The World of Economics

Abstract

Learning how to recognize and anticipate the legal risks associated with student affairs practice is a crucial skill all successful administrators must develop. This can be done by developing a sense for scanning the broad legal environment and being aware of legal issues in other parts of the education enterprise. Good professionals make a considerable effort to remain current in their career fields. Professional associations assist their members in this task by developing training and professional development programs that address the critical skills that professionals need to do their jobs. In higher education and student affairs, many practitioners acknowledge the importance of knowing how the law affects what they do. Constitutional law affects what kinds of rules and regulations public institutions promulgate. Contract law affects the type of business relationship administrators have with students and other constituents. Tort law affects how managers maintain facilities and supervise student events. As a result, professional associations have been created to focus attention solely on legal issues in higher education (e.g., Education Law Association and the Association for Interdisciplinary Initiatives in Higher Education Law and Policy), programs on a wide variety of legal topics appear on almost every national conference schedule, many professional associations devote part of their Web sites to law and legislation (e.g., American College Personnel Association, National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, and the Association for Student Judicial Affairs), and private companies publish newsletters designed to inform their readers about the latest court rulings (e.g., The College Student and the Courts by Gehring and Letzring, Synfax weekly report by Pavela). Some of these resources examine events that may be several years old since litigation takes time and initial decisions may be appealed. Many of the authors of these publications restate the facts of the particular case and give some guidance on appropriate administrative practice. These resources, however, may not always be able to identify what administrators might face on their own campuses in the near future or define decision-making processes that might help administrators avoid legal pitfalls. The purpose of this paper is to identify two important mechanisms that college administrators can use to more actively anticipate the legal issues that may occur on their own campuses. First, practitioners should scan the broad legal environment. Secondly, they should be aware of legal issues in other parts of the education enterprise. Anticipating