Ending the Higher Education Sucker Sale: Toward an Expanded Theory of Tort Liability for Recruitment Deception

Abstract

Admissions officers live a dual, often conflicted, existence. In one sense, they are counselors responsible for advising prospective students. In another sense, they are salespeople with obligations to meet enrollment goals. The pressures fostered by these roles sometimes prompt unscrupulous individuals to use misrepresentations and other forms of deception to induce students to enroll. Unfortunately, students who are induced to enroll based on recruitment deception are afforded few options for redress. The purpose of this article is to conceptualize a tort-based solution to this utter inequity. The article proposes a broadening of negligent misrepresentation to encompass a new tort-negligent educational recruitment. This tort would employ approaches to determining duty and causation that account for the distinctive nature of the educational process, and, thus, overcome the concerns that often doom negligent misrepresentation lawsuits in the higher education context.