Rush University: Student Discipline, Dismissal & Federal Court

How do student discipline and dismissal cases work at Rush?

Rush University is a private health-sciences university in Chicago, in Cook County — the academic arm of Rush University Medical Center, founded as a university in 1972, accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, with its MD program accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education. It enrolled 2,796 students in fall 2025, nearly all of them in its three colleges: Rush Medical College, chartered in 1837, the College of Nursing and the College of Health Sciences, which also runs bachelor’s programs. There is no longer a separate Graduate College; in 2024 its four programs moved into Rush Medical College’s Division of Translational Science. The fact that shapes every Rush case is structural: outside Title IX, Rush has no single university hearing process. Its Student Code of Conduct sends every violation “to the student’s college for further review in accordance with the procedures specified by the college,” and each college sets its own standards — so the deadline, the decision-maker and whether a lawyer may sit beside you depend on which college you are in. Over all of them sits one sentence on the catalog’s first page: its policies “supersede policies in departmental student handbooks.”

Rush University is a private institution. There is no state action, so there is no constitutional due process claim, and arguing one wastes an appeal. The theory is contract: Illinois holds that a college and its students have a contractual relationship whose terms come from the catalog and the handbook — Raethz v. Aurora University, 346 Ill. App. 3d 728 (2004), restated by the Fourth District in Urso v. Bradley University, 2023 IL App (4th) 230165 — while adding that the relationship “is unique and cannot be strictly categorized or characterized in purely contractual terms.”

The limit is the standard of review, and it decides most of these cases before anyone reaches the facts. A student has a remedy for an adverse academic decision only if it was made arbitrarily, capriciously, or in bad faith. Frederick v. Northwestern University Dental School, 247 Ill. App. 3d 464 (1993), puts it bluntly — courts have been loath to review, much less overturn, academic dismissals — and Bosch v. NorthShore University Health System, 2019 IL App (1st) 190070, holds that a school which departs somewhat from its handbook still wins unless the departure was material. The federal courts in Chicago apply the same test: in Doe v. Columbia College Chicago, 933 F.3d 849 (7th Cir. 2019), the Seventh Circuit affirmed dismissal of a student’s contract claim where the college had investigated and reasoned its way to a decision, and in Gash v. Rosalind Franklin University, 117 F.4th 957 (7th Cir. 2024), it held that calling a process arbitrary or predetermined, without specific facts, is not enough. What survives is specific: in Liu v. Northwestern University, 78 F. Supp. 3d 839 (N.D. Ill. 2015), a former law student’s claim went forward where the school imposed what amounted to an integrity charge while denying her the handbook procedure for contesting one. Federal law does not care that the school is private: Title IX, Title VI and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act apply because it takes federal funds, and the ADA applies to it as a place of public accommodation.

A federal claim arising at Rush University is filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois — Cook County sits in its Eastern Division under 28 U.S.C. § 93(a), and the statute fixes the places of holding court for that division at Chicago and Wheaton. I am a member of the general bar of that court, admitted on my Florida license under its Local Rule 83.10, which opens the general bar to an attorney in good standing before the highest court of any state. That means a Title IX, Section 504 or ADA complaint for a Rush student is one I file and litigate under my own name, with no pro hac vice motion. The Northern District abrogated its local-counsel designation rule in July 2023, so a member of its bar with no office in the district no longer has to designate local counsel. One limit, stated plainly: the court keeps a separate trial bar, and under Local Rule 83.12 a general-bar member who is not on it — that is me — appears alone in everything except testimonial proceedings, meaning evidentiary hearings and trial, where a trial-bar member must sit as advisor unless the judge grants the rule’s narrow waiver.

One code, three colleges, three procedures

The university-wide rules in the 2026–2027 catalog are short. The Academic Honesty Policy covers cheating, plagiarism, collusion, fabrication — including fabricated clinical assessments — and unauthorized examination behavior, and says disciplinary action, from warning to expulsion, “will be imposed by the program/college.” The Student Code of Conduct lists the usual offenses and three that matter in a health-sciences school: “Conduct that is inconsistent with the ethical code of the profession the student is preparing to enter”; “Conviction of a crime deemed serious enough to render the student unfit to pursue their profession”; and — an offense students rarely notice — “An accusation of student and/or faculty academic dishonesty or misconduct made in bad faith.” In choosing a sanction the college looks at the current case and “any past disciplinary infractions that were upheld.” A warning “is not considered a part of the student’s disciplinary record”; probation is “a change in good standing status”; a suspension letter lists the conditions that must be met before readmission is considered; expulsion is permanent.

