Ave Maria University Student Defense Lawyer

Students at Ave Maria University call at three points: when the Dean of Students sets a meeting about a Code of Student Conduct referral, when an instructor reports an Academic Honor Code violation, and after the sanction letter has arrived. The first two run on days. The third is usually too late, because the written appeal request is due two business days after the sanction is imposed.

How do student discipline and dismissal cases work at Ave Maria University?

Ave Maria University is a private nonprofit Catholic university, and that fact decides the shape of your case before anything else. A private university is not a state actor, so the Fourteenth Amendment does not reach it and there is no constitutional due process claim to bring. Florida settled this a century ago. John B. Stetson University v. Hunt, 88 Fla. 510, 102 So. 637 (1924), holds that the relation between a student and an institution of learning privately conducted is “solely contractual in character,” with “an implied condition that the student knows and will conform to the rules and regulations of the institution.” Your case is a contract case, and the contract is the Student Handbook.

The second point is the one Florida students most often get backwards. Florida does have a real statutory due process code for campus discipline. Fla. Stat. § 1006.60(3) requires 7 business days’ written notice, disclosure of the evidence 5 business days out including exculpatory material, preponderance of the evidence with the burden on the institution, an appeal of right a senior administrator must hear, and at § 1006.60(3)(g) the right to a “legal representative” at “any proceeding, whether formal or informal,” who “may directly participate in all aspects of the proceeding, including the presentation of relevant information and questioning of witnesses.” It reaches every Florida College System institution and every state university, but not Ave Maria. The Code says so itself: “This Code does not, nor is it intended to, afford either the specificity nor the due process rights of criminal or civil statutes or procedures.”

What the handbook does give you is worth enforcing, because Florida enforces private-school contracts with real money. In Sharick v. Southeastern University of the Health Sciences, 780 So. 2d 136 (Fla. 3d DCA 2000), a student dismissed about two months before graduation won a jury finding that the dismissal was “arbitrary, capricious, and/or lacking any discernable rational basis,” and the Third District held his damages were not capped at tuition: lost future earning capacity is recoverable. A jury later awarded $813,000 past and $3.5 million future lost earnings, affirmed in Nova Southeastern University of the Health Sciences, Inc. v. Sharick, 21 So. 3d 41 (Fla. 3d DCA 2009). Tercier v. University of Miami, No. 3D22-1334 (Fla. 3d DCA Aug. 2, 2023), holds that “only specific promises … in a school’s bulletins, circulars[,] and handbooks, which are material to the student’s relationship with the school, are enforceable” — general policy statements will not do. A breach of contract claim is built out of numbered steps the university wrote down and then skipped. And a court will usually wait: Gamma Phi Chapter v. University of Miami, 718 So. 2d 910 (Fla. 3d DCA 1998), declined to intervene before “exhaustion of an available administrative remedy.”

Where do Ave Maria University cases come from?

Ave Maria enrolls roughly 1,420 students on a small residential campus in Ave Maria, Florida, and that shape drives the caseload. Most referrals start in the residence halls: alcohol, drugs, guests and visiting hours. A Level Two alcohol finding, such as underage possession or hosting a gathering with an excessive quantity of alcohol, carries “possible suspension, dismissal, or expulsion” on a first offense. A second drug possession offense carries “a minimum one-year suspension from the University effective immediately,” and distribution means immediate expulsion “with no option for readmission.” In a hazing case the college statute is Fla. Stat. § 1006.63, not § 1006.135, which is a grades 6 through 12 law, and § 1006.63(11)–(12) carries the “Andrew’s Law” medical amnesty.

Ave Maria also enforces faith-based standards a public college could not enforce at all: a Sexual Morality policy stating the Catholic teaching that sexual intimacy is reserved to sacramental marriage, visiting-hours rules, a Code of Conduct on Transgenderism, and dress expectations for classrooms and chapels. These are contract terms, and under Stetson a court “will not annul or revise” a private institution’s regulations “unless unauthorized, against common right or palpably unreasonable.” The winning argument is almost never that the rule is wrong, but that the university did not follow the procedure it published for applying it.

The stakes are practical. Eviction from residence in a small town is close to a separation from the university, which is why it is an appealable sanction. And Honor Code cases carry a collateral hit: an automatic course failure also brings suspension “from athletics, campus employment, and clubs for 365 days.” That consequence is often the real subject of the negotiation, which is why sanction terms matter as much as the finding.

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

The label on the letter picks the decision-maker, the clock and the protections, and Ave Maria runs at least four tracks. A Code of Student Conduct referral goes to the Dean of Students, who reviews it, meets with you, decides responsibility and imposes the sanction; repeat or serious violations go on to the Student Disciplinary Committee for a hearing. An academic misconduct allegation runs under the Academic Honor Code, published in the Academic Catalog rather than the handbook. A Title IX complaint runs under the Title IX Sexual Harassment Grievance Policy & Procedure, on its own timetable and standard of proof. Academic standing is not conduct at all.

Answering in the wrong track spends the one response you get. Match the letter to the right process first: conduct code charges, academic dismissal and suspension, or Title IX. If the letter does not say which policy you are charged under, ask in writing and keep the answer.

What should you do first?

Get the edition of the Student Handbook in force on your incident date and read the Appeals section before the rule you are accused of breaking. Then get the Academic Catalog, where the handbook says the Academic Honor Code lives. Ask the Office of the Dean of Students in writing for your case file, for the provision of the Code you are charged under, and for the date the sanction is treated as imposed — that date, not the date you read the email, starts the two-business-day clock.

