From: greeny@top.cis.syr.edu (J. S. Greenfield)
Newsgroups: misc.legal.moderated
Subject:  Re: Is this legal
Date: 27 Dec 1993 19:51:27 -0500
Message-ID: <2fnvuf$s0e@panix.com>

In article <2fb1d8$kvs@panix.com> jlchan@dolphin.upenn.edu (Julian L Chan) writes:
>
>I'm just a second year, but. . . . you are NOT in a contract relationship with
>your professor or even the school.

I think you should ask your professor for some cites.  The information I have
contradicts his claim.

According to Education Law: Public and Private (W. Valente,  Volume 2, West
Publishing Co., 370 (1985)),

  ...the status and rights of private school students rest mainly upon 
  express and implied terms and conditions of their enrollment.  
  ...student enrollment in a private school carries with it an agreement 
  to accept and observe the noticed rules and policies of the school, 
  both written and oral, that are found in the agreement of 
  registration, the school catalog and handbooks, student codes of 
  conduct, announced directives, and customary and generally recognized 
  school requirements.

A Practical Guide to Legal Issues Affecting College Teachers (P. 
Hollander et al, College Administration Publications, Inc., 3-6 (1985)) 
also identifies this fact,

  Today, courts recognize that when a student pays tuition for a college 
  education, a legal contract comes into being.  The student has 
  contracted for an education as advertised by the institution in its 
  catalog and by its representatives.

The Guide also identifies handbooks, professional standards, customs and 
traditions as sources of contractual rights:

  Handbooks:  Student, faculty, staff and other handbooks contain the 
  more detailed rules and regulations that implement the basic policies 
  set by the governing board.  These rules and regulations also become 
  part of the contracts relating to teachers and students.

  Professional Standards:  Examples of these would be the standards of 
  the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), the American 
  Association of University Administrators (AAUA), and the National 
  Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA).

  Customs and Traditions:  Under certain circumstances, longstanding and 
  widely accepted traditions at a college may form the basis for legal 
  rights.  For instance, at some colleges that do not recognize 
  officially the AAUP time limits for notice of faculty terminations, a 
  tradition of providing that some timely notice has been followed 
  routinely for many years, so that if one faculty member suddenly does 
  not receive such notice, the faculty member may claim a "right" to 
  that notice.  Also, where an institution has a tradition of allowing 
  students to take a re-exam, then a particular student cannot be 
  refused a request for such.



> My contracts professor brought up this hypo and then cited a case in
>which a court ruled that a contract does not exist. Schools are given a
>lot of deference by courts.  Cardozo even wanted an exception to the
>general rule, that a promise of a gift is not enforceable.  The exception
>would make promises of donations to schools and charities enforcable.
>
>Here, your teacher made a representation. Did you agree? Did you pay him?
>You may have paid the school, but for what?  Did you pay for the right to
>attend, the right to be taught, the right to be treated fairly, etc.
>Basically, when you pay tuition, your contract is that you will be allowed
>to attend classes under rules, standards, and enforcement mechanisms set by
>the school. If you could sue, which I doubt, you could only sue if the
>school policy was violated by your teacher's conduct AND the system of
>enforcement was not followed. 

I don't doubt that a case would quickly be dismissed (without prejudice)
if the student had not exhausted the grievance procedures within the
institution--but that isn't really the issue at hand here.


-- 
J. S. Greenfield                                         greeny@top.cis.syr.edu
(I like to put 'greeny' here, 
but my d*mn system wants a 
*real* name!)                        "What's the difference between an orange?"