Everything else — who investigates, whether there is a hearing, what standard applies, how long you have to appeal — is left to the colleges, and the documents are not equally easy to find. Rush’s university policy library sits behind the internal network (“You must be on the Rush internal network to access these links”), and Rush Medical College’s promotions rules are on the college’s portal. Students can get them; the point is to get the version that governed you, in writing, before you need it. And where a departmental handbook and the catalog disagree, the catalog says it controls.

Rush Medical College: COSEP recommends, the dean decides

At Rush Medical College, academic and professional progress runs through the Committee on Student Evaluation and Promotion, known as COSEP. It may set a remediation plan for “academic, professionalism, or fitness to practice deficiencies/concerns,” and graduation itself requires “Approval for graduation by a vote from COSEP.” On dismissal its power is limited in a way worth knowing: “COSEP is empowered to make recommendations only; final decisions regarding dismissal are made by the dean of Rush Medical College.” The grounds for dismissal, and the procedures for a COSEP recommendation, a request for reconsideration of that recommendation and an appeal to the dean, are “detailed in the COSEP Policies and Procedures” — a college policy, and the catalog says college policies “can be found in the Rush Medical College portal.” The deadlines for both steps are therefore not in the public catalog, and they are the first thing to confirm in writing. See promotions and progress committees.

Three other rules shape medical-college cases. Students must pass USMLE Step 1 and Step 2 CK by deadlines set by the Office of Integrated Medical Education (OIME) and, for the class matriculating in summer 2027, finish within 58 months of active enrollment, leave excluded; the 2026–2027 catalog sends the class that matriculated in summer 2026 back to the 2025–2026 catalog for its requirements, so the governing version depends on your entering year. If a student is reasonably expected not to meet graduation requirements, OIME notifies COSEP — and notifies the National Resident Matching Program according to its requirements. And enrolled students must report any criminal conviction other than a minor traffic offense; a positive drug screen or a report of criminal behavior after matriculation may send a student’s file to COSEP for review. A medical student on leave must contact OIME at least 90 days before the expected return date. See medical school dismissal and remediation.

College of Nursing: your first document may be the whole record

The 2026–2027 catalog sets the nursing progression rules. A student needs an A or B in every required clinical nursing course; a C in a single clinical didactic course or practicum must be repeated, and only one may be repeated in a program of study. An F or N grade places the student on probation and “may result in dismissal from the program,” as may a second C. Graduate students must keep a cumulative 3.0, may enroll as probationary students for no more than two consecutive terms, and may be dismissed for “a second probationary event.” The College of Nursing Student Guidebook — the 2025–2026 edition is the most recent Rush has posted publicly — adds that withdrawals can be probationary events (two withdrawals from the same course, a withdrawal after a first probationary event, or three withdrawals in a program), and gives a student “in jeopardy of dismissal” one way to be heard first: a petition of consideration to the Progressions Committee, submitted through the advisor, explaining why the committee should not dismiss and what the student’s strategies are for the future. See nursing school dismissal.

Clinical removal is fast. Under the guidebook’s unsafe-student policy, an instructor who judges a student unsafe may dismiss the student from clinical for the rest of the day; the reasons must be documented “within 2 business days,” the course and program directors review within another two business days, and the Program Director decides whether the removal stands. If it does, the student cannot return to the course, receives a non-passing grade and may not withdraw, and the Admissions and Progressions Committee decides whether the student is dismissed or may return in a later term; the student may appeal. Under a separate Fitness to Progress procedure, the college may require a psychiatric evaluation, with an appeal to the Faculty Council “within five (5) days” of the decision — the guidebook does not say whether those are calendar or business days. See clinical rotation removal.

