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¤¤$Um¤l’l$¤‘\- MOH? and m0r€ iubilify. Colleges and universities H        l_     y,.   _  
students are $UlHg to Hlakfb were Once shielded even from I, if  A i Pa;   _ i i    p l   
their colleges more account- lawsuits arising out of negli- 2 J W  if     I Fr?  i i w f ill  i
V able, or to get information they gence. The rationale of the     i A I     = li i"  
1 think they are entitled to, or courts was that public institu- ~_--\ ,   /0   l
,. because they feel they didn’t get their tions, as units of government, were im- __' _ ,,.5,%}   i `
l money’s worth. And on many campuses, mune, and private colleges were chari- ; _ .2 ti sh _ .   _ V. V . ,
- the students have free or inexpensive table institutions providing education at » i  ~l*··   " $’_ i·/°’j·'s—_ if . l
" legal assistance. The legal service at the less than cost, and thus needed their _ .—v,     S. ._ H `i Pl   E _‘  
University of Maine at Orono, for ex- assets for good works.     2 'i _~°,l_i‘gg   `_ '_,’i‘ ·. ` ` {
us 4 ample,. handled 73 cases against the Such immunity, hard to imagine in    ‘f% - ~ » ¥_,%0»*’,Qj- I     .   A
_a_ university last year. Here are some re- our litigious age, has crumbled, as ns- ”MH§(·~é·-’£p;.      ,>_· “ i
V I CCIII examples ·Sl1OW"lI`1g the wide range ing insurance rates show, At the Univer- g         {-_ _·’ lp 4  
'a_   OfCOI1Sum€rSu1tS2 ‘ ' sity of Michigan, for example, IIISUI'- ii   U @/5.; /   [QV;}   // J ) ,_._    
_€_ t • Students at George Washington Un1- ance costs jumped by more than 470 per   .·_` [:51gjg  /   `* 5 J! _  
' a versity and the University of Bridgeport cent between 1968 and 1976. Liability     , `f""’“"J3—’ ,   ·_   1
ics sued their institutions because they said coverage, to protect the instituition and · c ” " ` ;   I , I ‘
In , courses they took were "pure Junk and its staff from personal injury and dam- vf r ·· * ( , _
Bd , “worthless." I age suits, skyrocketed by an amazing ’~ ;  
rm i • IA Penn State graduate student dis- 2,875 per cent (from $104,000 to $3- 1
ict   missed for poor academic performance million) in the same period. .
rc j sued because he claimed the decision _
’   was too subjective. ·~ , ‘`‘`   " o  
gk   ' A group of Northwestern medical stu-     M d •
ii   dents filed suit over a 57 per cent tuition _ A -a . ·€~» O       ¤   S u I n g  
he {1 increase. They said the hike violated an
  implied <>¤¤¤¤¤¤ in thc ¤¤¤¤g¢’S ¢==¤¢¤l¤s I`“¤|(9 colleges H10 I`6 CICCOU I11'¤ ble .
Qi to keep fee increases "reasonable."
_   • A graduate of Southern University's  
_   law school filed suit after failing the
i state bar examination three times. He Negligence is defined very broadly in University, says individuals "may be in-
; claimed that the school had not pre- some cases. A Marquette University law volved . . . for anything from searching
· pared him to take the test. student sued because, he said a "mine- a dormitory to non-renewal of a faculty
• Eight Vanderbilt doctoral students control" course offered as an aid to member’s contract." Perhaps more sig-
won $30,000 in damages because a study threw him into a deep depression. nificant is a 1978 Supreme Court ruling
‘ court agreed with them that a manage- Delaware Valley College is trying to which makes "local governments"
ment program they were enrolled in was overturn a $1-million negligence verdict (hence, public colleges and universities)
"hastily embarked on, vague, and ill-de- in a case involving an auto accident liable for violating an individual’s
fined." which left a student a quadriplegic; the rights; previously, only an individual of-
7% Not many court battles in this hazy accident occurred on a return trip from ficial could be sued and the school, as a
  area of consumerism are settled in favor an off—campus class party at which beer branch of government, was immune.
(lo of students, but the growth in the num- was served. San Diego State University Now damages can be collected from the
~ ber of such suits, and the willingness of has been sued in the rape and murder of institutions, which, says Marion
L is , more and more courts to hear them, a coed in her dormitory room by a non- McGhehey, executive secretary of the
L.   may signal that a legal definition for student. The dorm room door was not National Organization on Legal Prob-
EL what some are calling “academic mal- forced, and the dormitory was shown to lems in Education, have ‘“deeper
Jia ( practice" is on the way. Already, courts be safe, but the court ruled that the uni- pockets to dig into."
di_   have come to view catalogs, bullet1ns, versity, in being aware of a chronic pat-
HC i and other publications as part of the tern of violent assaults on women in the
no 1 contractual agreement between the stu- university community, should have
to dents and the university. Sheldon Stein- taken "respons1ble precautions to re-
we bach, of the American Council on Edu- duce the. hazard and hto protect the
ld_ cation, warns, “If you say this course‘1s residents 1n the university dormitories,
phy going to do something and it doesn t, or to warn the students, or to train the
’· you’ve got a potential legal problem on students to protect themselves."
Of   your hands," Individual administrators may be
Cp ? held personally liable in some cases.
me i Robert Bickel, counsel at Florida State
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