Legal Implications of Academic Advising
Challenge as Opportunity: The Academy in the Best and Worst of Times
A National Symposium
November 20-21, 2009
Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, and Spelman College
Atlanta, Georgia
Audrey Wolfson Latourette, Richard Stockton College of New Jersey
Colleges and universities employ a variety of means to afford academic advising to their students, including the use of faculty serving as preceptors and/or a Director and advising staff emanating from a Center of Academic Advising, among others. Whether the institution of higher education utilizes the Banner CAPP Degree Evaluation system, old school methods of advising documents or curriculum sheets, e-mail correspondence, or on-site interviews, the goal essentially remains the same: to provide a structure wherein students can satisfy all academic requisites, maintain the necessary cumulative average, fulfill athletic and scholarship requirements, and graduate in a timely fashion. Irrespective of what approach is adopted, many in the academy evince concern regarding the legal implications of erroneous guidance given a student which hampers their ability to comply with the foregoing objectives. Indeed, students do employ a variety of legal theories, including estoppel,
i breach of contract, and negligence, to enforce statements issued by academic advisors or other representatives of the university......
Courts evince an increased willingness to afford students relief where the students were able to demonstrate that they had relied on numerous assurances issued by responsible parties at the university, or where the college’s printed materials were contradictory in nature, or where the university representatives engaged in intentional misrepresentation upon which students relied to their detriment. In
Blank v. Board of Higher Education of the City of New York,xx for example, a student in the three plus one program (three years of undergraduate studies coupled with one year of law school would satisfy the requisites for an undergraduate degree) at Brooklyn College was advised by the Office of Counseling, the head of the psychology program, and two psychology professors who supervised independent studies courses that the requisites for the degree could be satisfied with two independent studies taken off campus. All subsequently denied making such promises. Further, the defendants insisted that the student had acted without benefit of the dean’s permission, and that requirements mandating independent studies courses be taken in residence should be strictly enforced.
xxi The student, after completing the off campus courses, had received an invitation to attend graduation, had attended with his family, and then failed to see his name in the graduation bulletin, and, in fact, was not awarded the degree at the ceremony. In this case the court held the college was estopped from denying the proffered statements, from asserting the courses had to be taken in another manner, and from refusing to tender the degree.
xxii The several assurances tendered by the dean’s agents performing within the scope of their apparent authority, coupled with bulletins that contradicted each other, or were silent on the topic of whether independent studies had to be taken on campus, were the primary factors underlying the decision. In a somewhat similar fashion, the transfer student in
Healy v. Schenectady County Community Collegexxiii had consulted with numerous college officials as to the proper course of study; yet the college claimed he had insufficient credits in his major to graduate. The student claimed he had conferred with the Dean, Director of Admissions, Acting President, Guidance Counselor and Chairman of the Mathematics Department of the college. The court noted that an implied contract exists between a student and a private university, and that “there is no reason why this principle should not apply to a public university or community college.”
xxiv Thus,
the court held an implied contract existed at the public university that if the student complied with the terms stated by the representatives, he would receive his degree; therefore, the college was estopped from denying the acts of its agents, and the court directed the college to grant the student a degree. And finally, in
Byrd v. Dr. Horace Lamar (Alabama State University)xxvi where a college intentionally misrepresented the existence and viability of a major the student wished to pursue, both in college catalogs and in representations by the Dean and the Vice President of Academic Affairs,
the court ruled the representatives who induced reasonable reliance on the part of the student were not immune from civil liability. In this case, the officials at Alabama State repeatedly assured a student that he would be able to pursue a music media major, as had been represented in the university catalog. Instead, the courses were not offered, or when offered were taught by untrained faculty,
xxvii and the equipment necessary to teach such a specialized curriculum was never forthcoming. The court held that while the college as a state institution is afforded immunity pursuant to the state constitution,
the state agent who willfully, maliciously, fraudulently or in bad faith advises a student is not provided such protection.xxviii
Case law suggests as well, however, that where repeated assurances by multiple authorities are offered to a student regarding course selection requirements for graduation, or where college catalogs or brochures contain contradictory information respecting such requirements, and
a student complies in good faith with such advice, the institution may be bound by those contractual assurances if tendered by its publications and/or its agents acting with apparent authority. In an era of increased competition for a client base among institutions of higher education, and in an era of greater expectations from a consumer-oriented student population,
it behooves the college or university to clearly set forth the student’s responsibility in all institutional publications, eliminate ambiguities or inconsistencies regarding requirements in said publications, and formally train its advising staff and faculty in the standards and record-keeping attendant to good quality academic advising. Such measures will reflect the institution’s bona fide efforts to address the best interests of its students while concomitantly serving to provide a defense to allegations of erroneous advising.
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