University of Wisconsin–River Falls Student Defense Lawyer

UW–River Falls students reach me at three moments: when an instructor files an academic misconduct report, when a nonacademic charge arrives from the Dean of Students Office, and — later than it should be — after a decision about academic standing or program continuation has already been made. All three run on short windows, and all three are governed by rules published in the Wisconsin Administrative Code rather than invented on campus.

How do student discipline and dismissal cases work at UW–River Falls?

River Falls is public, so the Fourteenth Amendment applies. Under Goss v. Lopez, 419 U.S. 565 (1975), a disciplinary suspension requires notice and a real opportunity to respond, and longer separations require more. Academic judgments 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 evaluation unless it substantially departs from accepted academic norms. That is the floor, and it is the practical core of due process at a public institution.

The second layer is what makes Wisconsin different. Discipline across the Universities of Wisconsin runs on uniform state administrative rules — Chapter UWS 14 for academic misconduct and Chapter UWS 17 for nonacademic misconduct — adopted by the Board of Regents and published in the Wisconsin Administrative Code, with each campus writing implementing procedures underneath. The uniformity cuts in a student’s favor: the rule is public, it is fixed, and a departure from it is measurable rather than a matter of impression.

Where do UW–River Falls cases come from?

The Dean of Students Office administers both tracks, and River Falls has published its implementing materials in unusual detail: a step-by-step guide for addressing academic misconduct, a document setting out sanction options and the reporting structure, a template for the misconduct report itself, a description of the hearing process, and a flowchart of the Chapter 14 investigation. That is a gift to a student. When a campus writes down exactly how it will proceed, any deviation is documentary rather than argumentative.

The process the office describes is concrete. After an instructor’s formal notice, the Dean of Students Office meets with the student, the instructor and relevant witnesses as part of its investigation. Where suspension or expulsion is recommended, a hearing is scheduled with a hearing board or a hearing examiner, and the board is composed of two faculty or staff members and one student. An appeal from a suspension or expulsion goes to the chancellor, who reviews the hearing committee’s decision on the record — which means the record you make at the hearing is the record the chancellor will read.

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

The label on your letter controls the deadline, the decision-maker, and how much process you are owed. Academic misconduct under UWS 14, nonacademic misconduct under UWS 17, Title IX, and academic standing are four separate tracks with four sets of deadlines. Students in teacher preparation through the College of Education, Business and Allied Health carry a fifth consideration, because a licensure application later asks its own questions and the answer is fixed by how this record is written now.

What should you do first?

Pull the current chapter and River Falls’s own implementing documents rather than a summary, this one included, and pull the syllabus and any lab, farm or clinical policy that governed the work. Calendar the deadline in writing, request your file, and preserve your process materials before they are gone: drafts, version history, data sets and field notebooks, animal or plot records, and messages with lab partners. In the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences, where much of the work happens outside a classroom, that material is often the whole case. Do not sit for the investigative meeting until you understand what the university claims to have.

What does UW–River Falls’ own policy actually say?

UW–River Falls runs conduct through the Dean of Students under Wis. Admin. Code ch. UWS 17 for nonacademic misconduct and ch. UWS 14 for academic misconduct, with no numbered campus code. One published figure needs care. The sentence “Appeals must be made in writing within 14 days of the date of the outcome letter” sits in the campus’s section on recognized student organizations and student groups, which the same page distinguishes from individual student conduct, so it is not an individual student’s deadline. For an individual student River Falls publishes no appeal window of its own. It does say a decision issues within 14 days of the hearing, without saying whether those are calendar or business days. The standard of proof follows the sanction sought rather than the type of case: under UWS 17.12(4)(f) and UWS 14.08(3)(e), suspension, expulsion, and nonacademic enrollment restrictions require clear and convincing evidence, while a preponderance applies to lesser sanctions. Advisor rights come from the chapters, and the advisor may be a lawyer whose role expands as the stakes rise.