Misconduct charges go in writing to the Associate Dean for Academic Programs and Affairs, who may resolve the matter without a hearing or refer it to a Faculty Advisory Panel, and must tell the student which within ten (10) business days. A student who disagrees with the resolution may demand the panel “within five (5) business days (by 5 PM central time) of receiving the certified letter.” The panel convenes within ten business days and decides on a preponderance of the evidence, and its rules contain the sentence that matters most: “Only the initial documentation submitted by the student and faculty shall be considered unless additional evidence is requested by the Faculty Advisory Panel.” A student may be accompanied by legal counsel or another advisor, but counsel “may not participate in the actual hearing proceedings.” The dean decides within five business days of the panel’s recommendation, and that decision is final. Grade appeals follow their own ladder — the instructor by the Friday of the first week of the next term, then five business days at each formal step — with the same rule on counsel.

College of Health Sciences: five working days, four times

The College of Health Sciences — physician assistant studies, occupational therapy, audiology, speech-language pathology, perfusion, respiratory care, clinical nutrition, medical laboratory science, health systems management and its bachelor’s programs — sends cheating allegations to the departmental Committee on Progress and Promotions. A student found cheating on an examination “may receive a 0 for the examination” and faces formal discipline, and failing to report another student’s dishonesty is itself unprofessional conduct. For other unprofessional conduct, the department chair or program director reviews the allegation with the person who made it and meets the student; if there is a basis, a preliminary hearing of the committee is convened, with written notice to the student and the dean of the allegations and the “Professional attributes that allegedly violate standards.” The detailed rules sit in each departmental handbook.

The college’s appeal procedure is a ladder with four rungs and the same short clock on each: a written request to the instructor “within five working days following the issue,” then to the department chair, then to the department’s progress and promotion committee, then to the dean — each within five working days of the decision below. Before the committee you may appear in person, make an oral statement and answer questions, but you may not be present for its deliberations. The dean meets with you, may appoint a panel, and decides: “The decision of the dean is final.” Two limits are written in. The procedure “shall not be used to question a rule, procedure or policy” — only its unfair application. And a student appealing a decision that could lead to dismissal “may be allowed to continue progressing” while it is pending; if the decision is upheld, the withdrawal from current classes is backdated to before the start of the term.

The clinical rules are blunt. A student who is refused placement, or terminated from a rotation, because of a criminal background check “will be subject to dismissal on academic grounds”; so is a student terminated from a rotation for violating a facility’s drug-testing or drug-use policies; and “Incidents involving gross errors in judgment or practice on the part of the student will constitute grounds for dismissal from the program.” A clinical site’s decision can become the basis for a Rush academic dismissal, which is why what the site actually documented, and when, matters as much as anything Rush writes afterward.

Sexual misconduct: a live hearing, and seven calendar days to appeal

For sexual misconduct, the federal rule is the 2020 Title IX regulation: the 2024 rule was vacated nationwide on January 9, 2025, in Tennessee v. Cardona, and on September 29, 2026 the Department of Education formally repealed it and restored the pre-2024 text (91 Fed. Reg. 61,308). Rush’s policy, the Prohibition against Sexual Harassment in Rush Programs and Activities (approved February 18, 2025), follows that model, and the 2020 regulation requires postsecondary institutions to hold a live hearing at which each party’s advisor conducts cross-examination. The Title IX Officer and the Office of Institutional Equity run the process; a Hearing Board led by a Hearing Officer decides on a preponderance of the evidence; and each party may have an advisor of choice, who “may be, but is not required to be, an attorney,” at every meeting, interview and hearing. At the hearing the advisor’s role “is limited to asking questions of the other party and any other witnesses,” and questioning is “conducted directly, orally, and in real time by the party’s Advisor and never by a party personally”; Rush supplies an advisor to a party who has none. If the Title IX Officer removes a student on an interim basis, the officer “must offer to meet with the Respondent within twenty-four hours” to hear a challenge. See Title IX hearings and cross-examination.

The appeal window is short and counted in calendar days. An appeal must reach the Appeals Official — the Provost, for a student respondent — “within seven (7) days of receipt of the hearing determination,” and the policy’s timing rule says to “Count every day, including intermediate Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays,” with the period ending at 5:00 p.m. Central time and rolling forward only if the last day falls on a weekend or federal holiday. There are three grounds — new evidence, a procedural irregularity “so significant that it affected the outcome,” and a conflict of interest or bias — and “No other grounds for appeal are permitted.” The Provost generally decides within twenty-one days, and that decision is final. Discrimination and harassment outside Title IX go to the same office under Rush’s Prohibition against Discrimination, Harassment and Sexual Misconduct, which also applies a preponderance of the evidence.

