CHAPTER 6: Collegiate Service-Learning: Perspectives on Legal Liability

Despite nearly twenty years of ever-increasing visibility and popularity in U.S. higher education, service-learning continues to be met with skepticism among its detractors and to raise serious questions among many of its stakeholders, including students, community partners, faculty members and campus administrators. Students wonder how they can be “required” to “volunteer” and whether they have the expertise to accomplish assigned tasks; organizations question what they are supposed to be teaching students and how to manage students’ presence on-site; faculty members struggle to choose appropriate activities and effectively grade students’ performance; and administrators worry about funding and assessing activities that do not fit clearly within the tradition of classroom-based education. But to varying extents, depending on contexts, circumstances, events, and previous experiences, most of these stakeholders also come to wonder about legal liability—their own and that of other involved parties. This can include clients of service-learning host organizations, whether they be school children or elderly citizens, people facing diseases or poverty, or even at-risk animals and plants. Even the most optimistic and committed faculty member has an occasional moment of anxiety about a service-learning placement: Will the students have a positive experience with this organization? Will the organization be satisfied with the students’ performance? Will bridges be built or burned? Worse yet—will someone be physically, emotionally, financially, or otherwise injured as a result of this project? And if that should happen, who will be held accountable?