Changes in State Common Law

Given the rapid changes in state common law of contract and the interest of state legislators in the conditions of faculty employment, administrators and faculty should continually be sensitive to the question of what institutional documents or practices are, or should be, part of the faculty contract. Where ambiguity exists, administrators and faculty should decide whether there is some good policy reason for maintaining the ambiguity. If not, the contracts should be clarified. And both faculty and administrators need to understand how the law of their state interprets handbooks, policy manuals, and oral promises. Careful drafting and the use, if desirable, of disclaimers in documents that are not intended to afford contractual rights may protect the institution against liability for claims that arise from oral promises or policy documents in some states, although substantial differences exist among states in judicial attitudes toward disclaimers.