Stetson establishes Center for Excellence in Higher Education Law and Policy
Contact Frank Klim
Executive Director of Communications
727-562-7889
Gulfport, Fla. – Stetson University College of Law formally announced the creation of the Center for Excellence in Higher Education Law and Policy during its 26th Annual National Conference on Higher Education Law and Policy, Feb. 20-22. The new Center will build on the renowned programs established by its founding co-directors, Stetson Law professors Robert D. Bickel and Peter F. Lake.
The Center will prepare Stetson students for careers in higher education law and policy through concentrated courses, internships and other previously unavailable opportunities.
“The Center will offer graduate students a Juris Doctor program that includes classroom, research and practicum experiences focusing on higher education law,” Bickel said. “Through the Center, we will also be able to continue our nationally recognized work in interdisciplinary legal education by exposing students and working professionals to the intersection of law and policy, and the emerging field of comparative higher education law.”
Professors Bickel and Lake are pre-eminent figures in higher education law. They are the authors of The Rights and Responsibilities of the Modern University: Who Assumes the Risk of College Life? and have published numerous articles and papers about higher education law and policy.
The center’s first major event was the conference at the Sheraton Sand Key Resort on Clearwater Beach. The annual conference is the largest professional development project for higher education administrators and attorneys nationwide.
The sessions featured nationally recognized speakers and panels on issues affecting higher education policy, student athletes, the effect of recent Supreme Court decisions, developments in employment law, and crime deterrence.
The conference also marked the beginning of cooperation with England’s Oxford Center for Higher Education Policy Studies. Together, the institutions will work on furthering comparative higher education law and policy in both academic and student affairs. The foundation for this partnership began last summer at Stetson’s Comparative Higher Education Roundtable at New College, Oxford University. Through this relationship, several distinguished lecturers from the United States and the United Kingdom also will visit the Stetson campus this spring.
The Center will allow Stetson to offer regional, national and international conferences and programs in this vital area. Stetson also will partner with other universities and legal organizations to advance the issue of law and higher education within the United States and globally.
Post date: March 7, 2005
Media contact: Kate Bradshaw
[email protected] | 727-430-1580