Higher Ed Law Prof Blog

Publications #4: Harrison Business Directory

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Opinion #1: This week's "Attorney at Large"

Remembering VTU and Other Campus Killings (Part Two)
By James Castagnera
Attorney at Large

In August 1981, just out of law school and fresh from a bar exam, I reported for duty as an assistant professor of business law at the University of Texas, Austin. Not long into the fall semester, I learned that when the Texas Longhorns won, the 307-foot tower dominating the campus glowed burnt-orange. As attractive as the tower was, I also soon learned that it was closed to visitors. By contrast, in 1966 the 28th floor observation deck hosted some 20,000 tourists annually. Here's why.

On August 1, 1966, a 25-year-old ex-marine named Charles Joseph Whitman, having murdered wife and mother the night before, climbed the University of Texas tower and shot some 45 passers-by. He managed to kill 14, before being shot to death himself.

Addressing what went wrong before and during the tower massacre changed the way not only the University of Texas, but all of higher education, thinks about and tries to deal with dangerous people on our campuses.

On March 29, 1966, Whitman - who was then a student at U.T. - was referred to Dr. M.D. Heatly on the university’s health center staff. Dr. Heatly opened his report, “This massive , muscular youth seemed to be oozing with hostility.” Whitman admitted “that he had on two occasions assaulted his wife physically.” He told Heatly that in the marines he’d been court-martialed for fighting. Most remarkably, Heatly recorded, “Repeated inquiries attempting to analyze his exact experiences were not too successful with the exception of his vivid reference to ‘thinking about going up on the tower with a deer rifle and start shooting people.’” The good doctor’s solution? “No medication was given to this youth at this time and he was told to make an appointment for the same day next week; and should he feel that he needs to talk to this therapist, he could call me at any time during the interval.”

Within days of the August 1 shootings, the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, founded decades earlier on the U.T. campus, ramped up efforts to improve availability of services for psychologically troubled members of the campus community. Student-counseling services were expanded, including services aimed specifically at patients in “crisis situations.”

The university closed the tower for two years, then closed it again in 1975 following a series of sporadic suicide jumps from its heights.

Today, a year after the Virginia Tech massacre, every campus has its counseling center and its policies on threats of violence and suicide. Yet costly, high profile lawsuits involving students’ violence toward themselves and others abound. Universities still struggle with responsibility for campus safety and the individual rights of students, specifically whether to treat or expel such students. And, as the VTU tragedy demonstrates, identification and prevention remain elusive goals.

According to author Gary Lavergne, who wrote a book about the tower shootings, “The university (in 1966) had no real police department, only a few unarmed men who spent most of their time issuing parking permits.” Today, the U.T. System Police website states, “Our official creation as a police agency occurred in 1967 and was largely the result of a sniping incident on August 1, 1966 on the U.T. Austin campus.

During the 1967 session of the Texas Legislature, authorized the Lone Star State’s public colleges and universities to commission their security personnel as “peace officers.” Countless campuses across the country followed suit. For example, Philadelphia’s Temple University on the city’s dangerous north side boasts one of Pennsylvania’s largest police forces. Meanwhile, most U.S. cities similarly taking their lead from Austin, Texas have created SWAT teams.

Nonetheless, as the VTU tragedy bitterly attests, campus police and city SWAT teams are no magic shield, when pitted against a determined mass killer.

The U.T. Tower was once again reopened in late 1998, following $500,000-worth of renovations to prevent jumping. Tours today are sadly by appointment only.

(Jim Castagnera, formerly of Jim Thorpe, is the Associate Provost/Associate Counsel at Rider University. A collection of his “Attorney at Large” columns is available at www.lulu.com.)

Read the whole four-part series in the Greentree Gazette.

Review and purchase the "Attorney at Large" collection by searching "Castagnera" at www.lulu.com.

Publications #2: More of Jim Castagnera's books

Labor Law Books:

1. Termination of Employment
By: - James O. Castagnera and Patrick J. Cihon and Andrew P. Morriss

Format: Binder/Looseleaf
Copyright: 1984
List Price: $1,218.00
Shipping FREE
Availability: Partial Stock

View and order here.

2. Employment Law Answer Book, Sixth Edition

by Mark R. Filipp, James O. Castagnera, Thomas L. Boyer

List Price: $245.00
ISBN: 0735552991
ISBN-13: 9780735552999
Format: Hardcover
Publication Cycle: Supplemented annual

View and order here.

Publiucations #1: Kudos for "Ned McAdoo and the Molly Maguires"

I liked your story Ned Mcadoo and the Molly Maguires. Is the beginning of your story about seeing the ghost true?

Hopefully the "hovering" did not refer to way he died.

Someone claimed to have once seen Jack Kehoe's ghost as a child when they were not far from his grave.

Youtube has a song about the "ghost of Molly Maguire:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ncOHnwW2IrE

I'm a law student at the University of Pittsburgh. This year is the 130th anniversary of the executions of Jack Kehoe, Patrick Hester, Peter McHuh, and Patrick Tully. I am including as an attachment a paper I'm submitting to Columbia County's Historical Society.

Hugh Doyle, descendant of Patrick Hester, wrote that he did not favor a posthumous pardon like that given to Jack Kehoe because he believes Hester was innocent and a pardon legally means that the person was 1) guilty and 2) forgiven. Can you tell me if there is a way to overturn a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision and exonerate an executed person without getting a pardon?

