Should Colleges Have Liability Protection? – Inside Higher Ed
Colleges ask to be protected from coronavirus lawsuits if they acted responsibly. What should they be doing to protect students, faculty and staff members?
Two weeks ago, Senator Lamar Alexander, a Republican from Tennessee, said he spoke to about 90 college and university presidents in his state about reopening campuses this fall. All of them asked if Congress would protect their institutions from coronavirus-related lawsuits if they’d taken reasonable precautions but a student got sick anyway, he said.
Alexander, the influential chairman of the Senate education committee and himself the former president of the University of Tennessee, told reporters it was important to protect colleges from being sued if they acted responsibly.
“Schools and businesses will be less likely to reopen if they think they’ll be sued if someone gets sick,” he said in a call with reporters, “particularly if they follow reasonable practices and still get sued.”
As Inside Higher Ed first reported, colleges and universities have been telling Congress, and Vice President Mike Pence in a meeting two weeks ago, that those who act irresponsibly should still face the threat of lawsuits. But those who take reasonable precautions shouldn’t have to worry about getting sued, many in the industry have said.