Institutional Failure, Campus Sexual Assault and Danger in the Dorms: Regulatory Limits and the Promise of Tort Law

Schools are in a position to help reduce the risk of campus sexual assault through risk education. Litigation and publicity against educational institutions could help to shine a light on the problem

The fractionation of U-Th into the colloidal fraction in acid mine drainage conditions in the Río Tinto areas

Río Tinto provides ideal conditions for studying the role of colloidal particles in concentrating elements and their influence on the transport of them to Ría de Huelva estuary(Spain).Ultrafiltration experiments were developed on the Río Tinto waters,in order to separate colloids by different sizes(50,10,5 and 3kDa).Samples from 50kDa and 3kDa ultrafiltration were analysed to find concentration using ICP-MS,and radionuclides activities have been determined for each of them.An ultrafiltration permeation model describes the relation between log of concentration of the element in the permeate solution and log of CF.If the permeation is constant,the linear pattern resulting can be used to predict the ultrafiltration behaviour of U and Th in this peculiar waters.Experiments were carried out using CF from 1,07 to 1,73.The behaviour of U can be predicted by a permeation model that provides a Pc of 0,813 for U(50kDa) and Pc=0,626 for U(3kDa).The permeation model can just show little retention for U,and that the permeation behaviour of U can be considered the same even at low CF.The application of the permeation model on Th(50kDa) samples failed,the membrane was not retaining quantitatively.A Pc=0,360 for Th(3kDa) was derived.Anyway,this could be due to artefactual retentions.Using low CF,colloidal concentration cannot be estimated by the permeation model for both U and Th.Concentration of U amounts to 4,73-6,54 μg/L,the range for Th is 13,0-28,0 μg/L.Both the elements are in higher concentrations respect to common natural waters,according to their predict character in acidic conditions,in which both can stay in dissolved form,and even colloids will be disintegrated. 234U/238U AR range is 1,761-2,060.The disequilibrium among 234U and 238U isotopes is attributable to the excess of 234U related both to the recoil effect,and the preferential leaching of 234U.230Th activity range is 0,056-0,169 mBq/L;its presence in solution is related to the decay of 234U

A Simple Low-Cost Institutional Learning-Outcomes Assessment Process

Law school institutional learning outcomes require measuring nuanced skills that develop over time. Rather than look at achievement just in our own courses, institutional outcome-measures assessment requires collective faculty engagement and critical thinking about our students’ overall acquisition of the skills, knowledge, and qualities that ensure they graduate with the competencies necessary to begin life as professionals. Even for those who believe outcomes assessment is a positive move in legal education, in an era of limited budgets and already over-burdened faculty, the new mandated outcomes assessment process raises cost and workload concerns. This essay addresses those concerns. It describes a relatively simple, low-cost model to measure institutional law school learning outcomes that does not require any initial changes in individual faculty members’ pedagogical approach or assessment methods. It explains how a rubric method, used by the Association of American Colleges and Universities [AAC&U] and medical educators to assess a wide range of nuanced skills such as critical thinking and analysis, written and oral communication, problem-solving, intercultural competence, teamwork, and self-reflection, could be adapted by law schools. The essay explains a five-step institutional outcomes assessment process: 1. Develop rubrics for institutional learning outcomes that can be assessed in law school courses; 2. Identify courses that will use the rubrics; 3. Ask faculty in designated courses to assess and grade as they usually do, adding only one more step – completion of a short rubric for each student; 4. Enter the rubric data; and 5. Analyze and use the data to improve student learning. The essay appendix provides sample rubrics for a wide range of law school institutional learning outcomes. This outcomes assessment method provides an option for collecting data on institutional learning outcomes assessment in a cost-effective manner, allowing faculties to gather data that provides an overview of student learning across a wide range of learning outcomes. How faculties use that data depends upon the results as well as individual schools’ commitment to using the outcomes assessment process to help ensure their graduates have the knowledge, skills and values necessary to practice law

Addressing Barriers to Cultural Sensibility Learning: Lessons from Social Cognition Theory

Understanding subconscious biases, their pervasiveness, and their impact on perceptions, interactions, and analyses, helps prepare lawyers to represent people from cultural and racial backgrounds different from their own, and to address both individual and institutional injustice. Two law student surveys suggest many students believe lawyers are less susceptible than clients to having, or acting upon, stereotypes or biases. The survey results also indicate that many students suffer from bias blind spot – i.e. they believe that while others cannot recognize when they are acting based upon stereotypical beliefs and biases, the students know when they are doing so. The survey results suggest some law students: 1. do not understand the pervasiveness of bias, even in well-meaning people; 2. do not recognize that legal analytical training is unlikely to trump a lifetime of subconscious cognitive processes; and 3. may resist education aimed at helping them recognize how their own biases affect their interactions, in part because they believe that they already understand and can recognize their biases. This article argues that the survey results demonstrate a need to address students’ misconceptions about lawyers’, and students’ own, susceptibility to subconscious biases. It discusses how exposure to social cognition literature on topics such as aversive racism, implicit bias, confirmation bias and bias blind spot may deepen students’ understanding of subconscious biases, their pervasiveness, and their impact on all people’s perceptions, interactions and analyses. That literature may also help students understand their potential resistance to learning about their own biases and help educators understand how best to overcome student resistance to learning about how cultural biases and stereotypes impact individual and institutional decision-making. In light of the survey results, the article urges schools to consider using social cognition theory as the cornerstone of a program of legal education that recognizes the need to infuse the curriculum with an awareness of the role culture plays in the lawyering process. Finally, it provides some concrete examples of how educators can integrate discussions of cultural biases and perspectives into a wide range of law school courses