Preserve everything: drafts and version history, learning management timestamps, group chats, residence hall incident reports, and the names of anyone present. Do not sit for the Dean of Students meeting before you know what is alleged, and do not treat it as informal; that meeting is where responsibility is decided. If the allegation rests on a similarity report or an AI-detection score, read the page on AI accusations first. If you were removed from housing before any finding, that is an interim suspension question.

What does Ave Maria University’s own policy actually say?

One dated PDF carries the conduct code and the campus-life rules. Keep the copy you relied on, not the link.

• Conduct office: the Office of the Dean of Students, under the Ave Maria University Student Handbook 2025–2026. Referrals “should normally be made within ten working days after the discovery of the alleged violation.” The Dean may also evict, restrict campus access or impose an interim suspension effective immediately.
• Governing policy: the Code of Student Conduct in that handbook, with ultimate authority vested in the President. No Florida College System rule and no Board of Governors regulation governs a private university, so there is no system-wide code above it.
• Academic integrity: the Academic Honor Code, which the handbook states “can be found within the Academic Catalog, which is posted on the University website.” The handbook gives the sanction but not the procedure, so ask for the catalog section by name.
• Appeal window: the request must be in writing to the Office of the Dean of Students “no later than two business days after the sanction or sanctions have been imposed,” and the supporting statement no later than five business days, capped at five double-spaced pages. Appeal is available where the sanction is eviction from residence, suspension, dismissal or expulsion. A clemency petition to the President is due within three working days of the appeal decision.
• Standard of proof: the Code does not publish one for the initial finding. The published grounds for appeal are that “[c]lear and convincing evidence does not exist to support the decision reached” or that new evidence has been discovered, and in Title IX matters the handbook is explicit that the Title IX Decisionmaker applies “the clear and convincing evidence standard of proof.” At a Florida public college the standard is fixed by statute at preponderance, § 1006.60(3)(b).
• Advisor: “For University Code of Conduct violations, representation is not permitted in university appeal hearings (or other disciplinary proceedings); however, a respondent may be accompanied by an advisor.” The advisor must be a member of the University community — faculty, staff or another student — and “may not speak on behalf of a respondent during any disciplinary proceeding, nor shall the advisor cross-examine witnesses.” One door is left open: “In extraordinary circumstances, the advisor may be legal counsel,” on two working days’ notice to the Dean of Students.
• Academic standing: not in the Student Handbook, and Ave Maria does not publish an academic standing policy at a separate public URL. Request it in writing from the Office of the Dean of Students or the registrar and keep the response, because a policy you cannot reach is not adequate published notice of the standard you are held to.
• Title IX: the University’s Title IX Coordinator, under the Title IX Sexual Harassment Grievance Policy & Procedure in the handbook, which also protects a reporting student from discipline for Code of Student Conduct, Sexual Morality or Visiting Hours violations disclosed in a good-faith Title IX report.
• Disability accommodations: the Adaptive Services Office in Canizaro Library, which requires documentation and a Request for Accommodations form two weeks before classes start. See 504 and ADA accommodations.

What can a student defense lawyer do here?

A federal claim arising at Ave Maria University — Title IX, Title VI, or Section 504 and the ADA — is filed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, where I am admitted to the bar. There is no Fourteenth Amendment claim against a private university, and the contract claim under Stetson and Sharick is a state-law claim. Almost none of these matters reach a courtroom. What decides them is the campus record:

• Reading the governing policy against the charge or decision letter
• Preparing your account, your documents and your questions
• Testing whether the school followed its own published procedure
• Scrutinising software-based evidence, including AI-detection and similarity reports
• Helping with the written response and the appeal, where policy allows
• Serving as your advisor where the process permits one
• Negotiating sanction terms, notations and disclosure language

What a lawyer can do here turns on which door the handbook leaves open. In an ordinary Code of Student Conduct matter the advisor must come from inside the university and may not speak, so the work moves outside the room: the written response, the two-business-day appeal request, the five-day statement, and the correspondence that pins the university to its own published steps.

Other Florida 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 Florida universities:

• Barry University
• Chamberlain University Florida
• Edward Waters University
• Everglades University
• Florida Atlantic University
• Florida International University

Common questions about Ave Maria University student cases

Does the Florida student due process statute protect me at Ave Maria?

No. Fla. Stat. section 1006.60(3) requires 7 business days of notice, disclosure of the evidence 5 business days out, preponderance of the evidence with the burden on the institution, an appeal of right, and a legal representative who may question witnesses. It reaches only Florida College System institutions and state universities. Ave Maria is private, so neither that statute nor the Fourteenth Amendment applies to it. Your protections come from the Student Handbook and the Academic Catalog, which is why their exact wording matters.

Can I bring a lawyer to an Ave Maria disciplinary hearing?

Usually not. The handbook says representation is not permitted in university appeal hearings or other disciplinary proceedings, and that an advisor must be a member of the university community: a faculty member, a staff member or another student. That advisor may not speak for you and may not cross-examine witnesses. In extraordinary circumstances the advisor may be legal counsel, but you must notify the Dean of Students at least two working days before the proceeding to request permission.

How long do I have to appeal an Ave Maria sanction?

Two business days. The written appeal request must reach the Office of the Dean of Students no later than two business days after the sanction is imposed, and the supporting statement, capped at five double-spaced pages in PDF, no later than five business days. Appeal is available where the sanction is eviction from residence, suspension, dismissal or expulsion. If it is denied, a clemency petition to the President is due within three working days.

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. Other campuses are covered on the Florida schools page.

This page is informational and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the institution named on it.