The Rights and Responsibilities of the Modern University: Who Assumes the Risk of College Life?

by Robert D. Bickel, Peter F. Lake

The past decades have seen an alarming increase in campus crime, alcohol abuse by college students, hazing and other risky student activities. There is a growing awareness of the need to make safer college campuses. While danger to students has been on the rise, the relationships between students and their universities has grown increasingly distant. The rise in danger and the loss of community on college campuses has been inadvertently facilitated by legal rules. Courts crafted legal protections for colleges which legal rules designed to protect colleges from lawsuits instead encouraged colleges to become insular and to avoid positive steps to protect student safety.

Bickel and Lake re-imagine the role of law in university/student relations. Picking up on recent court decisions and legislative initiatives, the authors describe a new legal paradigm for college safety - the facilitator university. The modern college is not a baby-sitter or custodian of but it is also not a mere bystander to student safety. The facilitator university balances the rights and responsibilities of students and institutions and envisions campuses which feature shared responsibility for student safety. Law can be a positive tool for improving safety and community on modern campuses.

“This work is a significant contribution to the law of student safety.... It reconciles the best advice of a university lawyer with the best instincts of an experienced student affairs administrator.”—Paul J. Ward, Arizona State University and Former President, National Association of College and University Attorneys; and Christine K. Wilkinson, Vice President for Student Affairs, Arizona State University “By now it is probably obvious to college counselors and psychotherapists why this book will be immensely relevant and essential to their professional work. It contains valuable legal and historical information that can provide context and guidance in their direct work with student clients and it is a bright beacon that can inform and illuminate their consultation services with colleagues. I recommend it to readers unqualifiedly.”—Gerald Amada, PhD, Journal of College Student Psychotherapy; Vol. 17, No. 2, 2002

256 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1999

Reviews

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

An effective and enjoyable read for anyone interested in the intersection of law and education which is also well suited for those interested in the history of education. It is approachable, engaging, and even has elements of humor. Where this book excels is that it places the legal arguments that affected education within the framework of the time period in which they were decided - such as linking in loco parentis policies of universities in the first half of the twentieth century to English law and a decisive statement by Sir William Blackstone that, in his period, made more logical sense than it does in the modern university. For anyone interested in the historical elements of the legal, administrative, or policy elements of higher education, this book should be considered required reading.