In the Soviet Union, Khruschev legally "rehabilitated" Stalin's convicted executed victims and the Soviet government legally exonerated them. Is posthumous exoneration impossible in America?

Kind Regards,
Hal Smith

Check out "Ned MacAdoo and the Molly Maguires" by searching "Castagnera" at www.lulu.com.

Preview "Ned McAdoo and the Molly Maguires" in the Writer's Corner at The History Place.

Events #2: Still time to register for AAC&U Austin meeting

Still Time to Register for Austin Meeting on Effective Educational Practices

                  

Is your campus developing educational practices such as first-year seminars, learning communities, or undergraduate research programs? AAC&U’s Network for Academic Renewal spring meeting, Discovering, Integrating and Applying Knowledge: Effective Educational Practices for Today’s Students and Tomorrow’s Innovation, will focus on “engaged learning practices” like these and the latest research about their impact on student learning.  The conference will be held April 10-12, 2008, in Austin, Texas. More information and registration forms can be found online. Participants may also register onsite at the meeting.

Jobs #1: Center for Academic Integrity seeks a director

Dear CAI Members,

 

The search for a permanent Director for the Center is underway. The advertisement for the position is posted on the CAI website…

 

(http://www.academicintegrity.org/employment/director.php)

 

Please distribute this information widely. We are interested in attracting the best person for the job.

 

If you have any questions regarding the search, please email is at CAI-L@clemson.edu.

 

 

Clemson University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer

 

Events #1: NACUA seeks nominees for organization posts

Dear Colleagues and Friends:

It is my pleasure and privilege to advise you of the nominees for officer and at-large members of the NACUA Board of Directors who will be presented for election by the membership at the Annual Meeting in June in New York City.

They are:

    Second Vice President (2008-2009):
    Jonathan R. Alger, Vice President & General Counsel, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

    Treasurer (2008-2011):
    Thomas G. Cline, Vice President and General Counsel, Northwestern University

    At-Large Class (2008-2011):
    Kathryn E. Baerwald, Deputy General Counsel, Georgetown University
    Nicholas DiGiovanni, Jr., University System of New Hampshire and Vermont State Colleges (Morgan, Brown & Joy)
    L. Lee Tyner, Jr., General Counsel, University of Mississippi
    David Williams II, Vice Chancellor for University Affairs, General Counsel, and Secretary of the University, Vanderbilt University
    Debra Zumwalt, Vice President and General Counsel, Stanford University

I hope you will take a moment to review biographical sketches of the nominees, located at http://WWW.NACUA.ORG/messages/BiosNominees0809.pdf.

The outstanding slate of nominees will bring a variety of experiences and backgrounds to the Board and help ensure that NACUA remains an organization committed to providing high quality services and support to its members. Please join me in congratulating them on their nominations.

The Committee issued its initial Call for Nominations on November 27, 2007, seeking candidates according to the following criteria:

* NACUA committee service and leadership responsibilities;
* Prior experience on other nonprofit boards of directors or other relevant professional or volunteer experience;
* NACUA Program participation;

* The quality and length of service to NACUA;
* The ability to contribute to a balanced representation of NACUA member institutions through consideration of institutional characteristics, including geographic diversity and an appropriate balance of large, small, public,

  and private universities and community colleges, as well as a mix of law firm and campus representation;
* Demographic diversity among member representatives; and
* The commitment and ability to work as an effective member of the NACUA leadership team.

The Committee met in conjunction with the NACUA CLE Workshop in March in Seattle, WA, to conduct its deliberations on nominations and develop a slate of nominees from the many highly qualified candidates who you had identified as potential nominees for presentation to the membership at the June 2008 Association's Annual Meeting in New York City.

The Committee and I wish to thank the membership for its response to this year's Call for Nominations. We also express appreciation to the nominees who expressed a willingness to serve the Association.

We look forward to seeing you in New York City.

Sincerely,

Georgia

Georgia Yuan, Immediate Past President & Chair,
NACUA Committee on Nominations and Elections

