Herzing University Orlando Student Defense Lawyer

Students call about Herzing University’s Orlando campus at three points: after a second failed course in a clinical program, when a satisfactory academic progress notice says the enrollment is over, and when they read the dismissal letter closely enough to see that the appeal deadline is printed in the letter and nowhere else. All three run on short clocks, and all three are decided on paper.

How do student discipline and dismissal cases work at Herzing University Orlando?

Herzing University is a private nonprofit university, having converted from for-profit status in 2015, and that fact sets the frame. A private university is not a state actor, so the Fourteenth Amendment does not reach what it does to you 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 Herzing’s published policy.

The second point is the one Florida health-program students get wrong. Fla. Stat. § 1006.60(3) is a real statutory due process code: 7 business days’ notice, disclosure of the evidence including exculpatory material 5 business days out, preponderance of the evidence with the burden on the institution, an appeal of right, 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. It does not reach Herzing.

What Herzing does promise is still 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 fourth-year osteopathic medical student was dismissed two months before graduation over one failing rotation grade. A jury found the dismissal “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. On retrial a jury 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).

The limits are real. Courts review academic judgment only for whether it was arbitrary and capricious, irrational, made in bad faith, or in violation of a constitution or statute. Not every sentence is a promise: 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.” And a court will not engage until the internal process has run: Gamma Phi Chapter v. University of Miami, 718 So. 2d 910 (Fla. 3d DCA 1998). The useful feature of Herzing’s policy is that it is unusually specific, which is exactly what makes a breach of contract argument possible when a step is skipped.

Where do Herzing University Orlando cases come from?

The Orlando campus enrolls roughly 720 students and is one of about a dozen Herzing ground campuses; the university’s administrative offices are in Milwaukee, and its policies are written once and applied system-wide. The satisfactory academic progress policy says so in terms: it applies to “all undergraduate students at Herzing University,” part-time and full-time, whether or not they receive financial aid. So the standard that ends an Orlando enrollment was not written in Orlando.

Almost nothing here begins with a conduct hearing. It begins with a grade. In clinical-based healthcare programs, where the minimum passing grade in core courses is 76 percent, a student “will be dismissed after two failures in the core courses of the program, irrespective of program grade point average and without previously being placed on Academic Warning.” Two withdrawal grades in nursing core courses count as one failed attempt. A nursing student may not repeat any nursing course more than once, and failing two nursing courses means dismissal from the program even if every progress standard is met. Students must pass all components of a course — class, lab and clinical — to pass at all.

The financial consequences arrive with the letter. Dismissal for exceeding the 150 percent maximum time frame carries loss of federal financial aid eligibility with it, and dismissal under the progress standard ends Title IV funding unless an appeal succeeds. A balance and a records hold usually follow. Florida does not prohibit a school from withholding a transcript over an unpaid balance, so treat a transcript or registration hold as part of the same problem, and treat a nursing program dismissal as the emergency it is.

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

The label on the letter picks the decision-maker, the deadline and the protections. A satisfactory academic progress dismissal goes to an Academic Appeal Form and a committee. A clinical-program dismissal for two core-course failures goes through the same appeal, but it can arrive without any warning stage first. A grade dispute goes through the standard grade appeal, and Herzing’s policy warns that a grade appeal “must be received prior to the appeal deadline in order to be considered for the subsequent semester” — a grade appeal filed late does not just fail, it costs you a term.

Conduct and academic integrity charges run on a different track set out in the university policy sections rather than in the progress policy. Answering in the wrong track spends the one response you get. Match the letter first: academic dismissal and suspension, SAP appeals, conduct code charges, or academic misconduct.

What should you do first?

Read the dismissal notification for the deadline. Herzing does not publish a filing window for an academic appeal anywhere in the policy; the appeal must be submitted “prior to the deadline stated in the dismissal notification.” That letter is therefore the only place your deadline exists, and losing it is the most common way a Herzing appeal dies. If the letter does not state a date, ask in writing the same day and keep the answer.

Then gather the documents that a two-business-day committee review can actually absorb: the transcript showing the failed attempts, the course syllabi with their grading breakdowns, the clinical evaluations, and dated proof of the mitigating circumstance. The policy accepts serious injury or illness, the death of a relative, or another special circumstance, and it requires you to explain both what happened and “how the student has overcome the circumstance.” An appeal that explains the problem but not the fix is the one that gets denied. If a professionalism or clinical evaluation sits behind the failure, get it before you write.

