Legal issues are a challenge for any higher education leader. It is critical that one is knowledgeable about the law and institutional policy and can utilize that knowledge to make informed and educated decisions about legal issues. The law is about precedents and past decisions. Leaders in higher education who are grappling with events that include legal or risk management conditions must be able to determine what action to take by knowing how to find and interpret past cases, state and federal law, and institutional policy. The final project allows the professor to evaluate each student’s ability to find and interpret the law, and determine appropriate policy and practice, and make recommendations to their institution regarding legal issues.
• Deliverable: Write a legal summary and recommendation paper on a legal issue or institutional policy of your choosing.
• You have been appointed by the Chancellor to lead a task force charged with recommending a position and approach to a current legal issue facing your institution. The Chancellor has asked for a formal recommendation from the committee [written by the chair] submitted electronically to his office [CANVAS]. The Chancellor expects that the recommendation will thoroughly review the issue(s), identify current case law, policies and practices related to the issue(s), institutional risk, stakeholders, and provide a path forward regarding the issue (recommendations, practice, policy, etc.).
o You choose the issue(s). Example:
“The reality of recent Supreme Court decisions in Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger means that the University of Tennessee at Martin again faces a critical juncture in its desire to diversify our student population. This paper will provide a summary of pertinent legal cases to improve understanding of the recommendations advanced in the final section. The legal summaries to follow will revisit DeFunis, Bakke, Grutter, and Gratz to show how we have been, and can continue to be, legally sensitive to the issue of diversifying our student population…”
• The recommendation will be provided to the Chancellor and his executive team who, although familiar with the issue, have little or no background on the legal ramifications of the issue (risk), what actions should be taken and why, or past cases that may inform their decisions.
Sample Solution