Opinion #2: Crime and Punishment in the Ether

In his 1997 novel, “Idoru,” sci-fi writer William Gibson postulates a pending marriage between a real-life rock star and a virtual vamp. The bride is an “idol-singer” or Idoru. Although Idoru are computer-generated fantasies, “Some of them are enormously popular.”
The kids with whom the Idoru are “enormously popular” inhabit a virtual world that is more real to them than their own homes and families. In an early chapter, “They met in a jungle clearing. Kelsey had done the vegetation: big bright Rousseau leaves, cartoon orchids flecked with her idea of tropical colors…. Zona, the only one telepresent who’d ever seen anything like a real jungle, had done the audio, providing birdcalls, invisible but realistically dopplering bugs, and the odd vegetational rustle artfully suggesting not snakes but some shy furry thing, soft-pawed and curious.”
Less than a decade later, Gibson’s vision is here. In case you --- like me --- are not one of the 900,000 already enrolled, “Second Life” is a virtual world in which you can buy property and build a home, indulge yourself in a pseudo-career and… even conduct real business. [http://secondlife.com/]
Yes, in Second Life’s Linden City you can really sell stuff. Something close to half a million bucks exchanges hands every day in Linden, according to a recent Yahoo report on the Internet phenomenon. Concludes Yahoo, “The IRS is interested and Congressional economists are looking into how to tax digital assets accrued” in virtual worlds.
Is virtual taxation without virtual representation tyranny? Search me. Frankly, I’m more interested in issues such as blackmail. If Linden City citizen A threatens to expose some peccadillo of citizen B, where does jurisdiction over the crime lie? Let’s make citizen A a Brit and citizen B an American. Sure, both John Bull and Uncle Sam have an interest in the dirty deed. But where did the crime occur? In England, where the perp lives? What if he joined the website and made the blackmail threat while airborne over --- oh, I don’t know --- Uganda? And what if victim B joined the “game” and got the threat while airborne over Australia in an Air China aircraft?
Forget the geography. The crime occurred in Linden City, which falls under the jurisdiction of the state of Second Life. I guess that’s not quite the state of Grace. But for the religious the analogy is apparent.
For the record, our law enforcement apparatchiks can’t even cope with the Nigerian scams. A case on point: an international student recently decided to sublet a room or two in her condo, her family having returned to China. She advertised on the worldwide web. An offer came in via email from Africa. The offer was followed by four $500 American Express checks, an amount equal to a month’s rent plus the security deposit. The student deposited the doe. Next thing she knows, her new tenant is asking for half of the money back to buy a plane ticket. The student sends the money, not waiting for the four checks to clear. When the American Express checks prove to be counterfeit, she’s out a grand she can ill-afford to lose. Who can help her? Answer: nobody!
You see the problem, right? Mystics and new age twits talk of Gaia, an ecological theory that the living matter of planet Earth is a single organism. Who knows? What we do know is that the Internet --- the worldwide web, more or less --- is greater than the sum of its billions of parts. The Internet, one might fairly argue, is an entity which has passed beyond the control of any nation, any corporation, any set of statutes, even any international organization.
Anarchists and libertarians may applaud this state of global affairs. Those of us who have devoted our lives to the rule of law may justifiably feel differently.
Following World War II, we created the United Nations to bring all nations under one legal umbrella. We developed a canon of international codes, everything from crimes against humanity to international intellectual-property regimes.
        Perhaps what is needed now is a virtual counterpart to the U.N.  I wonder if Bill Gibson would agree?

Jim Castagnera

New Law #4: Virtual events have real-world impacts

Read about it in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

New Law #3: For-Profits schools seek allies among frosh Congressmen

Read thes tory in the Chronicle of Higher Education

Opinion #1: Anti-Zionism and the Canadian Left

http://www.z-word.com/z-word-essays/the-cairo-clique%253A-anti-zionism-and-t

New Law #2: Kennedy offers student loans to ease credit crunch

Responding to growing concern that student loans may be less available this fall, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat who is chairman of the Senate education committee, introduced legislation on Thursday aimed at reducing borrowers' dependence on private loans and making it easier for colleges to find lenders for their students.Read the rest of this story in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

New Law # 1: Beware the big email scam

E-Mail Scam Targets Colleges

By JEFFREY R. YOUNG

A new wave of bogus e-mails, purporting to be from colleges' help desks, is hitting campuses across the country. College IT officials are sharing information and responding quickly to the threat.
An e-mail scam has hit thousands of users at dozens of colleges over the past few weeks, leaving network administrators scrambling to respond before campus computer accounts are taken over by spammers.Read the rest of this story in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

New Law #5: Ely begins prison stretch for possessing weapons cache

Read the story fromt he Associated Press

Events #3: Measuring the effectiveness of online programs

Register here.

Publications #1: Subscribe to Workforce Management

Free here.

Events #2: Technology and Globalization Panel at Rider University in Central NJ

 

Contemporary Issues in Technology and Globalization

 

Global Shifts/Digital Lives:

The Future of Work and Labor in

America

 

Bart Luedeke Center Theater,

Rider

University

, Lawrenceville

Wednesday, April 9, 2008 @ 7 PM

♦

Chair and Discussant:  

Dr.

Lynn

Rivas

, Department of Sociology,

Rider

University

Panelists:

♦ HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE AMERICAN WORKPLACE:

WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW  CAN HURT YOU

Dr. Lewis Maltby, President, Workrights Institute,

Princeton

,

NJ

 

♦ YOUR JOB IS BEING OUTSOURCED. SHOULD YOU WORRY?

  

Dr.

Ali

Mir

, Associate Professor of Business at

William Patterson University

,

NJ

 

♦ THE END OF WORKER AUTONOMY: DIGITIAL TECHNOLOGIES IN THE 

 

NEW YORK CITY

TAXI INDUSTRY

   

Dr.

Biju

Mathew

, Associate Professor of Information Systems,

Rider University

,

NJ

 

v From three unique perspectives,

Dr.

Lew

Maltby

,

Prof.

Ali

Mir

and

Prof.

Biju

Mathew

will examine the trajectories created by the infusion of digital technologies and the re-ordering of the political economy on the work lives of ordinary Americans.

v Together they will address questions around the future of the American worker, the shape of the US Labor market, the emergent legal and policy needs to protect the American worker and the ethical questions we are going to face on the value of work itself.

