Running head: HI ED 849 FINAL PAPER 1

Jordan Glover

Hi Ed 849: Legal Issues in Higher Education

Penn State World Campus

Liability Involved in On-Campus Recruitment Events & Campus Visitation

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On-campus recruitment events and visitation are increasingly becoming more and more

important as students determine where they will continue their educational career after high

school. While many types of students participate in events on campus, the large majority of

students that are traveling and visiting schools are considered to be traditional students, that are

finishing up high school and looking for somewhere to take the next step in their lives after

graduation. For colleges and universities, having students and their families want to come visit

campus is a huge perk in the recruitment process, as it allows the school to really put their best

foot forward and wow guests as soon as they step foot on campus. However, for every pro to on-

campus recruitment, there are cons as well.

Probably most importantly, on-campus recruitment events are time consuming to plan

and expensive to put on frequently. Offering a variety of programs throughout the application

and admissions process is wonderful because it allows families to make the most educated

decision regarding their student’s institution of choice, but it also means increased workload for

either current staff, or the hiring of new staff specifically to coordinate and plan events.

Additionally, on-campus recruitment events are competitive within the world of college

admissions. Many schools offer similar programs to each other, and they all happen at the same

points in the cycle making it so that students applying to many schools may not be able to visit

all of them.

There is a large variety of event types and styles when it comes to on-campus

recruitment. There is the typical “daily visit” categorized by usually, an admissions presentation

and campus tour. They may include a few other components, but classically are just these two

things. Many schools offer large-scale prospective student open houses, which are typically most
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effective when they are campus-wide. In addition to prospective open houses, many schools

offer admitted or accepted student programs or open houses for those students who actually

receive admission to the school to further help them make up their minds about attending that

institution. In addition to these standard programs, many schools also offer overnight visits,

shadowing programs for classes, private group visits, etc. making the on-campus recruitment

industry a big part of the admissions process these days.

For those professionals that plan and coordinate on-campus recruitment events, there are

a million and one things to consider throughout the year to ensure each and every event is the

perfect mix of fun, informative, and engaging. There are often tons of small details to keep track

of, and no matter how hard planners try, things are always going to pop up or slip through the

cracks.

Because on-campus recruitment works directly with the general public, there is even

more to consider as events and visits are planned. Many schools see thousands of visitors per

year, and of course there are certain risks that an institution takes by welcoming lots of visitors to

campus each year that are unfamiliar with the school, anxious because of the process, and in

general, are moving around campus either in a vehicle or on foot.

Throughout this paper, various types of liability issues related to the on-campus

recruitment event will be discussed. Because this topic is so specific, there are a few limitations

in terms of research that should be addressed. First and foremost, information on some of these

specific research questions is limited online. Schools do not typically want to publish incidents,

especially incidents related to guests visiting the campus. Additionally, many of the research

questions do not have existing, specific research to review when considering the legal
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implications of some of the topics. Research was utilized, but so were examples, and discussions

to create this paper and review this topics.

First and foremost, students visiting campus are, most of the time, minors in the eyes of

the law. Because minors are involved in the on-campus visit, there are a lot of other things to

consider when planning outside of just typical concerns with large people on campus. Planners

must follow institutions guidelines relating to minors, as well as laws set in place by the local

area (if applicable), state, and national government. In most cases, parents or guardians are

accompanying minors when they are visiting campus, and more often than not students attend as

a “family” so this is not necessarily a problem. However, there are a few specific examples of

times that this becomes a problem that will be outlined next.

In the past few years, many schools have begun offering “shadowing” programs where

students can come to campus and visit classes with a current student. These students are typically

tour guides or admissions staff. For many schools, this is a one-on-one program, so guides may

need to have specific clearances or training in order to interact one-on-one with minors. Many

institutions have additional policies requiring that no student be alone with a minor, so in those

instances shadowing programs need to have a two-on-one approach, or more than two students

per guide. These events are the most common example of times that minors would be alone with

current students or guides for an extended period of time, in a planned fashion.

When working with minors in any capacity and they will be on their own or at least

without a parent, one of the most important things that a planner can collect is a medical release

or participation release form. This makes the list of “things to worry about most” in the

Gallagher Higher Education Practice’s paper called “Managing the Risk of Minors on Campus”.
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If minors are alone without their parents and there is no way to get ahold of them during a

medical emergency, institutions who did not secure a form or waiver may have their hands tied

in terms of being able to help the situation (McLaughlin, 2012).