What a student defense lawyer can do here

Most of the value is early and quiet. It is reading Rush’s policy against what the school actually did and finding the gap; writing the response or the appeal so it argues the grounds the policy recognizes rather than the ones that feel most unfair; preserving the federal issues — Title IX, Section 504 and the ADA, FERPA — so they are in the record if the case ever leaves campus; and identifying comparators, because a sanction far outside what similar cases drew is one of the few arguments that reliably moves a decision-maker.

At Rush the first move is housekeeping that students skip: establishing which college’s rules apply, getting the current text — the COSEP Policies and Procedures, the departmental handbook, the guidebook — and checking it against the catalog, which controls where they conflict. The second depends on the college. In the College of Nursing, the initial written response may be the only evidence the panel considers, so it has to be complete the first time, with the documents attached. In the College of Health Sciences, every step of the appeal runs on five working days, and the argument has to be framed as unfair application of a rule, because the procedure will not hear a challenge to the rule itself. In a medical-college case, the request for reconsideration and the appeal to the dean are two separate chances to correct the record, and both should be used.

What a lawyer cannot do is turn a campus hearing into a trial. The rules of evidence do not apply, there is no discovery, and the school decides its own case at first instance. That is exactly why the written record built during the campus process is the whole ballgame: by the time a court looks at it, the record is closed.

The one Illinois statute that gives you procedure

Illinois has no general statute setting notice periods, hearing formats, standards of proof or appeal rights for college students. The Illinois School Code, 105 ILCS 5, has a detailed suspension and expulsion scheme, and it applies to elementary and secondary schools, not here. The exception is the Preventing Sexual Violence in Higher Education Act, 110 ILCS 155, and it is a real one. It reaches every higher education institution in the state — public universities, community colleges, and private not-for-profit and for-profit institutions alike — and it requires timely written notice of the allegations to all parties, an investigation that is adequate, reliable and impartial, written notice of the outcome, and appeal rights. It requires the school to make confidential advisors available, trained to a statutory standard and kept separate from the people deciding the case. Both parties are entitled to an advisor of their choice, and that advisor may be an attorney — although the institution may limit how far an attorney-advisor participates in a hearing, which is why Rush’s own rule on that, set out above, still governs what your lawyer may do in the room. The standard of proof is preponderance of the evidence, applied the same way to both sides.

What to do first

1. Identify your college’s rulebook and get the current version. Medical students should download the COSEP Policies and Procedures from the Rush Medical College portal today; nursing and health-sciences students should ask for the guidebook or departmental handbook in force for their cohort. Save dated copies, and remember that the catalog overrides a handbook where they conflict.
2. Write the deadline down in its own unit. Five working days at each step in the College of Health Sciences; five business days, by 5 p.m. Central, to demand a nursing misconduct panel; seven calendar days for a Title IX appeal. If a notice gives a different date, work to the earlier one.
3. Treat your first written response as the record. In the College of Nursing it may be the only document the panel reads, so attach the evaluations, messages and schedules that answer the charge.
4. Ask for the documentation in writing. The instructor’s unsafe-practice documentation, the incident report, evaluations and committee minutes — put the request in email so the date exists.
5. Raise disability and accommodation now. Rush’s catalog says accommodations “are never retroactive,” so a request made after a failed rotation does not undo it. Contact the Office of Student Accessibility Services, and see disability accommodations under Section 504 and the ADA.
6. Do not withdraw or take leave in a panic. Rush does not allow withdrawal from classes in the last three weeks of a term, leave and withdrawal have their own timing rules, and how an exit is recorded follows you. For how federal court fits around all of this, see the Illinois student defense hub.

One honest caveat about geography. Illinois has three federal districts. I am admitted to two of them, the Northern and the Southern. A federal claim arising at a school in Springfield, Peoria, Champaign-Urbana or the Quad Cities falls in the Central District; I am not a member of that bar, and those matters I handle with local counsel in that district or by pro hac vice admission. Appeals from the Northern District go to the Seventh Circuit, which keeps its own bar; my appellate admission is in the Eleventh. I say so before a retainer rather than after.

