It is only natural for school administrators—and more specifically the school’s risk managers—to have concerns about the school’s liability and questions about insurance. After all, they know practically nothing about skydiving, except that they think it’s dangerous. Education will be the key in bringing the authorities to a comfort level that will allow the college club to move forward. Without going into too much detail, here is what they need to know:

Regulation
The sport of skydiving is recognized by the Federal Aviation Administration as an “aeronautical activity.” This means that the FAA agrees that skydiving activity has a rightful place on municipal airports and in the national airspace system. In fact, the FAA has established specific regulations for skydiving, which are contained in Part 105 of Title 14 of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations (14 CFR 105). Among the regulations: Every skydiver or tandem pair must wear a dual parachute system (two parachutes), and the reserve parachute must be packed and sealed by an FAA-certificated parachute rigger. Every reserve parachute must also be inspected and repacked every 120 days by an FAA rigger. There are also a host of notification and communication requirements so that the skydiving activity fits seamlessly into the air traffic control system. Skydiving aircraft and their pilots also have FAA regulatory requirements for pilot certification and aircraft maintenance that go beyond those for general aviation aircraft and pilots.

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Standards
For several decades now, the FAA has relied upon the U.S. Parachute Association to set the standards for safety of skydiving. USPA establishes skydiving’s safety standards with its Basic Safety Requirements, which address everything from the size of the landing area to wind conditions to training and equipment requirements for skydiving students. The BSRs require that student and novice skydivers be provided with equipment and components that enhance safety, including an installed automatic activation device for every student. USPA also issues a series of skydiving licenses to those who qualify and instructor ratings to experienced skydivers who successfully complete an instructor course.

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Beginner Safety
As with any segment of aviation, skydiving has its inherent risks. Over the past five years, skydiving has experienced an average of 25 fatalities per year, with 88 percent involving experienced skydivers, many of whom intentionally exceeded the known flight characteristics of their parachutes. For comparison, according to the National Safety Council, fewer people were killed skydiving in the U.S. in 2003 than by riding on a bus (35), by lightning (47), by bee stings (66) and while horseback riding (101). With more than 3 million individual parachute jumps made in the U.S. every year, the chances of a fatal accident occurring to a skydiver are less than 1 in 120,000. Considering that students comprise the bulk of participants in the sport, relatively few fatal accidents involve student skydivers. This is due largely to the design of skydiving equipment used for students and the quality of instruction and care provided at most skydiving schools. All parachutes are designed for reliability, but student gear is also designed to be easy to use and forgiving. Most skydiving instructors hold a USPA instructional rating and train according to USPA standards. USPA requires students to jump in good weather conditions and into unobstructed landing areas. Students must open their parachutes higher than experienced jumpers.

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Liability and Insurance
School administrators and risk managers can be forgiven for having questions and concerns about the school’s liability as the result of possible skydiving accidents and injuries. After all, the only thing they have to work with is perception. Education is key, and the proponents of a skydiving club will need to load up on skydiving facts and statistics to change that perception.

Nearly every outdoor school activity (and some indoor activities) carries risk. What risky activities are currently allowed by the school? Football? Rugby? Field hockey? Rock/wall climbing? Horseback riding? Water sports? Scuba diving? High diving? Orienteering? Flight training? What data would the school use to justify disallowing skydiving when other risky activities are allowed?

A full understanding of USPA’s decades-long development of licensing, ratings and training programs is pivotal. School officials should be led to the conclusion that USPA programs greatly reduce the risk. Indeed, one of the most important steps a school can take is to ensure that USPA instructors and training methods are used and USPA’s Basic Safety Requirements are adhered to. This brings a certainty that skydiving’s safety standards are known, understood and applied by all involved. Measures could include:

• Requiring individual club members to be USPA members. This ensures that the members are covered by USPA’s third-party liability insurance.
  
• Requiring the club to maintain affiliation with USPA as a Group Member. This makes it easy for the club to receive and maintain up-to-date safety information.
  
• Ensuring that the participating drop zone is affiliated with USPA as a Group Member DZ. This provides an assurance of safety standards being in place.
  
• Arranging for the participating drop zone to add the university and its trustees, officers, etc. onto the DZ’s hold-harmless agreement.

Finally, school concerns about potential medical expenses can be addressed by a requirement that student club members have adequate health insurance coverage before skydiving. Many students are still covered by their parents’ health policies. For those who aren’t, there are several health insurance plans available to college students.

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Club Waiver
It may be helpful to present school administrators with the club’s own hold-harmless agreement (more generally known as a waiver). Be prepared to allow the school to have it reviewed by the school’s lawyers and/or risk managers, and be ready to make changes to the document as a result of their review. You can start with a model provided here.

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Club Constitution
Your club will probably need a constitution, which states the club’s purpose and how the club will elect officers and make decisions. Again, it may need review by the administration, which may request certain changes. Here is a model constitution.

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Conclusion
College students who want to skydive can easily find a way to do so on their own. Offering the opportunity through a college skydiving club ensures that they benefit from all of USPA’s programs and training standards. It also provides oversight opportunities to school administrators, who can continually monitor club activities and make sure their students enjoy skydiving at an enhanced level of safety. Fifteen colleges have found ways to support active college skydiving clubs, some for years, and many more clubs are in the making.

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