11.5.3.4 Claims by accused students
Much as it takes a village to raise a child (a saying of obscure origin), it takes an “academical village” (Thomas Jefferson's phrase) to raise a book—at least a book such as this that arises from, and whose purpose is to serve, a national (and now international) academic community. This Student Version of the sixth edition is dedicated to all those members of our academical village, especially the instructors and students, who in numerous and varied ways have helped raise this book from its origins through this sixth edition, and this Student Version, and to all those members who will face the great challenges of law and policy that will shape higher education's future.
Preface
Operating the colleges and universities of today presents a multitude of challenges for their leaders and personnel. Often the issues they face involve institutional policy, but with continually increasing frequency they have legal implications as well. For example:
A staff member may decide to become a whistleblower and assert that another college employee is violating the law. If the complaining staff member's performance has been problematic, and “just cause” exists for dismissal, may the college discharge the whistleblowing staff member?
A 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
