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16 J.L. & Educ. 453 (1987)
Colleges' Increasing Exposure to Liability: The New In Loco Parentis

handle is hein.journals/jle16 and id is 463 raw text is: Colleges' Increasing Exposure to Liability: The New In Loco Parentis JAMES J. SZABLEWICZ* ANNETTE GIBBS** Introduction Until the 1960s the relationship between a college and its students was much like that between a parent and child. Indeed, for all practical pur- poses, the college stood in loco parentis, literally in the place of the parent, ' and was the de facto and de jure guardian of students' health, welfare, safety and morals. Parents expected this relationship. Students gave in to it. College administrations were burdened by it. And the courts enforced it. But with the cultural revolution of the late 1960s, this relation- ship changed greatly. In the wake of student protests against the Vietnam War and racial inequality, a new student independence emerged. Society eventually looked upon the college student as an adult rather than a child. An arm's length relationship developed between colleges and students, and this relationship respected students' individual, academic and political freedoms. Students demanded this relationship. Colleges accepted it. Parents felt powerless to challenge it. And again, the courts enforced it. In loco parentis as it was traditionally known, was dead. During the 1980s, however, the college-student relationship began to show signs of change yet again. Students began to expect their colleges to get them jobs, provide them with tuition assistance and establish their careers. Further, the students demanded protections - protections against criminal attack, against harm inflicted by others, and against in- juries sustained often due to their own carelessness. In short, students began to ask colleges to take care of them much like their parents did. Courts and commentators have struggled to define this new student- college relationship, using theories of contract, landowner liability, guest and host and consumerism. Yet it is clear that the liability most recently placed on colleges by the courts goes beyond traditional notions of liability * J.D., University of Virginia School of Law; Associate, Williams, Mullen, Christian & Dob- bins, P.C. Richmond, Va. ** Professor of Higher Education Administration and Director of the Center for the Study of Higher Education, Curry School of Education, University of Virginia. 1. BLAciK's LAW DICTIONARY 708 (5th ed. 1979). 453

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