• Conduct office: Dean of Students
• Governing policy: Nonacademic Misconduct, under Wis. Admin. Code ch. UWS 17; no campus policy number
• Academic integrity: Academic Misconduct, under Wis. Admin. Code ch. UWS 14 — hearing committee under UWS 14.08, then chancellor appeal under UWS 14.09; no separate academic standing appeal deadline is published
• Appeal window: none published for an individual student — the campus’s own 14-day figure belongs to its student-organization process — though it does issue a decision within 14 days of the hearing. The chapter windows also run: 10 days to request a hearing and 14 days to request discretionary Board of Regents review.
• Standard of proof: Clear and convincing evidence for suspension, expulsion, and nonacademic enrollment restrictions; preponderance for lesser sanctions
• Advisor: Under UWS 17.12(4)(b), an advisor of choice who may be a lawyer, counseling only where a lesser sanction is sought and permitted to question adverse witnesses, present information and witnesses, and speak for the respondent where suspension or expulsion is sought or the respondent has been charged with a crime arising from the same conduct. UWS 14.08(3)(a) gives a representative of choice in academic cases. No campus variation was located.
• Title IX / equal opportunity: Title IX
• Disability accommodations: Ability Services — the UW System directory also lists a Disability Resource Center at students.uwrf.edu/drc, so the same function appears under two names

Note where the campus counts from: 14 days from the date on the outcome letter, not from the day the student reads it. Mail and email delays come out of the student’s window. River Falls is also mid-migration between an old site and students.uwrf.edu, with both live, so confirm which page the student was actually served before relying on a date or a form — and note the disability office answers to two different names.

What can a student defense lawyer do here?

A federal claim arising at UW–River Falls — Title IX, Section 504 and the ADA, or Fourteenth Amendment due process — is filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, where I am admitted to the bar. Pierce County sits in that district, and no pro hac vice motion and no sponsoring attorney is needed for me to appear there.

• Reading the governing chapter and campus procedure against the charge or decision letter
• Helping you prepare your account, your documents, and your questions
• Testing whether the school 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.

Where River Falls’ own conduct pages stop

The Dean of Students academic misconduct page sorts sanctions into three published groups. Group A is a reprimand or an assignment to repeat work. Group B runs from a lower or failing grade through removal from the course and a reprimand in the disciplinary file. Group C is disciplinary probation, suspension or expulsion.

A and B stay with the instructor. A Group C recommendation goes by formal letter to the Dean of Students Office, which opens a case, may meet the student, the instructor and witnesses, then issues its findings. If the outcome is disciplinary probation, the student has 10 days from the date of that letter to request a hearing, and the sanction is final without one. Suspension or expulsion triggers a hearing automatically.

One number is easy to misread. The line “Appeals must be made in writing within 14 days of the date of the outcome letter,” with a Senior Student Affairs Officer answer within 30 days, sits in the RSO/Student Group Conduct Process — which that page says covers “organizational-level misconduct,” adding that “Individual conduct is another matter.” For an individual student, River Falls publishes no appeal window of its own.

Academic standing, and the two dates that close a suspension appeal

Standing is reviewed only at the end of fall and spring; summer and J-Term do not count. Good standing needs both a cumulative and a semester GPA of 2.00 or higher.

• Academic Warning issues once only, on a first cumulative GPA below 2.00 or a semester GPA of 1.00 to 1.99.
• Probation follows if a warned student does not regain good standing, or on any semester GPA below 1.00. It lasts one semester and can repeat.
• Suspension follows a probationary semester that does not restore good standing. It lasts one semester; returning takes a readmittance application to Admissions, which the dean of the college may refuse.
• Missing good standing again in the first semester back brings a second one-semester suspension.

Two dates close a fall suspension appeal: June 12, 2026 to keep the current schedule and room reservation, and August 15, 2026, after which no form is accepted. Some students are asked to meet the appeals committee, and an Academic Success Plan is due by September 1. A Faculty Senate motion from April 2011 sets the proof of readiness: nine credits at a 2.500 GPA.

Grade appeals and other academic complaints follow different ladders

A grade appeal starts from a presumption against the student. The registrar’s Policies and Procedures page, sourced to the Faculty and Staff Handbook at 9.2.20.1 and 9.2.20.2, presumes grades correct “unless there is clear and convincing evidence supporting an allegation of inequity in grading practices,” and puts the burden of proof on the student. It must be brought within one semester of the grade, not counting summer or J-Term. The steps are the instructor, the department chair, the dean of the college, then the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, where a five-member subset of the Academic Standards Committee hears it and recommends. No deadline is published for any step after the first. One line is worth marking: the student “may be accompanied by another person(s) of their choice at any stage of the complaint process.”

A non-grade academic complaint runs on business days instead. After the instructor and the department chair comes an Academic Complaint Form, which reaches the associate dean. If that fails, the instructor’s original decision stands and the student may appeal to the Provost by email within 10 business days. The Provost then has 20 business days, and decides finally.

