Student Handbook: A Crucial Higher Education Risk Management Tool
Best For: Higher Education
Date/Time: 6/18/2015, 1 PM Eastern
Duration: Scheduled for 90 minutes including question and answer session.
Presenter(s): James Ottavio Castagnera, Ph.D. and Attorney at Law
Price: $299.00 webinar, $349.00 CD, $399.00 webinar + CD. Each option may be viewed by an unlimited number of attendees in one room using one unique login. CD includes full audio presentation, question and answer session and presentation slides.
Who Should Attend? Administrators, faculty, staff, higher education counsel
The 21st Century has heralded dramatic changes in higher education. Among them is the transformation of students and their parents into savvy consumers. They are buying a product − a diploma, a certification, a license to practice a profession − and they have many more options in the marketplace than ever before. The product you offer is expensive and your consumers demand that you deliver. Otherwise, at best they’ll go to another institution. At worst, they’ll sue you. Somewhere in the middle, your disciplinary actions may just be subject to challenge, but, even in this situation, without a well written and defensible student handbook in place your institution may find it difficult to defend its student disciplinary decisions.
This new business environment colleges and universities find themselves in demands that the institution’s handbook be a carefully crafted document, designed to deal with the multitude of unpredictable, but inevitable, issues that arise within a community comprised of bright but mostly young clientele.
The student handbook is a crucial piece of the contractual relationship between the institution and its students. As such, it can be a trap that ensnares the institution in a costly legal net. Or it can be a shield, protecting the school and its trustees, officers and employees from lawsuits, as well as publicity debacles. It all depends upon how thoughtfully and effectively the document is crafted − how well the institution’s faculty and staff are trained to use it − and how thoroughly it is integrated into the campus culture. Please join Dr. James Ottavio Castagnera for a review of both the risks and protections which student handbooks are intended to provide and a review of the policies which your student handbook should include.
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN
Just a sampling of the many practical tips you’ll take away:
- Review student disciplinary rules and regulations
- Understand the role of residence life in enforcing the rules
- Know the role of security/public safety in enforcing policies
- Discuss the student judicial process: from initial investigation of the charges to appeal of the discipline imposed
- Discuss special, highly sensitive topics: harassment, bullying and sexual assault
- Understand how academic standards and standing come into play
- Discuss academic integrity and honor systems
- Consider students’ roles in university governance
- Find out how student organizations and activities come into play
- Understand how financial obligations and financial aid issues may be affected
- AND MUCH MORE!
YOUR CONFERENCE LEADER
Your conference leader for “Student Handbook: A Crucial Higher Education Risk Management Tool” is Dr. James Castegnera. Dr. Castegnera holds a law degree and a Ph.D. in American studies from Case Western Reserve University. Jim brings nearly three decades of experience in higher education to this webinar. Prior to law school he served Case Western Reserve as director of university communication. He went on to teach at the University of Texas-Austin, the Widener University Law School, and at the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton Business School. Currently, and for nearly the past 18 years, he has been Rider University’s associate provost and legal counsel. His diverse duties include risk management, regulatory matters, faculty and student disciplinary cases, litigation management, governance and institutional policies.
He is the author of 19 books, including the Handbook for Student Law for Higher Education Administrators (Peter Lang, 2010, revised edition 2014), which is available at Your text to link… and Al Qaeda Goes to College: Impact of the War on Terror on Higher Education (Praeger 2009).
His teaching experience includes continuing legal education courses, MOOCs on the Canvas Network − including “Risk Management in Higher Education: Student Issues” − and presentations at numerous national forums, including the Annual Conference of the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Annual Homeland Defense and Security Higher Education Summit sponsored by the Naval Postgraduate School.
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Creating, Maintaining, and Protecting Student Records: FERPA & Related Requirements
Best For: Higher Education
Date/Time: 6/23/2015, 1 PM Eastern
Duration: Scheduled for 90 minutes including question and answer session.
Presenter(s): James Ottavio Castagnera, Ph.D. and Attorney at Law
Price: $299.00 webinar, $349.00 CD, $399.00 webinar + CD. Each option may be viewed by an unlimited number of attendees in one room. CD includes full audio presentation, question and answer session and presentation slides.