Where I am licensed. I am licensed to practice law in Florida. I am admitted to the bars of the U.S. District Courts for the Southern, Middle and Northern Districts of Florida, the District of Colorado, the Northern and Southern Districts of Illinois, the District of Nebraska, the District of New Mexico, and the Western District of Wisconsin, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Federal court admission is not a license to practice the law of the state in which the court sits. I am not licensed in Illinois and do not advise on Illinois state law or appear in Illinois state court.

The federal money on the line at Rush

Rush University students and families took on $82.6 million in federal Direct Loans in the 2025–26 award year — with 1,053 graduate and professional students also borrowing through Grad PLUS.

Every dollar of it rides on academic standing. A dismissal, a failed Satisfactory Academic Progress evaluation, or a mid-term withdrawal sets off federal rules that decide whether aid continues, whether money already disbursed has to go back, and — under the borrowing caps in effect since July 1, 2026 — whether a student who leaves can still finance a return. The academic fight and the financial aid fight are the same fight, and the windows are short. How those rules work: SAP appeals and academic dismissal.

On the Department’s financial responsibility test, Rush University’s most recent published composite score is 3.0 (fiscal year 2022–23) — a passing score on the –1.0-to-3.0 scale, where 1.5 and above passes. How to read that number: the federal warning signs guide.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, Federal Student Aid Data Center, Direct Loan volume by school, award year 2025–26 (cumulative through June 30, 2026). Institution-wide federal Direct Loan totals.

Other schools in the Northern District of Illinois

Every school writes its own dismissal, appeal and conduct rules, and the deadlines are rarely the same from one campus to the next. These pages set out the procedure at other schools in the Northern District of Illinois:

• Saint Anthony College of Nursing
• Saint Xavier University
• School of the Art Institute of Chicago
• Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership
• Taylor Business Institute
• Telshe Yeshiva Chicago

Common questions about Rush student cases

How long do I have to appeal at Rush?

It depends on your college and the kind of case. In the College of Health Sciences each appeal step — instructor, chair, committee, dean — must be filed within five working days. In the College of Nursing a student who disagrees with a misconduct resolution has five business days, by 5 p.m. Central, to demand a Faculty Advisory Panel. A Title IX appeal is due within seven calendar days of receiving the hearing determination. Rush Medical College’s deadlines are in the COSEP Policies and Procedures, not the public catalog.

Can I bring a lawyer to my Rush hearing?

Sometimes, with limits. In a Title IX case your advisor of choice may be an attorney and asks the questions at the live hearing. In the College of Nursing a student may be accompanied by legal counsel, but counsel “may not participate in the actual hearing proceedings.” The College of Health Sciences procedure in the catalog lets you appear and speak but says nothing about advisors, and Rush Medical College’s rules are in the COSEP Policies and Procedures, so ask in writing before the meeting.

What standard of proof does Rush use?

Preponderance of the evidence in Title IX and discrimination cases, and before the College of Nursing’s Faculty Advisory Panel. The university Student Code of Conduct and the College of Health Sciences procedure in the 2026–2027 catalog publish no standard of proof, and Rush Medical College’s standard, if it states one, is in the COSEP Policies and Procedures rather than the public catalog. If the standard matters to your case, ask the college to state it in writing.

Can Rush remove me from a nursing clinical without a hearing?

Yes, at first. Under the unsafe-student policy an instructor may dismiss a student from clinical for the day; the reasons must be documented within two business days, and the Program Director then decides whether the removal stands. If it does, you receive a non-passing grade, cannot withdraw from the course, and the Admissions and Progressions Committee decides whether you are dismissed. You may appeal, and a student in jeopardy of dismissal may petition the committee before it decides.

Who decides a dismissal at Rush Medical College?

The dean. COSEP evaluates students and may recommend dismissal, but the catalog says COSEP “is empowered to make recommendations only; final decisions regarding dismissal are made by the dean of Rush Medical College.” The COSEP Policies and Procedures provide for a request for reconsideration of a dismissal recommendation and an appeal to the dean — two separate chances to put the record right.

Can a clinical site’s decision get me dismissed from a Rush health sciences program?

It can. The College of Health Sciences says students who are refused placement or terminated from a rotation because of a criminal background check “will be subject to dismissal on academic grounds,” and so are students terminated from a rotation for violating a facility’s drug-testing or drug-use policies. Incidents involving “gross errors in judgment or practice” are grounds for dismissal. Get the site’s documentation in writing early.