The campus timeline for a sexual misconduct case

River Falls posts a Sexual Misconduct Grievance Process for Students flowchart, dated November 2, 2022, carrying numbers the policy omits. A note down its left margin says an advisor may be present throughout, and may be a lawyer.

• After the notice of investigation, the parties get the draft report and a minimum of 10 days to respond in writing.
• Once the final report is sent, the hearing is scheduled within 15 days and held within 45.
• A prehearing conference precedes the live hearing, virtual or in person, where each party may bring one advisor and one support person.
• The written decision follows within 14 days of the hearing. Any party may appeal within 14 days of that decision or of a dismissal, and the appeal answer issues within 30 days.

Behind it sits AP-06-116, the Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment policy, approved March 1, 2017 and last revised July 2025. It aims to finish an informal resolution or investigation within 90 calendar days, extendable for good cause on written notice. Informal resolution needs written consent, is closed where the respondent is an employee, and carries no appeal.

Accommodations run through the Disability Resource Center

The office is the Disability Resource Center in 123 Rodli Hall, not Ability Services; that old address now redirects there. A student applies through DRC Connect, submits clinical documentation, then schedules an intake, allowing 48 business hours for it to process. Documentation is strongly encouraged before intake for academic requests and required for housing ones. Housing decisions can take 30 days after that, and a request made fewer than 60 days before move-in may not be met that term.

Denials have a published ladder. The DRC director reviews first, contacts the student within seven business days once supplemental materials arrive, and decides in writing within 15 days. A formal review is then asked for within 15 days of that decision, on the Statement of Appeal Form, and the ADA Coordinator for Students decides within 30 days — reversing only where the director’s decision “was not supported by the record” or the director “substantially failed to comply with internal procedures.” Where an approved accommodation is not being delivered, the written appeal is due within 15 days and the answer within 15 more. A denied housing appeal bars the same request for the rest of the academic year.

Other Wisconsin universities

Every school writes its own dismissal, appeal and conduct rules, and the filing deadlines are rarely the same from one campus to the next. These pages set out the procedure at other Wisconsin universities:

• University of Wisconsin
• University of Wisconsin
• University of Wisconsin
• University of Wisconsin
• Viterbo University
• Carroll University

Common questions about UW–River Falls student cases

The Dean of Students Office wants to meet with me. Do I have to go?

Usually you should, but not unprepared and not before you know what is being alleged. Ask in writing for the report, the section charged, and the documents the office is relying on, and ask what role the meeting plays under the published procedure. A meeting you walk into blind becomes evidence against you far more often than it clears anything up.

Who is on the hearing panel?

River Falls describes a hearing board of two faculty or staff members and one student, with a hearing examiner as an alternative. Ask which you will face and ask about conflicts of interest before the hearing rather than after, because an objection raised late is worth much less than the same objection raised early.

What does a flat-fee review actually get me?

A full read of your file against the governing chapter and the campus procedure, a straight answer about what is defensible and what is not, and a written plan for the next step in the order it has to happen. The scope is described on the fees and scope of services page.

The full list of Wisconsin campuses is on the Wisconsin 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 Wisconsin and does not advise on Wisconsin state law. Wisconsin 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 Western District of Wisconsin, and association with Wisconsin counsel where a state-court proceeding is required.

How long does my son actually have to appeal a River Falls conduct decision?

Be careful with the “14 days” figure that circulates about this campus: on the university’s own site it appears in the section on recognized student organizations and student groups, which the same page distinguishes from individual student conduct. For an individual student, River Falls does not publish an appeal window of its own — the deadlines come from the chapters the university applies. What the campus does publish for individuals is the 10 days a student has, from the date of the formal letter, to request a hearing when the recommended sanction is disciplinary probation; where the recommendation is suspension or expulsion, a hearing is set automatically.

My daughter was academically suspended in May. What is the last day to appeal?

For a fall return, River Falls posts two dates on the Suspension Appeal Form: June 12, 2026 to keep her current class schedule and room reservation, and August 15, 2026 as the final date, after which the form is not accepted. Filing between those dates still works, but her classes are dropped and she re-registers if the appeal succeeds. If she returns, an Academic Success Plan is due by September 1, and the campus treats nine credits earned at a 2.500 GPA as its measure of readiness to come back.