Law conference addresses key higher education issues

UNT will explore ways Texas colleges and universities can address their most challenging legal issues at the seventh annual Texas Higher Education Law Conference March 3-4 in the Ballroom of UNT's Gateway Center.

Some 300 representatives from more than 80 Texas colleges and universities are expected to attend the two-day conference that is the premier legal briefing for Texas higher education board members, administrators, faculty and staff in the public and private sectors.

Fees are $235 for both days and $150 for one day only. Continuing Education participants can receive education credit on request. For registration information, call (940) 565-3628.

Sessions will run from 8:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. each day. Conference director Richard Rafes, UNT's senior vice president for administration and the UNT System's vice chancellor and general counsel, says participants will receive valuable and practical information from an outstanding conference faculty that includes several of the state's and the nation's leading authorities on topics presented.

Two sessions will explore Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) issues raised by the U.S. Patriot Act, law enforcement requests for information on international students and recent Supreme Court cases limiting civil liability for violations of FERPA. One session will discuss the 2003 legislative session and focus on potential legislation that is likely to have the greatest impact on higher education. Another session will evaluate the possibilities that the Supreme Court will allow public universities to consider race in admission and scholarship decisions in anticipation of a decision on affirmative action.

Other session topics will include:

• Reductions-In-Force, Programs and Services
• Sex, Crime and Campuses — Complying With Federal Reporting Requirements
• Privacy — Identity Theft on Campus
• The ABCs of Handling Difficult Employees
• Title IX — 30 Years and Counting
• The Texas Public Information Act

The keynote speaker for the conference will be Walter B. Huffman, dean of the Texas Tech School of Law and recently retired judge advocate general of the U.S. Army. He will speak at noon March 3.

John C. Brittain, former dean of the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University in Houston and internationally acclaimed champion of civil and human rights, will speak at the conference luncheon at 11:45 a.m. March 4.

Other featured speakers will include:

• S. Daniel Carter, senior vice president of Security On Campus Inc. of Knoxville, Tenn.
• Terri Flack, deputy commissioner of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
• Michael Garbarino, assistant Texas attorney general in the Open Records Division.
• Jan Greenberg, general counsel for the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
• Chris Griesel, staff attorney for rules for the Supreme Court of Texas.
• William P. Hoye, associate vice president, deputy general counsel and associate professor of law at the University of Notre Dame.
• LeRoy Rooker, director of the U.S. Department of Education's Family Policy Compliance Office. He is responsible for administering FERPA and other laws and policies designed to help protect the rights of America's 58 million students.
• Sarah Woelk, director of advisory opinions and education for the Texas Ethics Commission and former assistant attorney general with the Opinion Committee in the Office of the Attorney General of Texas.

The conference is sponsored by the UNT Center for Education Law, Administration and Policy; the UNT College of Education; the Office of the Vice Chancellor and General Counsel; the UNT Department of Counseling, Development and Higher Education; the North Texas Community College Consortium; and the Texas Association of College and University Student Personnel Administrators.

BY RODDY WOLPER rwolper@unt.edu

Other featured articles in this issue

• Search for UNT College of Engineering dean succeeds with appointment
• UNT names Philip J. Romano inaugural recipient of humanitarian award
• Faculty and staff can vote now for the 2003 Homecoming theme
• Five TAMS students named semifinalists in national Intel science competition
• Admissions Marketing Report awards best of show title to UNT undergraduate viewbook
• HIPAA isn't short for hippopotamus
• Making sure UNT maintains security
• NEA funds national project based on UNT program

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