Higher Education Law in Practice

D. Stafford & Associates is offering a 2½-day, in-person course held at the same location as the 2027 NACCOP Annual Conference. This practitioner-focused program is designed to address the complex legal questions that arise at the intersection of discrimination, harassment, disability access, student conduct, and campus safety. The course is tailored for professionals making or advising consequential campus decisions, connecting legal requirements to the facts, policy choices, and institutional authority needed to respond effectively.

Class Description

Participants examine Title VI, Title IX, Title VII, Section 504, the Americans with Disabilities Act, First Amendment principles, and the Clery Act using judicial opinions, enforcement materials, and challenging case studies. The instruction covers both student and employee matters across community colleges, technical schools, and four-year institutions, including the differing obligations of public and private institutions. Through a blend of law/policy instruction and applied analysis—including an evolving case presented to a multidisciplinary faculty panel—participants will assess competing accounts, identify gaps in the evidence, distinguish institutional roles, and explain the legal and factual basis for recommended actions.

Some key topics include:

• Title IX and institutional oversight: sex discrimination, sexual harassment, pregnancy, athletics, employment, policy requirements, impartiality, and coordination with Clery/VAWA responsibilities.
• Access and academic requirements: disability accommodations, essential requirements, attendance, clinical placements, and institutional review before denying adjustments.
• Discrimination and retaliation: differential treatment, comparator evidence, overlapping student and employee roles, and supported explanations for decisions.
• Title VI and expression: race, color, national origin, shared ancestry, policy implementation, religious discrimination questions, protected speech, academic freedom, and discriminatory harassment.
• Clery obligations: bias incidents and hate crimes, hazing, reporting/classification, geography, daily crime logs, timely warnings, and emergency notifications.
• Coordinated institutional response: allocating decision authority, preserving evidence, addressing safety/access, and documenting parallel civil rights, conduct, employment, and Clery decisions.

Learning Objectives

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Identify the legal standards and institutional policies applicable to a complex campus matter, including differences between administrative enforcement, civil liability, student or employee conduct proceedings, and criminal processes.
• Apply Title VI, Title VII, and Title IX law and policy principles to coordinator oversight, institutional reporting structures, policy development, and responses to discrimination and harassment.
• Evaluate pregnancy and disability access concerns involving academic requirements, attendance, clinical placements, and requests for assistance.
• Identify evidence relevant to discriminatory treatment and retaliation, including appropriate comparators and the limits of unsupported assumptions.
• Analyze shared-ancestry and religious discrimination concerns while accounting for protected expression, academic freedom, and public or private institutional status.
• Distinguish bias incidents, Clery hate crimes, and hazing, and identify separate decisions concerning statistics, geography, crime logs, and campus notifications.
• Coordinate civil rights, human resources, disability services, conduct, and public safety responsibilities while preserving distinct decision-making roles.
• Develop and explain an evidence-based response plan, including immediate actions, additional fact gathering, decision authority, and documentation.

Who Should Attend

• Title IX and Title VI coordinators and deputies
• Civil rights and equal opportunity professionals
• Student conduct and student affairs leaders
• Campus police and public safety leaders
• Human resources professionals
• Disability and ADA/504 coordinators
• Legal counsel
• Academic administrators responsible for complex campus response decisions

Familiarity with campus civil rights or compliance responsibilities is recommended, but not required. The course emphasizes substantive application and discussion.

Certification

Participants who complete the full 2½-day course will receive a D. Stafford & Associates certificate of completion for Higher Education Law in Practice. Completion also fulfills the following DSA coordinator training classes:

• Title IX Coordinator Tier 1: Law and Policy
• Title VI Coordinator Tier 1: Law and Policy

The certificate documents completion of this course and both Tier One classes and may be retained as institutional documentation of the training received.

Faculty

The course is facilitated by a multidisciplinary faculty team, including higher education civil rights, disability and employment law, First Amendment, and Clery practitioners. Instruction includes facilitated discussion, short case exercises, and a faculty panel.

Logistics

Days One and Two: 8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. Day Three: 8:30 a.m.–noon. All times are Eastern time zone. Breaks and lunch periods are included in the schedule.

Class Details & Registration: Dates, location, hotel and registration details for each upcoming offering are listed below. Select Class Details & Registration for the offering you would like to attend.