University of Colorado Denver Student Defense Lawyer

CU Denver students tend to contact me after an academic integrity referral from an instructor, after a charge under the Student Code of Conduct, or after a program has put continued enrollment in question. Many are working adults or transfer students with a degree already half paid for, which changes what a suspension actually costs and why the response deserves real attention.

How do student discipline and dismissal cases work at CU Denver?

CU Denver is public, so the Fourteenth Amendment applies. Under Goss v. Lopez, 419 U.S. 565 (1975), a disciplinary suspension requires notice and an opportunity to respond, and longer separations require more. Academic decisions draw deference instead: under Board of Curators of the University of Missouri v. Horowitz, 435 U.S. 78 (1978) and Regents of the University of Michigan v. Ewing, 474 U.S. 214 (1985), a court will not disturb a faculty judgment unless it departs so substantially from accepted academic norms that professional judgment was not actually exercised. Because this is one campus of the University of Colorado, a case also sits under system-wide regental policies alongside the campus procedures. Read both. Between the campus code, the campus academic integrity policy, and regental policy, three documents can bear on one case, and the appeal is often won by showing which one the decision-maker did not follow — the ordinary shape of due process at a public institution.

Where do CU Denver cases come from?

The Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards administers the Student Code of Conduct. Academic integrity is handled separately under a campus academic integrity policy, which provides for resolution through an academic integrity committee hearing where a student or faculty member requests it. CU Denver describes its education as conducted under an honor system and enumerates what violates academic standards: plagiarism, including improper use of material taken from the web; cheating; illegitimate possession or use of examinations; fabrication and falsification; multiple submissions; misuse of academic materials; and complicity.

Matters come from seven academic units — the Business School, the College of Architecture and Planning, the College of Arts and Media, the College of Engineering, Design and Computing, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the School of Education and Human Development, and the School of Public Affairs — each with its own progression and dismissal standards. One structural wrinkle: CU Denver shares the downtown Auraria Campus with Metropolitan State University of Denver and the Community College of Denver. Students take courses across those institutions and sometimes send an appeal to the wrong institution’s office while the clock runs.

Which process are you in, and why does that matter?

The track determines the deadline and the decision-maker. An academic integrity referral, a student conduct charge, and an academic dismissal or suspension decision are separate processes, and a Title IX or protected-class matter is separate again. Where a decision is disciplinary in substance but labeled academic, say so at the first opportunity, because the label is what determines how much deference the decision receives.

What should you do first?

Get the current Student Code of Conduct and academic integrity policy from CU Denver’s own site rather than from a summary, including this one, and identify any regental policy the letter cites. Read your syllabus alongside them. Calendar the deadline in writing, request the file the university is relying on, and preserve drafts, version history, and messages before they are gone. Do not sit for an interview until you understand what the evidence is.

What does CU Denver’s own policy actually say?

CU Denver runs conduct cases through the Office of Student Conduct & Community Standards under the CU Denver Student Code of Conduct AY 2026-2027, in effect August 17, 2026. The code sits in the Campus Administrative Policy series 7000, though the current PDF carries no number on its face; the 2020 edition was Policy 7003, and Appendix B is the Anti-Hazing Policy 7041D, effective September 4, 2025. Academic integrity is a separately numbered policy, Campus Administrative Policy 7050, effective January 1, 2020 and last reviewed August 13, 2019, with the next review not due until July 1, 2027. A conduct appeal is due within five working days of the date the Conduct Decision Letter is issued, and the code defines a working day as any day Monday through Friday except official University holidays. The standard is preponderance. One support person or advisor is allowed, expressly including a lawyer, who “is not permitted to speak for or on behalf of the individual at any time” but may make a statement or ask questions with the Conduct Educator’s permission.

• Conduct office: Office of Student Conduct & Community Standards (SCCS)
• Governing policy: CU Denver Student Code of Conduct AY 2026-2027, in effect August 17, 2026, in the Campus Administrative Policy series 7000; issued under Regent Law Article 7, Part B and Regent Policy 7.B
• Academic integrity: Campus Administrative Policy 7050, Academic Integrity — effective January 1, 2020, content last reviewed August 13, 2019, next review July 1, 2027
• Appeal window: Five (5) working days of the date the Conduct Decision Letter is issued; the Appeal Reader generally decides within fifteen (15) working days
• Standard of proof: Preponderance of the information — more likely than not that a student engaged in a prohibited behavior
• Advisor: One support person or advisor, expressly including a lawyer, parent or guardian, partner, University staff or faculty, mental health provider, or friend; may not speak for the student at any time, but with the Conduct Educator’s permission may make a statement and ask questions. A disruptive advisor may be removed, and SCCS does not supply one.
• Title IX / equal opportunity: Office of Equity (shared with CU Anschutz)
• Disability accommodations: Disability Resources & Services (DRS)

The academic track is where the gap is. Academic Integrity Committee appeals are governed by a page that publishes the grounds and the form but no filing deadline in days, and the three-member Appeal Body’s decision is final. Ask the committee in writing what the deadline is, and keep the answer. Note also the reach of an outcome here: under Regent Policy 7.B.2(B) a suspension or expulsion at one CU campus applies at all of them.

What can a student defense lawyer do here?

A federal claim arising at CU Denver — Title IX, Section 504 and the ADA, or Fourteenth Amendment due process — is filed in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado, where I am admitted to the bar. That court grants no pro hac vice admission at all: a lawyer is either a member of its bar or cannot appear there.

• Reading the governing policy against the charge or decision letter
• Helping you prepare your account, your documents, and your questions
• Testing whether CU Denver followed its own published procedures
• Scrutinizing software-based evidence, including AI-detection and similarity reports
• Assisting with 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

What a lawyer may actually do in your case depends on that school’s policy. Some tracks permit an advisor of choice who may be an attorney, some permit a non-participating advisor, and some permit no outside person at all. Reading the current policy is the first step, because it determines what form the assistance can take.

Common questions about CU Denver student cases

Who decides an academic integrity case at CU Denver?

It depends on the route. The campus policy contemplates resolution by the instructor and the academic unit, and it provides for an academic integrity committee hearing where one is requested. Knowing which route you are on before you respond is the difference between a written explanation and a hearing strategy.

I take classes at more than one Auraria institution. Whose rules apply?

The institution that offers the course and the institution in which you are enrolled can both matter, and their codes are not identical. Send correspondence to the right office and confirm receipt, because a filing sent to the wrong campus is not a timely filing.

Does the CU system matter here?

Yes. CU Denver is a campus of the University of Colorado, so regental policies apply alongside campus procedures. Where the two describe the same requirement differently, that discrepancy belongs in the written appeal.

Related Colorado pages: MSU Denver, CU Anschutz Medical Campus, CU Boulder, and University of Denver. The full list is on the Colorado student defense page.

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 licensed to practice law in Florida and is admitted to the bars of the United States District Courts for the Southern, Middle, and Northern Districts of Florida, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, and the United States District Courts for 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. Federal court admission is not a license to practice the law of the state in which the court sits; he is not licensed in Colorado and does not advise on Colorado state law. Colorado 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, federal litigation in the District of Colorado, and association with Colorado counsel where a state-court proceeding is required.

One Colorado-specific point worth knowing before you hire anyone: the District of Colorado grants no pro hac vice admission, so a lawyer is either already a member of that court’s bar or cannot file your case there at all. Here is what that means in practice.