To make things even more complicated, most institutions are now hosting overnight

programs for many types of students. There are so many liability issues to consider with these

programs, as students typically attend alone (which may include driving, flying, traveling a great

distance alone), and are on campus for an extended period of time. Additionally, at many

institutions, students stay overnight in the residence halls with student hosts. When looking at

these events with the lens of legal issues, there are red flags throughout the whole event.

However, these events are incredibly successful and can increase yield for an institution by a

substantial amount – so institutions are okay with taking the risk. It seems appropriate to

continue having these programs, as long as specific measures are taken to ensure that the

institution is covered should something go wrong.

There are many good examples of forms and paperwork that institutions utilize for

overnight visits to ensure that all bases are covered for students. In an online form from Smith

College, a small school in Massachusetts, students must sign off on a variety of disclaimer

statements. The overnight program for this institution takes place over “Open Campus Discovery

Weekend”, and clearly states that all programs are required for students visiting campus. This

also includes a statement indicating that the student will follow all state laws, including laws

related to alcohol and drugs. This is helpful to have on the form should students be caught

drinking underage. This means that while the police can get involved, the admissions office can

act as needed. One negative to this form, is that it only includes information for one emergency
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contact, the parent or guardian. In case the primary contact cannot be reached, having a backup

option in case of an emergency would be a good addition. And, the form does not include a

medical release statement (Overnight Release, n.d.).

Another great example is by Beloit College, a Liberal Arts school in Wisconsin. While

this form is not as in depth, it includes a few important differences from the previous example.

This form includes one question that is helpful; “Has your overnight been coordinated by a

Beloit College Varsity Coach?”. This is helpful to know should anything go wrong on the visit,

who did the coordination and who is responsible for the things that occurred while the minor was

on campus. Additionally, this form includes a clause about permission for emergency treatment,

should it be needed (Beloit College Overnight Stay Agreement, n.d.).

The most in-depth form that was easily found, is the Penn State form. This is because at

Penn State, where I work, we do not host overnight programs in on-campus residence halls, but

we do bus students from all various geographies onto campus. Students are without parents or

guardians for over twenty-four hours, and are not directly supervised for the entire event. There

are a variety of chaperones and staff available, but the activities are group activities, rather than

one-on-one. All of our overnight programs also have academic requirements, which means that

more people than just the student and parent or guardian need to sign off on their participation.

There are a few important parts of this form that I believe ensure that Penn State is “off the

hook” for lack of a better term with students that attend our programs.

The second page of the form includes lengthy medical release statements, which have

multiple statements and also share what steps and precautions will be taken should the student
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need medical attention during the event. The form is even so specific as to include what will

happen with billing, insurance, and payment. Additionally, there is an addendum page to the

form that has more statements should the student need to take medication during the event. And,

the form includes space for all the information about the medication. I believe this is incredibly

important as students may be requiring specific medicine. Should something happen to one of

those students, the form can be taken to doctors or medical staff to ensure everything happening

with the student’s health is appropriate. Finally, this form does include the usual personal

information and release statements. The form also includes additional emergency contacts if the

parent or guardian is unavailable in an emergency (Penn State Admissions Permission Form,

n.d.).

Penn State has taken great lengths to ensure that we are following all appropriate policies.

Following the Sandusky scandal in 2011, regulations at Penn State and laws in Pennsylvania

were updated. Prior to this scandal, we may still have been able to host students on campus for

overnight programs or offer one-on-one shadowing programs but unfortunately, due to the

scandal, these types of things are no longer a possibility for us as a visitation team (Medina,

2011). The things that have happened previously at an institution, whether they are national

scandals or not, can have an impact on what the institution is able to offer in the future. Overall,

in this area of liability, Penn State is doing a fairly good job of keeping students on campus safe

and the university free from liability should something go wrong. In comparison to other

institutions, we should probably consider looking at an emergency medical release form for our

shadowing program as well as our overnight programs and would probably have minors

attending by themselves fill out some sort of documentation.

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Once planners have sorted out details related to the liability of the actual visitors

attending the campus visits they are planning, then there are additional precautions to take when

actually planning for their time on campus. A common practice for many institutions is to send

photographers (usually social media interns, or staff) out on campus tours to take photos of

campus, and the tour guides to use in promotional materials.

As part of my research for this project, I connected with two staff members from two

other institutions that are similar in size and scope to Penn State. With Barbara Loftus, Assistant

Director for Undergraduate Admissions at Rutgers University, we spoke extensively about photo

and video permission policies, and how institutions cover themselves to ensure that they are able

to use any photos and videos captured to promote their institution. Many schools include a

statement in their event registration, which is what Penn State does, as well as Rutgers. The

easiest thing to do is to ensure that guests who are registering know that by registering for a

university event, they are letting us know they are okay with being photographed for promotional

needs (Loftus, 2019). As part of my research I was expecting to find that this method was not

necessarily the norm for schools as students register and attend visits on campus. However, I was

able to find many examples of schools that have statements similar to ours, including Rutgers.

