assume responsibility for laying out the structure of content areas and discussing the major legal issues involved. Students will be expected to discuss application of law to relevant case studies. The student presentations will require extensive law-related research. This detailed research will be pivotal to each class session.

Each student is expected to:

Develop an understanding of the American justice system.
Develop an understanding of "state action" and how legal issues effect public and private institutions differently.
Develop an understanding of the legal liability of institutions of higher education and higher education administrators.
Develop an understanding of the specific legal issues facing various functional areas within institutions of higher education.
Develop an understanding of how federal laws affect higher education.
Develop skills of analysis, synthesis, and communication (verbal and written) concerning issues and ideas salient to the legal aspects of higher education.

Last modified on June 15, 2006