 

For Directions to this free presentation:  http://www.rider.edu/directions. For more info: mathew@rider.edu

Ethical Issues #2: Hampshire College students protect lackof diversity

Shades of the Sixties: They stage a walk-out.Here's the AP story on it.

New Law #4: IRS request for comments on proposed withholding tax

Download IRSNotice032808.pdfHere's the IRS notice.

Opinion #2: Castagnera on agriculture as America's new economic driver

We are constantly told that ours is the Information Age. The Information Highway is the road to prosperity. Education is the answer to America's slipping supremacy in the global marketplace. If this is what you think, you may want to think again. Here is a little food for those thoughts.

A study done as long ago as 1994 by a Cornell University scientist produced the following findings:

• "At the present growth rate of 1.1% per year, the U.S. population will double to more than half a billion people within the next 60 years. It is estimated that approximately one acre of land is lost due to urbanization and highway construction alone for every person added to the U.S. population."

• "This means that only 0.6 acres of farmland would be available to grow food for each American in 2050, as opposed to the 1.8 acres per capita available today. At least 1.2 acres per person is required in order to maintain current American dietary standards. Food prices are projected to increase 3 to 5-fold within this period."

• "If present population growth, domestic food consumption and topsoil loss trends continue, the U.S. will most likely cease to be a food exporter by approximately 2025 because food grown in the U.S. will be needed for domestic purposes."

• "Since food exports earn $40 billion for the U.S. annually, the loss of this income source would result in an even greater increase in America's trade deficit."

• "Considering that America is the world's largest food exporter, the future survival of millions of people around the world may also come into question if food exports from the U.S. were to cease."

[http://dieoff.org/page40.htm]

Recent developments underline the urgency of refocusing our attention on agriculture. The New York Times recently reported the establishment of an Arctic seed vault intended to insure the survival of vital plant species in the face of severe climate changes, pandemics, and even nuclear warfare. One commentator in the Chronicle of Higher Education asked, "Even if seeds survive climate change and mass extinction in a bombproof vault, will anyone remember how to cultivate them?" This writer, Scott Carlson, adds, "Before World War II, there were almost seven million farms in the United States. Today, according to government statistics, there are about 2.1 million farms, with 1.2 million people claiming farming as their principal occupation. The average age of those farmers is 55. About 74,000 farms, or 3.5 percent, accounted for more than 60 percent of the market value of agricultural products sold in 2002, the most recent farm-census figure available."

Meanwhile, other observers are beginning to warn us that the high-tech revolution is the first technological sea change in our history, which has actually resulted in a decrease, rather than an increase, in net job creation. The pattern is plain. As manufacturing jobs have been steadily lost to Latin American and Asian competitors, as well as to robotics, millions of Americans have been forced to shift to lower-paying service jobs. Now these service-sector jobs are also eroding, due to international out-sourcing of even such sophisticated activities as legal research, medical diagnostics, and accounting. This is possible only because of the Internet.

Additionally, retail businesses operating on the worldwide web simply don't require as many employees as similar businesses operating out of traditional geographic locations. Consequently, even the generally less-desirable service jobs are slipping through our fingers… a trend not yet as visible as the long-standing loss-trend in the manufacturing arena.

Commentator Carlson was led to ask, "As a society, we seem to cycle back to agricultural roots when anxieties about modern living bubble up. The last time environmental issues and oil prices became major public concerns, society saw a back-to-the-land movement, in which many people moved out to the country and fell flat on their faces, in part because they had forgotten (or, rather, never learned) the basic skills of agricultural living. Colleges deliver basic skills of all kinds. Should agriculture be part of the mix?"

Yes, I think so. I would add that as a nation we need to reevaluate our immigration and land-use policies. With regard to the former issue, our focus on legal v. illegal immigrants may be missing the point. The real question may be, do we want any additional population growth in the U.S. at all? As for the latter, the issue is how much more suburban sprawl - that mix of homogeneous retail and residential expansion - should we tolerate at the cost of irreplaceable farm and forest land?

(Jim Castagnera, formerly of Jim Thorpe, is the Associate Provost/Associate Counsel at Rider University. A collection of his "Attorney at Large" columns is available at www.lulu.com.)

Ethical Issues #1: Hunger haunts the planet

Read the story in the LA Times

Law Primer #1: A series on qui tam whistleblower actions

Available from the Greetree Gazette

New Law #3: Kaplan dean caught in middle of whistleblower action

The former dean at Kaplan University who is accusing the for-profit institution of defrauding taxpayers of billions of dollars in a whistle-blower lawsuit has now been indicted on charges that he hacked into Kaplan's computer network to send harassing mass e-mail messages to students and threats to three individuals.Read the rest of this story in the Chronicle of Higher Education

Services #1: Hobson's offers a campus social networking tool that claims to be safe and secure

Overview

Bring students together around a common interest
Your institution - what better topic for students to gather around? Make your social network the ideal gathering place for prospective students to begin gathering buzz for admission.

Begin networking-today!
With a few clicks and a couple of choices, your network is off and running with minimal start-up time and interference.

Connect with your students in the way they want to be reached
Today's students may be savvy online users, but they still want to connect with others that have like interests. Social networking allows them to meet new people, make new friends, and build new relationships.Visit the website and read more here.

Events # 1:Teaching Professor Conference

To be held in Florida, May 16-18.Register here.

