Midwest College of Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine Student Defense Lawyer

Students call me about the Midwest College of Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine at three points: when a clinic or internship supervisor raises a problem, when an attendance or grade rule turns into a dismissal letter, and after a suspension that arrives with no hearing attached. Each is decided on a written record built early, and at a licensure-track school the thing at risk is the credential rather than the quarter.

How do student discipline and dismissal cases work at the Midwest College of Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine?

The Midwest College is a private for-profit institution with a Wisconsin campus in Racine. It is not a state actor, so there is no Fourteenth Amendment due process claim here. The theory is contract: the catalog, the enrollment agreement and the student handbook are the promise, and the question is whether the school did what its own published procedure said it would do. Federal statutes sit on top of the contract because the school participates in federal student aid — Title IX, Title VI, and Section 504 and the Americans with Disabilities Act — along with the requirements of its accreditor.

The Wisconsin layer is thinner than students expect. Wis. Admin. Code chs. UWS 14 and UWS 17 give students at the public universities real rights: written findings, a clear-and-convincing standard where suspension or expulsion is on the table, and under UWS 17.12(4)(b) an advisor who “may be a lawyer” and who may question witnesses and speak for the student when the sanction is that serious. None of that reaches this school. “Institution” is defined at UWS 17.02(10) as “any university, or an organizational equivalent designated by the board,” meaning the Universities of Wisconsin campuses and their branches. The technical colleges run under their own district board codes.

Nor is the contract question settled. No published Wisconsin appellate decision decides whether a private college handbook is an enforceable contract, so what you have is the text of the catalog and the record of whether the school followed it. That is why the catalog language matters more here than any case name. See breach of contract.

Where do Midwest College of Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine cases come from?

The Racine campus enrolls roughly 37 students. The Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine program runs 2,898 hours and awards a Master of Science in Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine together with a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition; the shorter Acupuncture program, listed in the catalog with matriculation suspended, runs 2,148 hours. Completion takes a minimum of 36 months and 30 months respectively, with outside limits of 54 and 45 months, and much of that time is spent as an intern treating patients in the College’s student clinics.

That structure is the whole story. This is licensure-track training: the catalog says graduates are qualified to sit for the national certification examinations and meet the requirements for a license in Illinois, Wisconsin and many other states. So a professionalism finding, a removal from a clinic or internship, or a dismissal does not cost you a quarter. It reaches the credential the program exists to produce, and a licensing application that will ask about it years later. The catalog also forbids practicing or teaching acupuncture or herbal medicine before graduation and licensure, which is itself a listed ground for discipline. Start with professionalism findings.

The second source is quieter and, at a school this size, more common. Separation usually arrives through attendance, examination and progress rules rather than a conduct hearing. The financial consequences land immediately: a student who misses scheduled payments cannot sit midterms or finals, is not given credit for a quarter not fully paid for, and cannot re-enroll until the arrears are cleared. Credits from a specialized program of this kind often do not transfer, so a student separated mid-sequence usually cannot take the work with them. See SAP appeals, academic dismissal and suspension and transcript holds.

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

Three tracks run separately. A conduct matter under the catalog’s Conduct and Right of Dismissal provision can produce a suspension not to exceed two weeks, or a dismissal, for conduct that disrupts teaching or administration or interferes with the rights of others at the school. An academic progress matter runs on the grade, examination and attendance rules and produces a dismissal letter with a petition rather than a hearing. A complaint you want to bring runs through the grievance policy, which is also the route the conduct provision points you to when you want to be heard before final action.

Answering in the wrong track spends the only response you get. Match the letter first: conduct code charges or academic misconduct.

What should you do first?

Get the Student Handbook. The catalog states the grievance policy is delineated there, and it supplies the deadlines and the form of the hearing the catalog promises. Email the Dean of Students and ask, in writing, for the version in force on the date of the incident, for your response and appeal deadlines, and for a copy of anything the decision-maker will see. Keep the reply; an inaccessible policy is not adequate published notice, and the exchange becomes part of your record.

If a suspension or dismissal has been mentioned, request a hearing in the same message and say you are invoking the grievance policy. Then assemble your own file: your attendance record, every clinic and internship evaluation, the examination and retake dates, any incomplete and when it was assigned, your payment record, and every email with an instructor or supervisor. Write your account of the disputed session while it is fresh, and do not sit for a meeting before you know what is alleged and under which provision.

What does the Midwest College of Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine’s own policy actually say?

Conduct and academic policy sit in one catalog, so a single document answers both. Some fields are stated plainly; others are referred out to a handbook the school does not publish, and this list says which is which.

