By: Cori Smith*
Abstract
The legal relationship between a university and its students continues to evolve. Prior to the 1960s, courts did not intrude into universities’ monitoring and disciplining of student misconduct. However, after the 1960s, courts intervened more frequently to limit university discretion in monitoring and disciplining student misconduct, which allowed students to enjoy greater individual freedoms on campus.
The increased judicial interference in the university-student relationship necessarily diminished the university’s unilateral authority to monitor and discipline students. This trend introduced a particularly difficult question: when can a student hold a university responsible for failing to protect that student from harm caused by another student? The framework courts apply in answering this question differs depending on if the injurious student-on-student misconduct qualifies as discriminatory.
When a student plaintiff is injured by non-discriminatory student-on-student misconduct, courts apply a traditional negligence framework to hold universities liable for failing to prevent the student plaintiff’s injuries. However, when a student plaintiff’s injury results from student-on-student discrimination, courts apply a deliberate indifference framework.
The traditional negligence framework disincentivizes student misconduct prevention programs, inadequately accounts for students’ individual rights, and disincentivizes efficient settlements, whereas the deliberate indifference framework does not. A novel approach, termed the Civil Rights Approach, can help address these issues. The Civil Rights Approach integrates the framework of discrimination cases into the traditional negligence analysis for cases arising out of student-on-student misconduct. The Civil Rights Approach allows courts to address the unique attributes of the university-student relationship in cases arising out of nondiscriminatory student-on-student misconduct.
*J.D. Candidate, The Pennsylvania State University, Penn State Law, 2022.