Critical Legal Leadership Academy
As universities encounter coordinated efforts to erode equity, democratic values, and academic freedom, the ways in which college and university leaders, legal counsel, and other professionals in compliance positions make sense of, interpret, and apply the law are crucial to upholding commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Unfortunately, many institutional policies fall prey to a repressive legalism (Garces et al., 2021), where minimizing legal risk is paramount and promising equity-enhancing approaches are diminished. It is imperative in today’s sociopolitical environment of repressive legalism to provide professional development through a critical lens for legal counsel and compliance professionals, since they often set the bounds of discretion for universities and universities leaders, and have the potential to harness their institutional authority in ways that either enhance or inhibit a university’s commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion.
Program
Instructors will lead immediately actionable professional training relevant to leading at a time with increased coercive legal pressures, including training regarding institutional statements and actions regarding DEI, academic freedom, Title IX, and systems change. The structure of the sessions will allow attendees to engage in thoughtful reflection regarding their practices and identify ways to harness the knowledge and skills acquired from the training to create systems change in their individual institutional contexts across the country. Through this experience, attendees will have an opportunity to network with professionals in similar positions nationally and engage in strategic brainstorming.
Participants
Since welcoming its first cohort of leadership academy participants in 2010 to our companion program, the Academic Leadership Academy (ALA), Penn State’s Center for the Study of Higher Education (CSHE) has endeavored to enhance the ability of academic administrators to provide leadership within their respective institutions. For those who have gained initial experience in higher education law or compliance, we are pleased to now offer the Critical Legal Leadership Academy. This collaborative, interdisciplinary opportunity targets higher education professionals in the office of general counsel or compliance roles, in offices such as Title IX, Admissions, Human Resources, etc.
While the 2025 Critical Legal Leadership Academy focuses primarily on higher education, we are exploring opportunities to offer similar training for similar professionals in the PK-12 context. If you are a PK-12 education attorney or in a compliance role in PK-12 and want to receive updates regarding PK-12 programming in the future, please click here.
A Message from the Directors
Maria M. Lewis
Associate Professor, Education Policy Studies
Pennsylvania State University
Raquel Muñiz
Associate Professor, Educational Leadership & Higher Education, Boston College
Associate Professor (courtesy), School of Law, Boston College
In recent years, educational institutions have engaged in unprecedented efforts to promote equity and anti-racism. As backlash, we’ve seen large-scale efforts to undermine this progress, in the form of regressive state level legislation and university policies. Furthermore, the Supreme Court’s recent decision on race conscious admissions has led many university leaders to question the reach and scope of the decision. Given these legal activities, the current sociopolitical climate is susceptible to what is referred to as repressive legalism or “the interpretation and application of legal norms and other facets of the legal environment in a manner that shuts down a focus on other approaches (e.g., institutional responses to promoting inclusion for students of color)” (Garces et al., 2021, p. 1059).
How university leaders make sense of, interpret, and apply the law is critically important to preserving and honoring university commitments to DEI. A key stakeholder group influencing how higher education institutions respond are general counsel and administrators in compliance positions. To counteract the chilling effects of contemporary case law and legislation, it is imperative for these institutional actors to resist the urge to narrowly interpret the legal landscape and instead maximize discretion that the law permits in ways that promote DEI.
As such, the Critical Legal Leadership Academy convenes leading scholars in the field of higher education law, DEI, and organizational change within the current sociopolitical climate and offers a space for legal professionals to examine legal and compliance issues in the contemporary context. Our programming begins with a rich introduction to repressive legalism, an important critical grounding to the overall Academy. Each session is designed to build on the prior sessions in substance and aims, concluding with a session that invites attendees to engage in prospective reflection and consider how their leadership can advance systems change.
Nomination Information
To be considered for the Academy, potential participants must be nominated by a colleague or complete a self-nomination form. Click on the “NOMINATE” button on this page to submit a nomination.
The nomination form includes a question requesting a brief statement (e.g., 4-5 sentences) of recommendation or for self-nominators a statement of interest explaining how the nominee’s/your prior professional experiences and current responsibilities position the nominee/you well to benefit from participation in this Academy. Please be sure to answer this question. The form is not considered complete, and an admission decision will not be made, for nominations lacking this statement.
Registration materials and payment are due by January 10, 2025. To enable timely registration, we will review nominations and communicate acceptance decisions on a rolling basis. Applications submitted by November 15, 2024 will be prioritized in the review process. Accepted nominees will receive an email containing detailed registration instructions. Please plan to submit your registration materials at least ten days prior to the registration deadline to leave time for your forms and payment to be processed. Refer to the Details tab of this website for pricing information and registration details.