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 Front Page Hot Legal Topics New Legislation Archives |
…And our students are asking about
Four Federal statutes every Professor should know…
"In a Complex World, Even Lawyers Need Lawyers," reads the headline of an article in the business section of the New York Times on Feb. 3, 2004. One lawyer quoted in the article noted "figuring out the right thing to do in increasingly complex transactions or lawsuits has become too difficult for the average lawyer." Making a similar point, a New Yorker cartoon shows a group of professionals seated around a conference table, lap tops open, ready to begin a meeting. Two business suited men with brief cases are standing at one end of the table, with one asking, "Would everyone check to see they have an attorney? I seem to have ended up with two."
At the college and university level, the law has not only become increasingly complex, but the number of laws that impose ministerial duties on academic administrators and faculty has grown exponentially over the last twenty years. By last count, there were over 200 federal laws imposing compliance duties on institutions of higher education, from the Age Discrimination Act of 1975 all the way down to the Work Study Program rules. For a fairly comprehensive list see the A-Z summary of Federal Laws on the Office of General Counsel website. In such a crush of information, it’s important to know which laws should be given the most attention by faculty with too many demands on their time.
The Office of General Counsel attempts to make selected information about the law available to professors and staff on campus in a format that is easily accessible and interesting, through a comprehensive web page, www.cua.edu. The challenge, in an age of too much information, is to engage professors and administrators in the preventive law process. This article highlights four key laws for professors at CUA.
Four Essential Laws for Professors
The Americans with Disability Act of 1990 (ADA) The ADA prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in access to private colleges and universities and requires reasonable accommodations (e.g., a modification or adjustment to the status quo inherent in the program or activity) to allow a qualified person with a disability to participate fully in the programs and activities of the university. The process by which this is actually accomplished by the university is contained in the guide entitled Services and Accommodations for Students with Disabilities.
Through the generous assistance of The Theodore R. and Vivian M. Johnson Scholarship Foundation, CUA is able to offer students with disabilities many choices when it comes to assistive technology. The complete list of available technology and software, as well as campus locations, is online on the Office of Disability Support Services web page. Bonnie McClellan, the Director of the Office of Disability Support Services, is also available to any questions for CUA faculty about complying with this law.
The Copyright Law of 1976, as amended
The copyright law gives copyright owners the sole right to reproduce all or part of the work, distribute copies, prepare new (derivative) versions of the work, and perform and display the work publicly. Copyright protection governs "original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression."[1] The law protects unpublished as well as published material. A work does not need the copyright symbol on it to be protected under copyright law. [2]
In making copies for classroom use, professors can refer to the OGC Publication Making Copies: Student Handouts or Coursepacks. CUA, as a member of the Washington Library Research Consortium, pays a fee to provide the Campus Community with online access to a number of licensed databases. The databases are online at www.aladin.wrlc.org. One of these licensed databases is LEXIS-NEXIS Academic Universe. LEXIS-NEXIS is a powerful research tool that contains a wealth of databases, including news, business, legal research (cases, codes, law review articles and more), medical (full text medical journal articles) and reference.
If you wish to use an article in class that is contained in the LEXIS-NEXIS database, the licensing agreement with this service allows you to make copies of the article and distribute the article to your students. In the same vein, such an article could also be posted on Electronic Reserve.
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA)
FERPA, the student record privacy law, regulates the keeping and sharing of student records at all institutions that receive federal funds or who have students receiving federal funds. Procedures must be in place to allow a student or the parents of dependent students access to student records. Consent must be obtained to release student records to a third party, with certain exceptions contained in the law. Almost everything you need to know about this law can be found by reading the CUA student record policy or accessing the FERPA Q and A on the OGC web page. If you have a question that is not answered by these documents, or are not sure about what you have read, please call the Office of General Counsel and we will be happy to assist you in your compliance with FERPA.
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972
Title IX prohibits gender discrimination in any educational program or activity that receives federal funds. This law is most often in the news in connection with equal opportunity in sports. Another important aspect of this law is the implicit (and court endorsed) prohibition of sexual harassment contained in the law. CUA' s sexual harassment policy and complaint procedures should be read by all faculty and staff at the university. Most importantly, any Supervisor, Department Chair, Dean or Administrator who receives or becomes aware of a complaint of sexual harassment should report the complaint to the Director of Equal Opportunity or the Office of the General Counsel as soon as possible and normally within three workdays.
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