What does Herzing University Orlando’s own policy actually say?

Herzing separates its policies: the conduct material sits in the academic catalog, and the academic progress standard is published on its own page. Here is what each says, and what neither says.

• Conduct office: the campus Academic Dean and the campus administration, reached through the Herzing University policy statements page, which links onward to the undergraduate and graduate policy sections of the academic catalog.
• Governing policy: the university-wide undergraduate and graduate policies. Herzing is a single national institution rather than a system of separately governed colleges, so no campus-specific code sits above them, and no Florida College System rule or Board of Governors regulation applies to a private university.
• Academic integrity: published in the same undergraduate and graduate policy sections of the catalog. If that catalog will not open for you, request the version in force on your date in writing and keep the response, because a policy you cannot reach is not adequate published notice.
• Appeal window: no campus-specific day-count located. The satisfactory academic progress policy requires the Academic Appeal Form “prior to the deadline stated in the dismissal notification” and sets no fixed number of days. The committee returns a decision within two business days, and “[a]ll decisions on academic appeals are final.”
• Standard of proof: the progress policy does not state one, because a progress dismissal is arithmetic rather than a finding. For a conduct charge, ask in writing what standard applies.
• Advisor: the published policy does not say whether a student may bring an advisor, or whether that advisor may be an attorney or may speak. Because it is silent, ask before any meeting is scheduled. At a public Florida college the answer is fixed by statute under § 1006.60(3)(g); here it is not.
• Academic standing: undergraduates need a 2.0 program grade point average and a completion pace that rises from 25 percent to 50 percent to 66.67 percent as credits accumulate; graduate students need a 3.00 and 66.67 percent. Nobody may attempt more than 150 percent of the required credits. One semester of Academic Warning comes first, without an appeal, and a second failure means dismissal.
• Disability accommodations: the Disability Services function listed among the university’s consumer disclosures.

Two provisions repay careful reading. A successful appeal puts you on Academic Probation with an Academic Success Plan, and the plan is enforceable against you: missing its conditions is itself a ground for dismissal. And a student withdrawn administratively while in good standing, including for missed classes, “may be readmitted through a reapplication process and is not required to appeal” — so whether your file records a withdrawal or a dismissal changes the route back entirely.

What can a student defense lawyer do here?

A federal claim arising at Herzing University Orlando — 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. Orange County sits in that district, so no pro hac vice motion and no sponsoring local attorney is needed. 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 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

At Herzing the leverage is in the specificity. A policy that names a committee, a chairperson, a two-business-day turnaround and a list of qualifying circumstances is a policy that can be checked step by step, and a step that was skipped is worth raising while the file is still open. Because the appeal is written and the review is fast, the submission has to be complete the first time.

Other Florida universities

Herzing’s other Florida campus has its own page: Herzing University Tampa.

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:

• Jacksonville University
• Johnson University Florida Closed: Transcripts, Records, and Loan Discharge
• Jose Maria Vargas University
• Keiser University
• Keiser University Fort Lauderdale
• Keiser University Pembroke Pines

Common questions about Herzing University Orlando student cases

Does the Florida student due process statute protect me at Herzing University Orlando?

No. Fla. Stat. section 1006.60(3) requires 7 business days of notice, disclosure of exculpatory evidence, 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. Herzing is a private nonprofit university, so neither that statute nor the Fourteenth Amendment reaches it. Your protections come from Herzing’s published policies.

How long do I have to appeal a Herzing dismissal for academic progress?

No campus-specific day-count located, and that is the policy rather than a gap in it. The satisfactory academic progress policy requires the Academic Appeal Form to be submitted before the deadline stated in your dismissal notification, and sets no fixed number of days. So your letter is the only place the date exists. The campus Academic Dean chairs the committee, a decision comes within two business days, and the policy says all decisions on academic appeals are final.

Can Herzing dismiss me from a nursing program after two course failures?

Yes. In clinical-based healthcare programs the policy provides for dismissal after two failures in core courses, irrespective of program grade point average and without any prior Academic Warning. Two withdrawal grades in nursing core courses are treated as one failed attempt, and a nursing course may not be repeated more than once. Students must pass every component of a course, including the clinical component. The dismissal is appealable through the same academic appeal process.

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.