A Fence, Israeli style

           

An Israeli fencing lesson     By Jim Castagnera   July 08, 2007
Jim Castagnera     is an attorney in Pennsylvania, and the associate provost/associate counsel at Rider University.                                                                                                                                                                      News of Delaware County		I recently spent 10 days in Israel at the expense of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. Styled an Academic Fellowship on Terrorism, this 'paid vacation' featured an up-close-and-personal peek at how the Jewish state deals with terrorists, a topic of no small interest to us Americans since 9/11. Parallels between our two countries are a little hard to find, however, Israel is about as big as New Jersey or perhaps Vermont, plus or minus some parts of New Hampshire. The beleaguered nation, surrounded by enemies armed to the teeth, somehow manages to remain a democracy. I doubt we Americans are ready to open our purses and packages for inspection every time we enter a mall or restaurant. Universal military service is not even on our federal agenda for discussion. One parallel did catch my eye, rolls of razor wire running parallel to a fence along the so-called West Bank of the Jordan. Similarly, Uncle Sam has started a fence along our border with Mexico. Our FDD contingent, 45 professors strong, visited Israel's largest Arab city, some few miles from the fence. At the town hall, the city manager gave us a little talk, then opened himself up to our questions. Of Arab descent but Israel-born, the 50-something 'mayor' allowed as how he likes that fence. The barrier, which bears signs warning of 'mortal danger' if you climb it, has reduced illegal immigration of Palestinians to his town substantially, he says. The small city's unemployment rate approaches 30 percent. He blames much of it on illegals who marry local Israeli-Arab girls and then either scarf up scarce jobs or add themselves directly to the unemployment rolls. Either way, he contends, they deplete scarce economic resources. Born, raised and educated in Israel, this Arab official worries about where his children are headed. His son, he says, is pro-Palestinian. Were this worried parent an African-American, his son might label him an 'Uncle Tom'. However, he, himself, would choose to be a Palestinian citizen if a democratic Palestine becomes a real possibility. I don't know if Mexican-Americans along the Rio Grande and in San Antonio and El Paso and San Diego share any of this Arab city manager's ambivalence about their futures and those of their children. I would not be surprised to discover that at least some are eager for the US to staunch the flow of illegals into their borderland towns and cities. Like the Arab city manager, other Israeli officials report a decrease in cross-border incursions by would-be-bombers and other illegals, thanks they believe to their fence. The border fence, an innovation that will not in any way impact the rights or lifestyles of US citizens, may be an initiative for which the Israeli experiment is a valuable laboratory test case from which we Yanks can learn. (Reprinted with permission from the News of Delaware County)
		Post to del.icio.us        Digg this story                                                                                                                                                                                            An Israeli Fencing Lesson                                  SusanThompson - Penitas, TX, U.S.A  (07/08/2007 16:55 IT)                        Click on the red headline to read a Talkback         comment and respond to it. Click on theicon         to send a private email to the talkback writer. The icon appears only if the writer has decided to be contacted.

New Law #2: Environmental Rules Waived for Border Fence

Read about it in the LA Times

New Law # 1: Student newspaper wins free press case in Virginia

Federal judge rules that ban on alcohol ads is violation of first amendment.Read about it in the Chronicle of Higher Education

New Law #3: Baylor accused of double-secret-probation where tenure is concerned

When assistant professors talk about the ever more stringent standards for winning tenure, one of the favorite metaphors is of colleges “raising the bar.” At Baylor University, assistant professors who came up for tenure this year believe that not only did they face a higher hurdle, but they were forced to jump while blindfolded.Read the whole story in Inside Higher Education.

New Law #2: Judge sides with med journal against Big Pharma

New England Journal of Medicine need not disgorge notes of peer reviewers.Read about it in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

New Law #1: Professor's files subpoened in "Noose" Case

March 31, 2008 -- A Manhattan grand jury has subpoenaed the university records of the controversial black Columbia Teachers College professor who found a noose hanging from her office door - signaling that the investigation is broadening to examine possible links between the teacher, her closest friends and the racially charged incident, The Post has learned.Read the rest of this story in the New York Post.

New Law #3: Better Contracts seen for contingent faculty

Many people used to use “part timer” as a synonym for “adjunct.” Increasingly, the two words can’t be assumed to be interchangeable, as one of the fastest growing job categories in higher education is the full-time instructor off the tenure track. With that in mind, faculty unions are talking more about the need to include specific provisions in contracts to help this subset of the professorial work force.Read the whole story at Inside Higher Education.

An example (from the Rider University/AAUP 2007-11 Collective Bargaining Agreement):

