Nest Of Legal Issues Will Confront Higher Ed This Fall

Uppermost is likely to be liability for students, staff or employees who contract the Covid-19 virus. In those cases the expert prognosis – as it has been for public-facing businesses in general – is that plaintiffs will have a difficult time establishing the requisite causality. That’s the good new for defendants. Bad news is that requiring the signing of waivers, an increasingly common strategy for educational institutions as well as businesses, may not do much for the defense if negligence is alleged. For colleges and universities, a number of other Covid-related legal issues could be in the cards, as detailed in this post from the Inside Higher Ed website. Some are specific to educational institutions. One attorney, for example, notes that some faculty union contracts stipulate that faculty cannot be asked to teach online. That’s an issue that in theory could be resolved with enegotiation, but others appear more intractable.