football on field

The NCAA May Pay a Healthy Sum to Student Athletes

By Bobby Stroup

Right now in a Los Angeles courtroom, the fate of the NCAA hangs in the balance. Perhaps as a way to preempt the outcome, on December 6, NCAA President Charlie Baker sent a letter proposing some schools should be allowed to compensate student athletes for using their name, image and likeness (NIL). President Baker is right to try and get ahead of the student-athlete compensation issue, but NIL payments are not the only issue at play. Health care will also be a critical part of future student-athlete compensation conversations.

The NCAA describes the compensation lawsuits as beginning in 2009, yet exploring this topic reveals the debate is not so novel. The NIL terminology is newer, but limiting this to an NIL problem is overly narrow. The challenge of student-athlete compensation is a broader issue that started at the founding of the organization. This issue is rooted in more than a century of health policy, and understanding that history is essential to understanding future NCAA negotiations.

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Group of students wearing protective medical masks and talking, standing in lecture hall at the university.

Public Health Law’s Future Begins in the Classroom

By Taleed El-Sabawi

The use of emergency public health powers by state and local governments during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic led to intense public criticism followed by legislative attempts (include some successes) to strip state executives of this authority. This has led some to ask: is this the end of public health law? What does the future hold?

For public health law to survive, it needs a good defense. It needs passionate advocates. It needs a growing constituency that understands its utility and its importance in protecting the health of the population. But, let’s face it. I would wager a guess that the vast majority of law students, law professors, and law school administrators do not even know what public health law is.

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Empty classroom.

Tort Liability for Faculty Who Fail to Tell the Class About COVID Cases in Their Midst

By Heidi Li Feldman

The more individuals must rely on their own judgment and effort to protect themselves from disease, the more they need information regarding the possibility of exposure to the cause of the disease.

This simple proposition, combined with changes in how governments and institutions are approaching COVID, means that university faculty should rethink their role in keeping their students informed about COVID cases among class members. To satisfy their legal obligations to protect students from harm, faculty must consider whether safeguarding their students from incurring COVID in their classrooms necessitates sharing such information. Fulfilling their legal duties to students may even require faculty to disregard administrative prohibitions against disseminating news of COVID cases in the class.

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