I'll bet that you're surprised to see a football game on the cover of this month's issue. It's a departure from the usual lawyer shot, or someone under the gun testifying at a congressional hearing. But we're not tied to any one formula. And if a photo or illustration gives you a better idea of what a story is about, so be it.

But if the photo is different, the issues in this month's cover story by reporter Rebekah Mintzer aren't. It's a new twist, for sure, and a new forum for those issues. A lot of readers out there have experienced them: union representation drives, the definition of “employee,” sexual harassment involving the people in the organization, public relations nightmares and crisis management. The difference is that these issues have come to the forefront of what used to be a relatively calm job: general counsel of an institution of higher learning.

Unfortunately, it seems that you cannot see a news vehicle, be it digital or analog, without some college scandal showing up in the headline. The recent controversy surrounding Rolling Stone's article about a gang rape at the University of Virginia comes immediately to mind. But there's more—some college athletes have sought employee status, while others at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill “attended” sham classes to prop up their grade point averages.