ARTICLE XVII
ADJUNCT BARGAINING UNIT MEMBERS
A. Initial Hiring of Adjunct Faculty
Both parties to this Agreement recognize the importance of assuring
the quality of teaching that occurs in Rider University regardless of whether
that teaching is done by a full-time member of the faculty or an adjunct
member of the faculty. In order to assemble a pool of qualified adjunct
faculty the following procedures shall be followed in hiring and evaluating
adjunct faculty:
1. Appointment of Adjunct Faculty
It shall be the responsibility of the members of the relevant
department or program to review the credentials of candidates for
adjunct faculty positions and to make recommendations to the
appropriate dean for appointment. The dean consistent with the
other elements of this Agreement shall offer an adjunct contract to
the individual(s) recommended by the faculty of the department or
program.
2. Teaching Evaluation of Adjunct Faculty
105
It shall be the responsibility of the full-time faculty of the
department or program within which an adjunct faculty member is
teaching to evaluate, at least once a year, the teaching effectiveness
of a non-preferred, non-priority adjunct faculty member (as
defined, respectively, in Sections B and C, below), for the purpose
of the professional development of the adjunct faculty member and
future recommendations to the dean for adjunct appointment. Such
evaluations and recommendations shall be based solely on the
teaching effectiveness of the adjunct faculty member.
3. Department and Program Assignments for Adjuncts
Each adjunct bargaining unit member will be assigned to a
department or program for purposes of evaluation, seniority, and
promotion.
B. Seniority Status of Adjunct Faculty
Adjunct faculty who have taught a minimum of thirty-six (36) credit
hours (or the equivalent applied hours) within six (6) consecutive years
(including summers) for the University shall be given "preferred" status for
courses for which they are qualified. A twenty-four (24) month break in
service, whether voluntary or due to a lack of work, will terminate an
adjunct faculty member's preferred status. The count for such status shall
be retroactive to September 1993. Appointment to courses from the pool of
qualified adjunct faculty shall occur in the following order, following
assignment of workloads to full-time faculty pursuant to Article XXVII:
1. First Adjunct Priority
Adjunct faculty with Priority Appointment status, as defined in
Section C below, shall first be offered courses up to their maximum
allowed workload. If there are insufficient available courses or
sections of courses to provide qualified Priority Appointment status
appointees with as many courses/sections as they have requested
and if there is more than one Priority Appointment status appointee
requesting available courses, the courses shall be awarded on the
basis of seniority. Seniority for purposes of this section shall be
computed on the basis of the number of semesters of service,
excluding summer sessions. The details of the application of
seniority to be applied shall be agreed to by the AAUP and the
University.
2. Second Adjunct Priority
A distinguished "Visiting" faculty member, hired pursuant Article
VII (C) shall be deemed to be more senior than an adjunct holding
preferred status for purposes of workload assignments, provided the
"Visiting" faculty member is employed at least half-time with
benefits equivalent to those accorded Priority Status Adjuncts or
better.
106
3. Third Adjunct Priority
Adjunct faculty in the seniority pool who hold preferred
appointment status will then be offered courses up to their allowable
workload. If there are insufficient available courses or sections to
provide qualified preferred adjunct faculty in the seniority pool with
as many courses/sections they have requested, the available courses
shall be awarded on the basis of seniority. Seniority for the purpose
of this Section shall be computed on the basis of the number of
semesters of service, excluding summer sessions. The details of the
application of seniority to be applied shall be agreed to by the
AAUP and the University.
4. Opportunity to Teach
No adjunct faculty member shall be denied the opportunity to teach
a course for the purpose of denying him/her the opportunity to
subsequently achieve preferred appointment status or to apply for
Priority Appointment status.
C. Adjunct Priority Appointment Status
1. Lawrenceville Adjuncts Holding Priority Appointment Status
Adjunct members of the bargaining unit appointed to teaching
departments or programs on the Lawrenceville campus who have
previously been granted Priority Appointment status shall continue
to maintain such status if they continue to teach an average of
twelve (12) hours per year during the most recent three (3) year
period.
2. Lawrenceville Adjuncts Granted Priority Appointment Status
Adjunct members of the bargaining unit appointed to departments
on the Lawrenceville campus who attain an average of twelve (12)
hours of teaching per year for the previous three (3) years and who
apply for and are approved for Priority Appointment status
according to the procedures of Section E shall be granted Priority
Appointment status and shall continue to maintain such status if
they continue to teach an average of twelve (12) hours per year
during the Fall and/or Spring semester in the most recent three-year
period.
3. Westminster Adjuncts Holding Priority Appointment Status
Adjunct members of the bargaining unit appointed to departments
on the Westminster campus, who as of September 1, 1994, were
granted Priority Appointment status shall continue to maintain such
status if they continue to teach an average of twelve (12) classroom
hours (or the equivalent applied hours) per year during the most
recent three-year period.
107
4. Westminster Adjuncts Granted Priority Appointment Status
Adjunct members of the bargaining unit appointed to departments
on the Westminster campus, who subsequent to September 1, 1994,
attain an average of fourteen (14) classroom hours (or the equivalent
applied hours) during the previous three (3) years and who apply for
and are approved for Priority Appointment status according to the
procedures of Section E shall be accorded Priority Appointment
status and shall continue to maintain such status if they continue to
teach an average of fourteen (14) classroom hours (or the equivalent
applied hours) per year in the most recent three-year period.
5. Break in Service
An adjunct faculty member holding Priority Appointment status
may request of the dean a break in service of up to one calendar
year, which if approved by the dean will not result in loss of Priority
Appointment status. One such break may be requested in any five
(5) year period. The University shall not be obligated to provide
benefits during such a break in service.
D. Adjunct Library Faculty
Certain adjunct librarians shall be granted priority in appointment
for bargaining unit work for which they are qualified (“Priority
Appointment status”). Such adjunct members of the library faculty are as
follows:
1. Library Adjuncts Holding Priority Appointment Status
Adjunct members of the bargaining unit, who have been employed
as library faculty and who have previously been granted Priority
Appointment status shall continue to maintain such status if they
continue to work, on average, on at least a half-time basis in the
most recent three-year period.
2. Library Adjuncts Granted Priority Appointment Status
Adjunct members of the bargaining unit, who are employed as
library faculty on at least a half-time basis during the previous three
(3) years and who apply for and are approved for Priority
Appointment status according to the procedures of Section E shall
be accorded Priority Appointment status. They shall continue to
maintain such status if they continue to work, on average, on at least
a half-time basis in the most recent three-year period.
E. Adjunct Workload
Adjunct members of the bargaining unit appointed to departments
or programs on the Lawrenceville campus who held Priority Appointment
status as of September 1, 1994, and who continue to hold Priority
Appointment status and adjunct members of the bargaining unit appointed
108
to departments or programs on the Princeton campus who held Priority
Appointment or Preferred Appointment status as of September 1, 2008, and
who continue to hold Priority or Preferred Appointment status, shall
continue to be eligible to teach up to nine (9) classroom contact hours in a
single semester but shall not be eligible to claim full-time status because of
such teaching load. All other adjunct members of the bargaining unit shall
teach no more than six (6) classroom contact hours (except that adjunct
faculty teaching Musicianship may teach up to 7.5 classroom hours and
adjunct faculty of WCA up to fifteen (15) applied contact hours) in a single