• Conduct office: the Dean of Students, under the Conduct and Right of Dismissal and grievance provisions of the Midwest College catalog, with a grievance committee made up of an administrator, a faculty member and a student representative.
• Governing policy: the College’s own catalog and student handbook. No Wisconsin system-wide code applies; UWS 14 and UWS 17 reach only the public universities under UWS 17.02(10). External complaint routes named in the catalog are the accreditor, the State of Wisconsin Educational Approval Program and the Illinois Board of Higher Education.
• Academic integrity: not a separate honor code. Dishonesty is listed alongside disrespectful behavior, failure to comply with school regulations or internship policies or with the directions of school officials, substantiated physical or verbal abuse, sexual harassment meeting the federal definition, and theft or damage.
• Appeal window: not published. The grievance sequence is a meeting with the Dean of Students, then an arbitration meeting with an administrator, then a grievance committee hearing, then a second right of appeal to the Board of Advisors, and finally the accreditor. Meetings may be in person or by video at the student’s preference. No campus-specific day-count located for any step, so ask for each deadline in writing.
• Standard of proof: the catalog does not publish one. Ask the Dean of Students in writing what standard the decision-maker applies, and keep the answer with your file.
• Advisor: the catalog does not say whether you may bring an advisor to a grievance meeting or hearing, whether the advisor may be a lawyer, or whether the advisor may speak. No campus-specific advisor rule located; confirm it before the meeting. Wisconsin supplies no default, because UWS 17.12(4)(b) reaches only the public universities.
• Academic standing: in the same catalog. A cumulative grade point average of 2.5 must be maintained; below 2.5 means academic counselling, and below 2.0 means a letter of dismissal with an opportunity to petition to rescind it. The catalog states that the College has no probationary period for poor academic progress. Attendance must reach 80 percent, which on a twelve-week quarter allows two absences, with arrival more than ten minutes late counted as half an absence. A missed or failed midterm or final must be passed on a different version within two weeks, and the maximum grade on an unexcused retake is 70 percent.
• Financial aid standing: separate. A student who has not passed at least two-thirds of all class hours attempted loses federal aid eligibility, measured after the summer quarter each year, with no probationary period. A student who is dismissed or loses eligibility may petition for reinstatement, and an academic committee reviews it.
• Title IX and disability: one named role serves as the Title IX and ADA compliance officer, and the catalog routes individual arrangements for students with disabilities through the admissions office.

One line in the catalog is worth more than the rest of the list: its conduct provision states that a student may request a hearing, by following the College’s grievance policy, before any final action is taken. Nothing in the published text says the school must offer that hearing without being asked, so ask, in writing, the day suspension or dismissal is first mentioned.

What can a student defense lawyer do here?

A federal claim arising at the Midwest College of Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine — 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 the College is private there is no Fourteenth Amendment claim, and the contract claim is a state-law claim. Few of these matters end in court. 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 in the room turns on a handbook the College does not publish, which is itself the reason to ask before the meeting rather than after. Where a decision is already final, the questions shift to the record and the grounds, covered under appeals and court review.

Other Wisconsin schools

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 schools:

• UW School of Medicine and Public Health — Dismissal & Appeals
• Medical College of Wisconsin

Common questions about Midwest College of Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine student cases

Can I get a hearing before the Midwest College dismisses me?

The catalog says you can ask for one. Its conduct provision states that a student may request a hearing, by following the College’s grievance policy, before any final action is taken. That is a real entitlement and it is easy to lose by silence, because nothing in the published text says the school must offer it to you. Put the request in writing as soon as a suspension or dismissal is mentioned, say you are invoking the grievance policy, and keep the reply. The detail of that policy sits in the Student Handbook rather than the catalog.

What grade point average do I have to keep at the Midwest College?

A cumulative 2.5. Falling below 2.5 means academic counselling, and a cumulative average below 2.0 produces a letter of dismissal with an opportunity to petition to rescind it. The catalog states plainly that the College does not have a probationary period for poor academic progress, so there is no cushion term to recover in. Federal aid runs on a separate rule: a student who has not passed at least two-thirds of all class hours attempted loses eligibility, again with no probationary period, measured after the summer quarter each year.

Does an attendance problem really end an enrollment here?

It can. The catalog requires an 80 percent attendance record for credit, which on a twelve-week quarter allows two absences. Arriving more than ten minutes late counts as half an absence, and two halves make a whole one. Absences beyond two must be made up, and if the make-up work is not finished by the second week of the next quarter the grade becomes an F and the course must be retaken. A student who misses more than two sessions in all of their registered classes and does not make them up is eligible for dismissal.

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.