Who Should Attend? College and university administrators, persons making or approving decisions on course materials and supplemental materials, library administrators, materials selection committee members, attorneys representing colleges and universities, compliance personnel
The federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA) governs disclosure of student records and information. If any faculty member, administrator, department, or office maintains records on a student, those records are educational records and must comply with the laws and regulations under FERPA. Often, college and university faculty and administrators are not familiar with the requirements of this and other related laws that demand such records and information to remain confidential except in limited circumstances. Complicating the issue, since the 2007 shooting tragedy at Virginia Tech, the U.S. Department of Education has actively encouraged university faculty and staff to share information about their students, especially where a student appears to present a threat to himself or others in the campus community.
Education records include a range of information about students that is maintained by colleges and universities in any recorded way, from handwritten all the way to online and everything between. Examples of the types of information FERPA covers include: test results and grades, personal information, health related information, pictures, videos, and disciplinary action. And as comprehensive as the list may seem, it’s not all-inclusive, and for that matter provides little insight into the types of records that are not considered educational records. Personal notes made by teachers and other school officials that are not shared with others are not considered education records. Additionally, law enforcement records created and maintained by a school or district’s law enforcement unit are also not education records. Between what clearly is and clearly is not an education record lies a gray area fraught with mines.
As central as FERPA is to the realm of student records, it still is only one of many laws of which administrators must be aware. While parents and students have no private right of action under FERPA, state personal injury law − notably defamation and invasion of privacy − more than adequately fills that gap. In our litigious society, parents and students may be ready to sue, when accusations of sexual assault or harassment, academic integrity, mental and psychological disabilities, or drug and alcohol abuse are at issue. Accurate records of internal institutional proceedings regarding any of these volatile issues may mean the difference between a successful defense and a seven-figure jury verdict.
Students and their records can also be caught up in issues involving faculty and staff. In one current California case the plaintiff, a former faculty member denied tenure, is seeking access to student evaluations of her classes and those of former colleagues who were granted tenure. In an ongoing New Jersey case, a terminated coach has asked the labor arbitrator assigned to her grievance to exclude from the case unfavorable exit interviews of her graduating-senior athletes. These are just two examples in which legal forums are struggling to balance students’ privacy rights with the rights of litigants to have their “day in court.” Last, but not least, universities’ growing use of social media creates fresh opportunities to run afoul of FERPA.
Mishandling of student records may also lead to complaints to the Department of Education, and such violations of FERPA can lead administrative sanctions, the most extreme being loss of federal funding. When it comes to handling student records properly there is obviously much uncertainty coupled with the potential risks associated with getting it wrong. Please join Dr. James Ottavio Castagnera, attorney at law, as he takes you step-by-step through the underlying case law and offers school administrators practical step-by-step guidance for navigating this sensitive area of the law and avoiding allegations of impropriety.
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN
Just a sampling of what this webinar will cover:
- What are and are not student records under FERPA
- When parents and students can and cannot access their records
- When you shouldn’t, and when you absolutely should, share student records with colleagues
- What training you should offer/require for administrators, faculty and staff
- What actions you should take when a FERPA violation comes to your attention
- How to protect yourself and your institution from defamation and invasion of privacy suits
- How to balance confidentiality and due-process rights
- What are best practices and legal requirements with regard to maintaining and destroying student records
- Review how directory information differs from an education record.
- Get practical step-by-step guidance for handling specific types of records and requests for records
- Review the process for amending education records
- AND MUCH MORE!
YOUR CONFERENCE LEADER
Your conference leader for “Creating, Maintaining, and Protecting Student Records: FERPA & Related Requirements” is Dr. James Ottavio Castagnera. Dr. Castegnera holds a law degree and a Ph.D. in American studies from Case Western Reserve University. Jim brings nearly three decades of experience in higher education to this webinar. Prior to law school he served Case Western Reserve as director of university communication. He went on to teach at the University of Texas-Austin, the Widener University Law School, and at the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton Business School. Currently, and for nearly the past 18 years, he has been Rider University’s associate provost and legal counsel. His diverse duties include risk management, regulatory matters, faculty and student disciplinary cases, litigation management, governance and institutional policies.
His teaching experience includes continuing legal education courses, webinars and presentations at numerous national forums, such as the Annual Conference of the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Annual Homeland Defense and Security Higher Education Summit sponsored by the Naval Postgraduate School.
EducationAdminWebAdvisor.com QUALITY COMMITMENT
EducationAdminWebAdvisor, a division of DKG Media, LP, wants you to be satisfied with your webinar. If this webinar does not meet your expectations, email us atservice@educationadminwebadvisor.com.
CERTIFICATES OF PARTICIPATION
EducationAdminWebAdvisor certificates of participation are available to everyone completing this webinar.
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