Syllabi as Contracts

I have often considered beginning my Contracts course by insisting that students sign and return a copy of a mock syllabus containing unreasonable terms on the first day of class.  My favorite unreasonable term:

If a student’s cell phone goes off during class, the instructor may confiscate it for the remainder of the semester.  If the student takes the call, the instructor may confiscate the cell phone and smash it with a hammer, unless it’s one of those iphones, in which case the instructor will simply confiscate it.

There would be other standard form contract stuff of course — an arbitration clause, choice of law, merger, integration, etc.  I expect that if I did this, most of the students would immediately sign and a few would hold out, and I would make a big show of putting pressure on them to sign or leave.  I’ve never done it because I don’t want to start the semester off on an adversarial note. 

Still, I do think of my syllabus as an implied contract.  I am mostly concerned that the syllabus sets forth my expectations regarding attendance and participation.  Some students regard the syllabus as a binding contract that I will cover all of the assigned materials (despite express language to the contrary), and thus there are a few, isolated howls of protest if I suggest that, becasue we are behind, we will skip a case or two. It appears that my students and I are not alone in considering a syllabus as akin to a contract, according to this article in the March 14, 2008 issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education. 

HT: Penny Andrews

[Jeremy Telman]