semester.
F. Notice of Workload
The University shall provide adjunct faculty with as much advance
notice as practicable of their next term's workload assignments so as to
allow them reasonable time to prepare course materials and to order books
and supplies at the same time as the full-time faculty. The University may
grant annual contracts to adjunct members of the faculty who have held
Priority Appointment status for a minimum of three (3) years. Such annual
contracts are contingent upon sufficient enrollment for the assigned
courses. If a course assigned to an adjunct faculty member holding Priority
Appointment status is cancelled because of insufficient enrollment,
unstaffed courses or courses previously assigned to adjunct members of the
faculty without Priority Appointment status shall be reassigned to the
faculty member whose course was cancelled. Courses assigned to an
adjunct faculty member holding Priority Appointment status may be
reassigned to a full-time member of the faculty whose course assignment,
through cancellation of a course or courses, fails to meet the required
minimum load. However, unstaffed sections, overload sections, and
sections previously assigned to an adjunct member of the faculty without
Priority Appointment status will be reassigned to such full-time member of
the faculty before a section or sections are reassigned from an adjunct
member of the faculty holding Priority Appointment status. Sections
assigned to an adjunct member of the faculty holding Priority Appointment
status shall not be reassigned to a full-time member of the faculty to
accommodate a request from the full-time member of the faculty for an
overload assignment, if such request was not made by the deadline set by
the department chair during the workload planning process.
G. Application Procedures for Priority Appointment Status
To apply for Priority Appointment status, an adjunct faculty
member who meets the eligibility requirement set forth in this Article shall
notify his/her departmental chairperson/program director by October 15.
The full-time members of the department or program shall have the
professional responsibility to evaluate the teaching effectiveness or support
of the teaching-learning process of such individual and to submit to the
dean by November 15 a recommendation concerning Priority Appointment
109
status for such individual. This recommendation shall be based solely on
the evaluation of the adjunct member’s teaching effectiveness or support of
the teaching-learning process. The evaluation shall follow the same
procedures for departmental participation, candidate's review of
department's and chairperson's reports, and dean's review as set forth for
non-tenured faculty members in Article X, Sections A (1-3) and B. The
dean shall send to the candidate a written evaluation by December 15,
specifying whether the candidate has been granted Priority Appointment
status. A candidate who is denied Priority Appointment status by the dean
may reapply for such status in any succeeding year, provided the candidate
remains eligible.
H. Extension of Priority Appointment Status
1. Procedures for Applying for the Extension of Priority
Appointment Status to a New Department
If an adjunct member of the bargaining unit holding Priority
Appointment status wishes to teach in a department in which he/she
does not hold such status, he/she shall make a written application to
the new department, declaring that he/she holds Priority
Appointment status and specifying which course or courses he/she
requests to teach in the department. The full-time members of the
department shall evaluate the applicant’s credentials for the
specified course(s) and, if a majority of such full-time members
deem the applicant academically qualified, the department shall
assign him/her up to two (2) available sections of a requested course
on a trial basis. Applicants who are deemed unqualified shall not be
offered courses in the department. After an applicant who has been
deemed qualified has taught two (2) sections in the department, the
full-time members of the department shall provide the applicant
with a written evaluation or evaluations of his/her teaching with
their reasons for approving or denying the extension of Priority
Appointment status to the department. To receive departmental
approval for the extension of Priority Appointment status, the
applicant must receive the approval of a majority of full-time
department members. If the department is in a college other than
the college in which the applicant originally held Priority
Appointment status, the department shall forward any approval of
extension of Priority Appointment status to the dean, who will
render a decision in the manner provided for the dean in Section G.
Applicants who are denied extension of Priority Appointment status
by the department or, when relevant, by the dean shall not be
offered further courses in that department.
2. Procedures for Applying for Extension of Priority Appointment
Status to a New Discipline in a Multi-Disciplined Department
If a part-time member of the bargaining unit holding Priority
Appointment status wishes to teach in a discipline within a multi110
disciplined department other than a discipline in which he/she holds
Priority Appointment status, he/she must apply for extension of
Priority Appointment status to the second discipline, following the
procedures in Section 1.
I. Promotion of Adjunct Faculty Members
Adjunct members of the bargaining unit shall be eligible, after the
completion of at least four (4) semesters, to apply for promotion from
Adjunct Instructor to Adjunct Assistant Professor, at least six (6) semesters
after appointment or promotion to Adjunct Assistant Professor for
promotion to Adjunct Associate Professor, and at least six (6) semesters
after appointment or promotion to Adjunct Associate Professor for
promotion to Adjunct Professor. All of the above requirements refer to
teaching at the University during the Fall and Spring semesters.
Candidates shall apply for promotion by contacting the appropriate
department, program, or division and making arrangements for evaluations
by the department chairperson or director and the members of the
department, program, or division. Such evaluations shall be forwarded to
the appropriate college/school Promotion and Tenure Committee and the
application shall be processed by such with all of the procedures provided
for in Article VIII. For processing of applications for promotion of adjunct
faculty members who are not assigned to a college, three (3) faculty
bargaining unit members selected by the members of the program, as
defined by the UAPC, the director, the Provost, the Associate Provost, and
the Chairperson of the Promotion and Tenure Committee shall serve as a
Promotion Committee. Standards for promotion shall be as follows:
1. Effective Teaching or Support of the Teaching-Learning Process
Candidates must show evidence of effective teaching or, for library
faculty, effective support of the teaching-learning process, as
required under Article VIII for full-time members of the bargaining
unit.
2. Scholarly and/or Appropriate Professional Activity
For promotion from Adjunct Instructor to Adjunct Assistant
Professor, candidates must show evidence of scholarly and/or
appropriate professional activity. For promotion to a higher rank,
evidence of some scholarly activity of the nature described in
Article VIII for full-time members of the bargaining unit is required.
3. Contributions to Department, College, or University
Candidates must show evidence of contributions to the department,
college, or University.
111
J. Faculty Rank and Tenure
Appointment of adjunct faculty on a continuing basis under this
Article does not entitle such adjunct faculty members to full-time tenure
track appointments. Nor shall possession of an adjunct faculty rank entitle
an individual to the corresponding rank if such individual becomes a fulltime
member of the faculty. Instead, such individual shall be required to
undergo the appointment procedure under Article VII and may be assigned
such rank as may be appropriate.
K. Salary Limits
In the event that a full-time member of the bargaining unit leaves
the ranks of full-time faculty, and is subsequently hired as an adjunct,
his/her salary will be no greater than that which he/she would have earned
if he/she had remained on the full-time faculty, reduced to the proportion of
the full-time load he/she is teaching.
L. Working Conditions
1. All adjunct facuty shall have access to appropriate space in
order to meet privately with students in their classes.
2. Adjunct faculty shall have access to all course-support services
(secretarial, copying, mail, etc.) on the same basis as full-time
faculty.
3. All adjunct faculty shall be provided with voicemail and email accounts.

