Kennesaw State University Student Defense Lawyer
At Kennesaw State, nearly every disciplinary road runs through one office: the Department of Student Conduct and Academic Integrity, known on campus as SCAI. If SCAI has emailed you about a meeting, you are already inside a defined process with published rules — and the rules, not the meeting, are where a defense starts.
Overview
Kennesaw State University is a public university with more than 50,000 students across its Kennesaw and Marietta campuses, which makes it one of the largest institutions in Georgia. Public status has legal consequences. Under Goss v. Lopez, 419 U.S. 565 (1975), a disciplinary suspension requires notice and an opportunity to respond, and longer separations require more. Dixon v. Alabama State Board of Education, 294 F.2d 150 (5th Cir. 1961), which remains binding precedent in the Eleventh Circuit, established that a public college cannot expel a student for misconduct without notice and a meaningful hearing. KSU is bound by the Constitution and by its own published codes.
Those codes are plural, and that matters. KSU publishes a Student Code of Conduct, a separate Code of Academic Integrity, and a Residential Code of Conduct, with SCAI overseeing the resolution procedures under them. Which code your case falls under determines the procedure, the standard, and the appeal route.
Where Kennesaw State cases come from
The volume at a school this size is steady and predictable: academic integrity referrals from large and online courses, frequently resting on similarity scores or AI-detection flags; collaboration allegations where course rules were vague; alcohol and housing matters under the conduct and residential codes; and organization discipline. A university processing cases at this scale runs on routine, and routine is checkable — every step SCAI takes can be compared against the procedure it published.
Software-driven integrity cases deserve close attention, because a percentage from a detection tool is an accusation rather than proof. See academic misconduct and honor code.
Which process you are in matters
An academic integrity case, a general conduct case, and a residential case are separate tracks at KSU, and an academic standing decision — probation, suspension, dismissal for grades — is different again. The distinction has legal weight: under Board of Curators of the University of Missouri v. Horowitz, 435 U.S. 78 (1978), academic judgments receive far more deference from courts than disciplinary findings, so the label on your case changes both the campus procedure and the leverage outside it. Identify your track: student conduct, academic dismissal or suspension, or due process at a public institution.
What to do first
Download the current KSU codes from the university’s own site and find the sections that govern your case — the definitions, the procedure, and the appeal. Read the syllabus for the course at issue if the allegation is academic. Write down the deadline in the notice. Request your file and the evidence, including any similarity or AI report in full. Preserve drafts, timestamps, and messages now, before accounts and files age out. And do not attend an interview to explain yourself before you know what SCAI has; a mistaken early statement is how a manageable case becomes a dishonesty case.
What I can help with
- Reading the governing policy against the charge or decision letter
- Preparing your account, documents, and questions
- Testing whether Kennesaw State followed its own published procedures
- Scrutinizing software-based evidence, including AI-detection and similarity reports
- The written response and appeal, to the extent the policy permits
- Serving as your advisor where the process allows it
- Negotiating sanction terms, notations, and disclosure language
The form the help takes depends on what the current policy allows — advisor, participating counsel, or neither. Whatever the format, the case is built in the file and the written response.
Common questions
What is SCAI, and why am I meeting with them?
SCAI is the department that administers KSU’s conduct and academic integrity procedures. A meeting request means an allegation has been made and a process has started. Treat the meeting as part of the record, because it is — prepare for it the way you would prepare for testimony, after reading the code and seeing the evidence.
My case started in the residence halls. Is that different?
KSU publishes a residential code alongside the general conduct code, and the housing context can change both the procedure and the practical stakes, since housing status itself may be on the line. The starting point is the same: identify which code the charge invokes, and read that one.
Can a lawyer help if no lawyer is allowed in the room?
Yes, and this is most of the work in campus cases everywhere: reading the policy against the charge, assembling the documents, preparing your account and your questions, and writing the response and appeal. The person in the room matters less than what walks in with you on paper.
Other Georgia schools: Georgia Tech, Georgia State, and University of West Georgia. The full list is on the Georgia student defense index.
This is general information about the matters I handle and the law that applies to them. It is not legal advice about your situation, and the law in this area can change. For advice on your matter, start with the Full Read + Game Plan — your entire file read, straight answers, and exactly what to do next, in what order.
This page is informational and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the institution named on it.
Attorney advertising. Zachary Gaynor is admitted in Florida and its federal courts, not in Georgia; Georgia matters are handled through the framework described on the nationwide practice page — federal-law assessment, campus-process support where the school’s policy permits an advisor, and association with local counsel or pro hac vice admission where required.