Mount Mary University Student Defense Lawyer

Students reach me about Mount Mary University at three points: when an instructor raises an academic integrity problem, when a conduct charge arrives from the Community Standards and Title IX Coordinator, and, usually too late, after a decision about academic standing or aid. All three run on short clocks, and the conduct clock is five business days at almost every step.

How do student discipline and dismissal cases work at Mount Mary University?

Mount Mary University is private and nonprofit. It is not a state actor, so there is no Fourteenth Amendment due process claim and no constitutional floor under its procedure. The theory is contract: the handbook, the Bulletins and the published procedures are the promise. Federal statutes apply in full — Title IX, Title VI, and Section 504 with the ADA — as do accreditor and program-board requirements. More on a breach of contract claim.

The Wisconsin layer is mostly about what does not apply. Wis. Admin. Code chs. UWS 14 and UWS 17 give students at the UW universities a hearing on ten days’ written request, clear and convincing proof before suspension or expulsion, and, at § UWS 17.12(4)(b), an advisor who “may be a lawyer” and who may speak when suspension or expulsion is on the table. None of it reaches Mount Mary. Section UWS 17.02(10) defines “institution” as “any university, or an organizational equivalent designated by the board” — the UW universities and their branches — so a private university is outside it, as are the chancellor appeal and the thirty-day Wis. Stat. § 227.53 petition.

What fills the gap is thinner than most sites suggest. No published Wisconsin appellate decision settles whether a private college’s handbook is an enforceable contract, and I do not cite one. Chapter 227 review runs against agencies and common-law certiorari against governmental bodies, so neither reaches a private university. That leaves an ordinary contract action in circuit court alongside the federal statutes, which makes the specificity of Mount Mary’s own text the argument — and this handbook is specific. It names the officers, fixes the standard of proof, sets four appeal criteria, and says what an advisor may not do.

Where do Mount Mary University cases come from?

Mount Mary enrolls roughly 1,182 students in Milwaukee. It is a small university organized around professional preparation, and the handbook reflects that: it applies to “undergraduate, graduate, certificate, professional and special students,” and says that where a graduate or professional procedure conflicts with the Code, that procedure governs.

That sentence matters more than it looks. If you are in a program with a clinical rotation, a practicum or a student-teaching placement — nursing and education are the obvious examples — a program-level standard can decide your case, and the handbook allows the components of one incident to be separated and reviewed independently by the academic program, the Student Conduct Administrators and the Title IX Coordinators. One event can produce three decisions on three timetables. Placement outcomes are covered under professionalism findings.

The stakes follow from the sequencing. In a cohort program courses run once a year and placements are arranged a term ahead, so a one-term separation is usually a full year. The handbook makes that concrete: suspension is separation for a definite period with conditions for readmission, expulsion is permanent, and the university may revoke admission or a degree, or withhold a degree until every sanction is completed. Suspension, expulsion, revocation and withholding are not expunged; most other sanctions are, seven years after final disposition.

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

The label on the letter picks the office, the clock and the protections. Non-academic conduct runs through a Student Conduct Administrator under the Chief Conduct Officer. Academic integrity has “academic consequences through the instructor and the Deans of the Schools,” and its procedure lives in the Bulletins. Academic standing and academic dismissal are separate Bulletin policies. Aid standing is a fourth track, decided on a calculation. See academic misconduct, conduct code charges, academic dismissal and suspension and SAP appeals.

The clocks are different lengths and that catches people. A conduct appeal is due five business days after the decision; a financial aid appeal is due within fourteen days of the start of classes. Answering in the wrong track can spend your only response while the other window closes unnoticed.

What should you do first?

Download the current handbook and read Article IV, the conduct procedures, before the list of prohibited conduct. You get a minimum of five business days’ notice of a hearing and no more than fifteen, so the preparation window is short and the appeal has to be planned before the hearing, not after the letter.

Then ask, in writing, to review the evidence. The handbook allows the accused student to request review of incident reports and complainant statements after notification of charges, but the material cannot be copied, recorded or duplicated, so book it early and take full notes. Identify your witnesses at least two business days before the hearing or they will not be arranged. Collect the syllabus, assignment instructions and any clinical or placement policy; in a course-based allegation what the syllabus permitted on collaboration, notes and software is usually the strongest document in the file. Preserve drafts, version history, learning management timestamps and clinical evaluations before they auto-delete.

What does Mount Mary University’s own policy actually say?

Mount Mary publishes a detailed conduct code in its handbook and its aid-standing policy on the public site. The academic policies sit elsewhere, and the list says where.

