How important is a syllabus?
Kent Kauffman, associate professor of business law and ethics at Purdue University Fort Wayne, discusses this.
Kent Kauffman is associate professor of Business Law and Ethics, and is the MBA Programs Faculty Liaison in the Doermer School of Business at Purdue University Fort Wayne, where he teaches in the undergraduate and MBA Programs. He is the author of four books, including the recently released Navigating Choppy Waters: Key Legal Issues Faculty Need to Know, published by Rowman & Littlefield.
https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/navigating-choppy-waters-9781538197295/
Navigating Choppy Waters is the first book of its kind because it provides answers to the vital–and sometimes uncomfortable–questions that all faculty, from part-time to tenured, should contemplate, so they can benefit from viewing their teaching and scholarship from a legal perspective.
He has a B.A. from Temple University and a J.D. from The Penn State University-Dickinson School of Law, and he holds an Indiana law license. Kent is a Purdue member of Indiana University’s selective, scholarly teaching community, the Faculty Academy on Excellence in Teaching (FACET). He has won research and multiple teaching awards, and has served in leadership capacities on his campus related to teaching enhancement. Kent has spoken at seminars and conferences on the vital legal issues that affect faculty in their teaching and scholarship.
Syllabus as Course Contract
Do you tell your students that your syllabus is your course’s contract? If so, please stop. A syllabus is not a contract, as has been proven by the dismissals of these types of breach of contract lawsuits students have filed against their professors, including law professors. These lawsuits started in the 1980s and, since the very first one, student-plaintiffs have yet to convince a court that a syllabus is a contract, rendering unnecessary the resolution to if the contract was breached.
Since the 1990s some academic journals and university websites have told faculty that syllabi are contracts. But like much of folklore, what gets passed down isn’t necessarily accurate. Although a syllabus has characteristics that seem to be contract-worthy, a syllabus lacks the essential elements of a contract. The most important of these is what courts call “consideration,” namely, that faculty and students don’t exchange anything of value with each other. Yes–students do make contracts with their colleges, but students and faculty aren’t making contractually enforceable promises with each other by distributing and accepting course syllabi.
There is a legal risk in asserting your syllabus is a contract. Known as Promissory Estoppel, this legal doctrine binds a promisor to an otherwise unenforceable promise when the other party has detrimentally relied on it. While it makes sense to draft a syllabus with a contract-mindset, referring to it as a contract is legally unwise. Instructors who do not do that may alter their course policies without seeking their students’ consent, as courts have repeatedly confirmed.