Finally, the biggest problem for campus visit planners. No matter how much time,

energy, and sweat you put into your campus event, inevitably things go wrong when you least

expect them to. Almost always these situations are not cause for concern when it comes to legal

issues, but there are two times that it is definitely concerning, and worrying, what might happen

next with a legal situation: when a tour guide is injured, or when a guest is injured.
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Tour guide falls are much more common at Penn State than guest injury, at least since I

have been working in the admissions office. We typically see two to three tour guide falls a

semester, and they can range in severity. Of course, there is a certain amount of risk associated

with being a campus tour guide. Especially at a school like Penn State, where our tour guides

walk backwards for almost the entire duration of the three-mile campus tour. At Penn State we

tour in rain, shine, snow, etc. so additionally tour guides have the weather to contend with when

they are out touring families around campus.

I spoke for a long time with Becky Brewer, Assistant Director for Outreach at Michigan

State University, regarding the topic of guides falling on campus tours. They see about the same

number of falls, but have a much different process than what we utilize at Penn State (Brewer,

2019). Essentially, when a tour guide falls on a campus tour, we require the guide to leave the

tour and immediately call admissions (presuming they are able). If they are not able to call, the

other guide will end the tour and call admissions for back up. Immediately we send two student

staff workers out to the tour guide, one to continue the tour and one to help assess the situation.

We will still send one student staff even if the other tour guide is able to cover the tour to meet

the injured guide.

Our tour guides know that they need to be in touch with our Student Volunteer

Coordinator within twenty-four hours of the fall. We have to report the fall the risk management

so that the tour guide can complete all the necessary paperwork to receive medical treatment if

necessary. Obviously, if the situation is an emergency, we will call an ambulance for the tour

guide.
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This system works well, except there is a lot of ambiguity. We essentially handle these

cases on a case-by-case basis, and there is few strict or regular protocol set in place for guides to

know about ahead of time. With the increase in falls over the past few years, having a

standardized plan in place seems like it may be helpful. Becky shared many ways that they cut

down and work through tour guide falls with me. In order to reduce liability, all guides and their

parent or guardian sign a “permission” form for them at the beginning of each academic year.

Tour guides also receive basic first aid and CPR training as part of their tour guide training, so

they are always able to help their tour partner. In addition to these internal policies, the team also

works closely with risk management to develop a system and paperwork that they can utilize

when a tour guide is injured.

Something else to consider is the responsibility of the university in the eyes of the law as

the institution that is responsible for the student. Previously, the student-institution relationship

was not one considered to be providing care to the student. However, this has changed over time

as cases have developed involving students, making the institutions that they attend liable for

their injuries, and ultimately death. As a few cases have emerged where students on campus have

died for various different reasons, parents have filed suits against institutions for negligence

(Blanchard, 2007). While it would be absolutely worst-case scenario for a student tour guide to

die from an injury sustained on tour, it could happen. There are various instances I can think of

that may place a tour guide in that situation; such as slipping on ice and hitting their head,

crossing the street and being hit by a car.

However, on the flip side, there is also discussion that students at a university need to be

able to take responsibility for the risks they may incur as part of being a student at an institution
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of higher education. Nancy Tribbensee, in her journal article “Tort Litigation in Higher

Education: A Review of Cases Decided in the Year 2000”, discusses that student should have

ample education as part of the orientation process about the many risks that they may face during

their time as a student at the institution (Tribensee, 2002). One could make the argument that

students joined the tour organization voluntarily, and should have known the risks that could be

incurred by becoming a tour guide and providing campus tours.

Either way, tour guide falls are still a problem for any campus that provides campus

tours. There are obviously both sides to the argument of who takes responsibility when a guide

does fall on tour, but as supervisors of tour guides and student staff, those of us campus visitation

just want our guides to be safe and know what they need to do should something go wrong and

should someone get injured while providing a campus tour.

Other than tour guides, the other party that potentially could be injured or hurt during a

campus visit is the visitor, the students visiting campus and their families. There is not a piece of

paperwork that all visitors to campus sign that waives liability for an on-campus fall or injury.

Technically, Penn State is not doing anything to protect itself from guests who may want to take

legal action against the university for falling.