Publications #3: Legal issues in distance education

Legal Issues in Distance Education, Binder
Publication Type: Compendia
Version: HardCopy
Member Price: $115.00
Non-Member Price: $160.00

Edited by Deborah C. Brown, John R. Przypyszny, and Katherine R. Tromble

The advent of online education - both in the form of so-called "distance learning" and as a supplement to traditional classroom teaching and learning - continues to dramatically alter the face of higher education. The use of new technology, including all of the facets of the Internet, presents a host of legal and practical questions for colleges and universities. The contents of this compendium are organized around five sections. The first includes a variety of resources intended to familiarize the reader with the myriad issues than can arise in effectuating distance education; the second section addresses accreditation and state and federal regulation; the third section focuses on copyright, intellectual property, and other technology issues; the fourth section examines discrimination- and accessibility-related issues for individuals with disabilities; and the final section includes materials relating to student affairs and academic and conduct codes in the context of distance education. The compendium also includes a listing of additional resources and helpful websites. 2007. 962 pp. Also available on CD-ROM. NACUA member institutions: $115.00; Non-member institutions: $160.00.Buy it from NACUA here.

Publications #2: Student Risk Management Compendium

Student Risk Management in Higher Education: A Legal Compendium, Binder
Publication Type: Compendia
Version: HardCopy
Member Price: $120.00
Non-Member Price: $165.00


Edited by Kimberly J. Novak and Art M. Lee


Managing and minimizing the risks associated with students and student-related activities is no small feat. Given the tremendous breadth of activities that comprise the higher education environment today, the types of risks that exist are practically endless. This compendium brings together more than 50 law review and other journal articles, reports, conference presentations, and institutional policies, procedures, and forms. It examines the fundamental concepts and philosophies related to student affairs risk management in higher education, as well as the issues of liability and transfer of risk. The majority of the compendium outlines strategies and provides a panoply of resources for specific events and situations, including: student travel and transportation, residential life, student organizations, events involving minors, athletic events, sports clubs, alcohol and other drugs, high risk behavior and mental health issues, and academic internships and externships. This is an essential resource for higher education administrators and attorneys who work with and⁄or advise students in activities outside the classroom. 2007. 1,112 pp.Buy it from NACUA here.