LAW 992LEC - Higher Education Law

This course will take a deep dive into the legal and policy issues in higher education that have dominated the headlines over the past year. Co-taught by President Barack Obama’s former Secretary of Education and current SUNY Chancellor, John King, SUNY Senior Vice Chancellor for Legal Affairs and General Counsel Kapil Longani, and Chief Deputy Counsel and Chief of Staff to the General Counsel, Bess Chiu, this course will challenge students to think about the ramifications of a rapidly changing higher education landscape. Starting with the Supreme Court’s decision in SFFA v. Harvard/UNC, which overturned decades of precedent and specifically, race conscious admissions, the class will discuss how this decision may affect scholarships, recruiting, and aspects of higher education that allow for preferences based on race or sex. The class will then turn to addressing the legal effects of the aftermath of the October 7th attack in Israel, and specifically, how campuses are attempting to strike the appropriate balance between robust free expression, federal civil rights compliance, and ensuring that students are able to pursue their educational goals in a harassment free environment. Finally, the course will conclude by discussing the policy and legal implications of the Biden Administration’s revised Title IX rules, the subsequent injunctions, and how these rules have fundamentally reordered the historic purpose behind this law.

Credits: 1