Luckily, we have not had serious injuries for guests who have fallen during on campus

visits, but it could very easily become a big problem for us. Just as tour guides have to walk the

tour route, guests do too, and are often unprepared. For different weather situations, guests do

not often bring the appropriate attire, or footwear. In snow, ice, rain, fog, etc. there are still

campus tours continuing as planned and guests will often go out without the right gear. This can

cause a big safety hazard for the guests as they are out on campus.
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Something to consider for programs would be a simple liability release form. A great

example of something quick and easy that I found was from John Paul the Great Catholic

University, and includes just a space for the guest and parent or guardian to sign off that they

understand that any injury, including death, or property damage, etc. are not at the fault of the

institution ("Visitor Forms-Liability Release-Medical Release", n.d.). This form essentially

releases the institution from any sort of backlash should someone get something stolen, become

injured, or worse.

This statement could even be included as part of the event registration process, similar to

the current statement regarding promotional photo or video while on campus for the visit. Simply

just having guests acknowledge that they agree to these terms could potentially be sufficient to

release the university from any liability of on-campus injuries of guests during a visitation

program.

Overall, there are lots of things to consider as guests arrive on campus for different kinds

of visitation programs. As admissions and campus visit professionals it is incredibly important to

remember that we are working with minors and their families, and many things must be

considered to ensure that our prospective students are safe at all times when attending an event.

Additionally, appropriate measures should be taken to relieve the institution from any risk

associated with hosting and running events on campus.

On-campus recruitment events are such a positive tool in the overall recruitment strategy

of an institution, and should be included in plans as an institution is developing how they will

recruit incoming classes to their school. In order to make the as effective as possible, plans to

decrease liability on the institution should be implemented as soon as possible. It would be

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impossible to think ahead to everything that could potentially go wrong during a visitation

program, or with guests and tour guides. Especially at a large-scale institution like Penn State,

where we see about seventy thousand visitors annually, just on regularly scheduled visits.

At Penn State, there are a lot of ways that we can improve our offerings to be better about

liability and better about ensuring guests know what is within their own personal rights. I believe

that by continuing to do what we are doing for overnight visits, as well as photo and video

promotional usage, we can continue to be compliant in those areas. However, in the areas related

to tour guide and guest injury, there is a lot that we can do to ensure that we are releasing as

much liability as possible from Penn State.

I believe our tour guide injury policy needs a full re-haul as compared to other programs

at similarly sized institutions. We have just over three hundred tour guides, and no standardized

policy for when they get injured. Clearly, some sort of uniform policy is needed to be put into

place to ensure that our guides are safe, and understand what they need to do should either

themselves or their partner be injured while providing a campus tour.

Additionally, we should begin to provide a way for guests to sign or agree to a release

form as part of the registration process to ensure Penn State is protected from any backlash that

may be received from a guest who is injured on a campus tour or during a campus visit.

The research in this paper is designed to discuss the many ways that the on-campus

recruitment event is subject to many types of legal questions and matters. There are many things

to consider when planning these recruitment events, but clearly legal issues should be at the

forefront of all planners’ minds to ensure that staff, students, and guests are safe and happy while

visiting campus and deciding if this university will be the right fit for them.
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References
Blanchard, J. (2007). University Tort Liability and Student Suicide: Case Review and
Implications for Practice. Journal Of Law & Education.

Brewer, B. (2019). Liability During Campus Visits [In person]. Phone Call.

Beloit College Overnight Stay Agreement. Retrieved from:

https://admissions.beloit.edu/register/overnightagreement.

Loftus, B. (2019). Liability During Campus Visits [In person]. Phone Call.

Managing the Risk of Minors on Campus, John McLaughlin. (2012). Retrieved from
https://www.ajg.com/media/738585/ManagingRiskMinorsPaper.pdf

Medina, B. (2011). How Penn State's Sex-Abuse Scandal Unfolded: a Timeline. Retrieved from
https://www.chronicle.com/article/How-Penn-States-Sex-Abuse/129767

Overnight Release. Retrieved from: https://www.smith.edu/admission/discovery/pdf/Overnight-

ReleaseDW.pdf

Penn State Admissions Permission Form. Retrieved from

https://admissions.psu.edu/admissions/assets/UAO_Comm/PDF/PennStateAdmissionsEv
entPermissionForm.pdf
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Tribensee, N. (2002). Tort Litigation in Higher Education: A Review of Cases Decided in the
Year 2000. Journal Of College And University Law, 28(2), 271-309.

Visitor Forms-Liability Release-Medical Release. Retrieved from

https://jpcatholic.edu/admission/images/visit-img/VisitorForms-LiabilityRelease-
MedicalRelease-Apr2015.pdf