An awareness of the relevant legal issues and an understanding of the appropriate times to engage legal counsel are essential skills for institutional research (IR) professionals.

Data continues to grow in both importance and quantity within colleges and universities. IR professionals need to know ways data can create potential legal issues in order to be proactive rather than reactive to these situations.

This chapter provides an overview of the purpose, history, and process of accreditation and a context for understanding the legal considerations of accreditation.

After examining typical legal contexts for IR practice, this chapter offers the Practices, Policies, and Legal Boundaries (PPLB) framework for using laws as guidelines for policy and practice.

Institutional research (IR) leaders rely on staff members to accomplish office missions and support institutional decisions. Like any supervisors in higher education, IR leaders must be familiar with a host of employment and intellectual property laws that guide the institution/employee relationship. This chapter offers insights into specific…

This chapter asserts that the use and reporting of institutional research (IR) data is an area ripe for litigation. The chapter explores possible student causes of action as they relate to institutional research (IR) data and compares the probable outcomes to reported student lawsuits. The chapter concludes with recommended liability-avoiding…

This chapter outlines the varying threats that IR professionals face when securely storing and managing data, as well as the regulatory structure in place to control data management. Advice is offered on how best to structure and manage student data.

Institutional research parallels preventive law in purpose and practice. Both help minimize problems and identify strengths in reaching institutional goals, identify and evaluate opportunities to accomplish goals, identify problems and solutions, find alternatives needed to minimize problems, and provide insights into future hazards and…

Today's privacy/disclosure issues have been defined by a series of court decisions that illustrate adaptation to social change. Development of surveillance technology, increased use of individual testing, and interconnected computers have allowed abuses of individual privacy rights to which the law has recently responded. (Editor/LBH)

To help college and university administrators become more conscious of the legal implications of their actions, this article explores the emerging legal constraints on the management of academic departments and the administrative roles of their chairmen. (LBH)

An attorney provides answers to frequently asked questions about the application of copyright law to the work of institutional research, including hard copy and electronic publishing, and its dissemination. Institutional researchers are treated as workers for hire, and the employer or institution is deemed the author and copyright holder;…

Individual and institutional rights to privacy and disclosure of records are all aspects of the same growing problem. The case of Papadopoulos v. State Board of Higher Education illustrates this problem. (Editor/LBH)

Examples of current institutional policy and practice illustrate threats to individual rights to privacy. Problems relate to computerized records and communications technology, the accuracy of the records, and the usage of the information. (Editor/LBH)

An attorney who has served both plaintiffs and defendants in court cases involving higher education institutions suggests several basic principles for institutional researchers in coping with a complex litigious environment: stay informed about major legal developments; consult your institution's attorney, and be proactive in the consultation; do…

The history of higher education's concern with student conduct is reviewed, and three specific issues in student discipline are examined: why colleges regulate student conduct; why students violate published regulations; and the appropriate institutional response to student misconduct. A need is seen for more institutional and educational research…