• Conduct office: the Chief Conduct Officer, whom the student handbook identifies as the Community Standards and Title IX Coordinator, and who designates a Student Conduct Administrator to hear each matter and an Appeals Officer to consider appeals.
• Governing policy: the Mount Mary University Student Conduct Code, Articles I to IV of the Undergraduate and Graduate Student Handbook. It applies to undergraduate, graduate, certificate, professional and special students, and a conflicting graduate or professional procedure governs.
• Academic integrity: handled academically. The handbook says matters of academic integrity “may have academic consequences through the instructor and the Deans of the Schools,” and lists the Academic Honesty and Integrity Policy and the Procedure for Violations of Academic Integrity as Bulletin policies rather than reprinting them. No campus-specific academic integrity day-count located; request the Bulletin policy in writing.
• Notice and hearing: a minimum of five business days’ notice of a Student Conduct Hearing and no more than fifteen. Hearings are private, formal rules of evidence do not apply, questions are put through the Student Conduct Administrator, and there is a single verbatim record excluding deliberations. The outcome issues within five business days, extendable on written notice.
• Appeal window: five business days of the decision, to an Appeals Officer. An untimely appeal “will not be accepted,” forfeiting the right to appeal. The four criteria are whether the hearing was conducted fairly and according to the Code, whether the decision rested on substantial information, whether the sanction was appropriate, and whether there are new facts that could not reasonably have been included. The Appeals Officer may affirm or reverse in whole or in part, may reverse a not-responsible finding and impose sanctions, and the decision is final.
• Standard of proof: preponderance of the evidence, stated as whether “it is more likely than not that the Accused Student violated the Student Code.”
• Advisor: you have the right to be assisted by an Advisor of your choice, at your own expense, and the university will recommend one if you have nobody. But “Advisors are not permitted to speak or to participate directly in any Student Conduct Hearing.” An attorney may attend and may not speak, stricter than § UWS 17.12(4)(b) at a UW campus.
• Interim suspension: the Chief Conduct Officer or a designee may suspend before a hearing to protect the community or university property, to protect the student’s own safety, or where the student poses an ongoing threat of disruption. It does not replace the regular process. See interim suspension.
• Academic and aid standing: published in the university’s satisfactory academic progress policy. Undergraduates need at least a 2.0 cumulative GPA and graduate students a B average; every student must complete 67 percent of attempted credits and finish within 150 percent of published program length, which for a 128-credit degree is 192 attempted credits. Failure brings financial aid warning for one semester. A student may appeal in writing to the Director of Financial Aid and Veterans Services “within 14 days of the start of classes,” using the SAP Appeal form, explaining the specific reasons and what has changed, with supporting documentation. A probation committee decides within two weeks of receipt.
• Disability accommodations: Accessibility Services, in the Student Success Center at Haggerty Library, under the Director of Accessibility Services.

The academic policies that decide dismissals — Academic Dismissal, Academic Standing, the Academic Honesty and Integrity Policy and Grade and Other Academic Appeals — sit in the Undergraduate and Graduate Bulletins on My Mount Mary, the university portal, not in the public handbook. Ask in writing for the Bulletin sections in force on your incident date and keep the response. A policy you cannot obtain is not adequate published notice.

What can a student defense lawyer do here?

A federal claim arising at Mount Mary University — Title IX, Title VI, or Section 504 and the ADA — is filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, which covers Milwaukee and the eastern counties. I am admitted to the bar of the Western District of Wisconsin and handle Eastern District matters together with counsel admitted there. Because Mount Mary is private, there is no Fourteenth Amendment claim, and the contract claim is a state-law claim. What decides these matters 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 Mount Mary the handbook settles what a lawyer may do in the room: attend, and not speak. The value is in what comes before and after — the evidence review, the questions you hand the Administrator, the written response, and an appeal drafted to one of the four criteria rather than to a sense of unfairness. Once the Appeals Officer has ruled the internal process is over, which is covered under appeals and court review.

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:

• Ottawa University Milwaukee
• Rasmussen University
• University of Wisconsin
• University of Wisconsin
• University of Wisconsin
• University of Wisconsin

Common questions about Mount Mary University student cases

How long do I have to appeal a Mount Mary conduct decision?

Five business days from the decision. The handbook says an appeal filed outside that window will not be accepted and that you forfeit the right to appeal. You email the Community Standards and Title IX Coordinator for the Request for an Appeal form, and the written appeal is attached to it. The Appeals Officer then has five business days to decide whether to grant an appeal hearing, schedules it on five business days’ notice, and issues a decision within five business days of that hearing. The decision is final.

Can my lawyer speak at a Mount Mary conduct hearing?

No. The handbook gives the accused student and the complainant the right to be assisted by an advisor of their choice, at their own expense, but states that advisors are not permitted to speak or to participate directly in any student conduct hearing. Questions for witnesses are suggested by the parties and put by the Student Conduct Administrator, which the handbook says preserves the educational tone of the hearing and avoids an adversarial environment. That makes the written response and your own preparation the whole of the case.

Why can I not get a copy of the evidence against me at Mount Mary?

Because the handbook does not allow it. After notification of charges you may ask the Student Conduct Administrator to review evidence related to your case, including incident reports and statements from a complainant, but the handbook states that evidence cannot be copied, recorded or duplicated and must remain in the Administrator’s possession. Plan around that: ask for the review early, take detailed written notes, and go in knowing what you are looking for. The hearing itself is recorded verbatim, and that record is university property.

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 Wisconsin student defense page.

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, the United States District Court for the District of Colorado, the United States District Courts for the Northern and Southern Districts of Illinois, the United States District Court for the District of Nebraska, the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico, and the United States District Court for 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.