Bob Noel wrote:

Given that the University will allow travel by car or train, both
of which also have a vastly greater fatal accident rate than
commercial flying, my question remains open.

Hold it there. This brings up the debate of relative safety.
Statistically, travel by train has about the same safety record as
travel by commercial airlines in terms of fatalities per
passenger-mile. It is far safer than GA, or other non-scheduled
commercial air travel. Long distance buses are by far the safest mode of
all.

Looking at auto travel, the overall statistics show that it is something
like 10 times riskier than commercial airline travel, however, there are
refinements one should take into account.

In the case of commercial air travel, most accidents are during takeoff
and climbout, or during landing. That affects the statistics in that the
longer the trip, the safer air appears to be. Conversely, the shorter
the trip, the riskier it is to fly. Also, automobiles using interstate
highways are something like 4 times as safe as those driving on city
streets or secondary roads.

Therefore, since you wouldn't look to an airline for a 25 mile trip, and
you wouldn't likely drive on a transcontinental trip, you really have to
restrict the comparison to trips that are competitive between the two
options. If you only look at statistics for automobiles on interstates
compared to short airline trips, you will find that the risk is about
the same for trips of around 300 to 500 miles. Autos are safer for
shorter trips, and airlines for longer. If you look at non-scheduled
commercial service, or GA in comparison, you will find they are
substantially riskier.

The universities have learned the hard way that they are exposed to
substantial liability and risk if GA or commercial charters are used.
The university becomes the "deep pocket" without the insulation of a
large scheduled airline, when the lawyers are looking for someone to
sue. There have been a number of very public accidents involving their
sports teams, where the standards of the commercial operators were quite
poor. This includes everything from pilot experience and training,
checkrides, maintenance of equipment, through barebones
instrumentation.

Just recently there was a Kingair accident, which involved a U of
Oklahoma sports team, where a two person flight crew lost spatial
orientation within a minute after an AC power failure affected their
instruments, even though they had a working AI. Not something you would
expect from IFR-rated commercial pilots. Questions arose about
everything from pilot training and experience, aircraft maintenance,
cockpit resource management, and in general the university's policies on
charter travel.

The universities have reacted by establishing tight regulations for
traveling on any aircraft other than commercial airlines. Most large
companies have similar policies for exactly the same reasons.