There are various sources of law in any organization, institution, or society. Some of these laws may arise from court interpretations of established social norms, and others are written in the constitution or passed by Congress. Higher learning institutions such as universities and colleges are not an exception as they also have some laws. Typically, higher learning institutions recognize and apply different sources of law in the administration of justice. In higher learning institutions, sources of law usually derive their legitimacy by referring to the supreme powers. Universities and colleges have some rules which dictate how students, employees, professors, and board members ought to conduct themselves within the institution. This paper will focus on the internal and external sources of law in colleges and universities, discuss various prevalent issues in these higher learning institutions, and finally explore some of the institution administration's decisions concerning multiple law sources.
Higher learning institutions' governance entirely depends on the overall structure of the institution. In the university that I study, the governance is divided into external and internal. External governance is the process and design in which external players such as the government impact university affairs' governance. In contrast, internal governance refers to the process and structure in which the university governs itself. In internal governance, the institution generates some laws to govern itself. These laws are generally referred to as institutional rules. External laws delineate internal laws and are developed by the state or federal government to eradicate any discrepancies among various internal sources of law.
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I attend three sources of internal laws in the university: institutional contracts, academic customs and usage, and institutional rules and regulations. The institutional contract law dictates the relationship between the university and the student typically. The law outlines the rules that govern students during their entire time of study in the university. Usually, the student signed these university contracts during application, registration, or admission into the campus. Therefore, students are expected to observe this contract because any violation of this contract results in a breach. Any breach of this contract results in money damages or injunctions.
Institutional rules and regulations are other sources of internal laws. These laws typically bind both professors and students to the established institutional norms ( Glückler, & Bathelt, 2017 ). For instance, a rule that forbids students and professors to engage in sexual relationships. These regulations edicts how the students and professors ought to conduct themselves in the institution. These laws have been used severally to ensure no sexual relationships between tutors and the students. Recently, an assistant professor was terminated after the law proved that he had had a sexual relationship with a female student. The last source of internal laws in the university is the academic customs and usage. This source's laws administrate the board of executives, professors, and students in the general rules and the repetition of acts.
There are several external sources of laws that dictate how the university ought to operate. These external sources include court interpretations, the constitution, federal statutes, and state policies. The state governments usually ratify laws to be applied in all universities located in that state. Politics plays a vital role in shaping these policies and thus influencing higher learning institutions' policy landscape. The state policies that are considered the source of laws in the higher learning institutions include guns on campus, free community college, campus sexual assault, and undocumented students. These laws guide the university on how to resolves some conflicts that may arise within the institution. For instance, gun policies prohibit students and other civilians from possessing guns within the institution.
Court interpretation is another source of external laws governing higher learning institutions. Typically, court interpretations are laws that apply to different situations within the organizations. These laws allow students to sue the institution if their needs are not met. Federal statutes are also an external source of laws in higher learning institutions. In enacting laws, federal statutes such as elected officials or Congress usually pass a motion, which is later approved as law to govern various universities and colleges. Considering federal statutes laws, Congresses influenced the law on guns on campus to shape the institution's governance structure.
Due to increased shooting on various campuses, most recently being Virginia Tech University, Congress introduced a bill known as Campus Gun Policy. The bill primarily amended the Higher Education Act by adjusting security reporting on campus ( Arrigo, & Acheson, 2017 ). The bill sought to reduce the number of killings rampant in various higher learning institutions by necessitating various universities to avail security reports about the current policy. The bill also required the university to report criminal offenses and referred arrest for disciplinary action. Finally, the policy called for the universities to show gun policy on their various websites.
In the university, the most prevalent issues include civility, governance, and academic tenure. Academic tenure is an appointment that can be terminated because of program discontinuation, financial constraint, or other unexpected circumstances ( McKiernan, 2019 ). Academic tenure is vital as it protects the academic freedom of researching higher education. According to tenure, a faculty member can be terminated if they have failed to perform their core teaching values or removed due to public research findings. Typically, the academic tenure serves the people's interest because the professors or researchers controlled by corporations, special interested groups, or the government are customarily dismissed. Academic tenure is, therefore, a prevalent issue because the only eligible members are full-time faculty members.
The other prevalent issue in the university is governance. The university typically involves various faculties in making vital decisions. These critical decisions include the formulation of teaching policies, budget preparation, and selecting multiple university administrators. The institution employee has significantly contributed to the shared governance with the help of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) staff. The AAUP staff guides and advises various members of the institution. Civility is another prevalent issue in higher learning institutions. Even though the university board has encouraged opinion expression, any breach of this sovereignty results in contract termination.
Conclusion
Most universities in the country are governed by both internal and external sources of laws. These laws play a vital role in the smooth running of the institution. Some of the internal sources of laws in the university I attend include academic custom and usage, institutional rules and regulations, and institutional contracts. The external sources include federal statutes, the constitution, state policies, and court interpretations. The external sources of law dictate how the administrators should run the institution and eradicate any inconsistencies present in the internal laws. University governance, civility, and academic tenure are some of the prevalent issues.
References
Arrigo, B. A., & Acheson, A. (2017). Concealed carry bans and the American college campus: A law, social sciences, and policy perspective. Contemporary justice review , 19 (1), 120-141.
Glückler, J., & Bathelt, H. (2017). Institutional context and innovation. In The Elgar companion to innovation and knowledge creation . Edward Elgar Publishing.
McKiernan, E. C., Schimanski, L. A., Nieves, C. M., Matthias, L., Niles, M. T., & Alperin, J. P. (2019). Meta-research: use of the journal impact factor in academic review, promotion, and tenure evaluations. Elife , 8 , e47338.
