Trinity Southwest University Student Defense Lawyer

Students reach me about Trinity Southwest University at three points: when a faculty member questions submitted work, when the Dean of Students raises a conduct or lifestyle concern under the university’s doctrinal standards, and after a grade drops a cumulative average below the probation line. Each is decided on a written record built early, and almost every one ends in front of the same five people.

How do student discipline and dismissal cases work at Trinity Southwest University?

Trinity Southwest University is a private nonprofit institution, a division of Christian Educational Ministries incorporated in New Mexico. It is not a state actor, so there is no Fourteenth Amendment due process claim and no constitutional right to a hearing. Goss v. Lopez, 419 U.S. 565 (1975), 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) are cases about public campuses. Here the theory is contract, plus Title IX, Title VI, Section 504 and the ADA.

New Mexico law adds almost nothing. There is no general campus due process statute. NMSA 1978 § 21-1-51, the 2024 affirmative-consent statute, reaches public post-secondary institutions and does not govern a private university. Nothing in New Mexico law sets a notice period, a hearing right, an advisor right or a standard of proof for a TSU student. And the leading decision is a warning to the student. In Ruegsegger v. Board of Regents of Western New Mexico University, 2007-NMCA-030, 141 N.M. 306, 154 P.3d 681, cert. denied, the Court of Appeals held that although a student handbook “sets out a general framework of policies,” it was “not persuaded that the language contractually obligates WNMU to conduct any specific type of investigation, to provide support services, or to impose specific discipline.” A bare handbook-is-a-contract argument is weak here.

What is not weak is a promise the institution wrote down itself, and Trinity Southwest wrote a strong one. Its catalog states that, with the exception of tuition and fees, your initial registration determines the academic catalog that will govern your course of study, and that “the Catalog is a legal contract between you and Trinity Southwest University.” The catalog operative at your initial registration governs your entire degree program unless you elect otherwise or let your registration go inactive. That sentence is the center of a breach of contract case here, and it also tells you which edition to work from: the one in force when you first registered, not the one on the website today.

Where do Trinity Southwest University cases come from?

TSU is a small, non-traditional, self-paced institution in Albuquerque. It does not participate in Title IV federal student aid and files no federal enrollment data, so there is no verified enrollment figure and this page does not give one. It teaches through ten colleges and awards the Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Religious Studies, Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies and Bachelor of University Studies, the Master of Arts, the Master of Divinity, the Doctor of Ministry and the Doctor of Philosophy, in fields including archaeology and biblical history, biblical counselling and biblical languages. Registrations run two to five years rather than by semester.

Three things about a school this size decide most cases. The first is concentration. The catalog says the university is governed by a five-member Academic Committee that also serves as its Board of Regents, made up of the Executive Dean, the Dean of Academics, the Dean of Students, the Dean of Faculty and the Dean of Admissions and Registrar, and that the Academic Committee “makes all final determinations as to the application of TSU academic policies and procedures.” The Dean of Students who counsels you about a conduct concern sits on the committee that can dismiss you, and receives your grievance. No separate appeal body exists.

The second is transferability. TSU is candid that it is not accredited by a federally recognized agency, and credits from a non-accredited institution move only case by case. The third follows from the first two: at a school of this kind a dismissal usually ends the credential rather than delaying it, because there is nowhere obvious to take the work. That is why the sanction is often more negotiable, and more important, than the finding, and why the response you write in the first week matters more than any argument you make later.

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

The label on the letter picks the decision-maker and the record. The catalog describes a conduct route in one paragraph: where a student engages in behavior or a lifestyle the administration or the surrounding community would perceive as biblically inappropriate, the Dean of Students provides counsel to bring about a resolution, and failing that the student “may be subject to dismissal from TSU by action of the Academic Committee.” That is a disposition judgment rather than a rule violation with elements, which makes it look like a professionalism or fitness finding and calls for the same defense: put your account in writing before the informal counselling becomes the record.

Academic standing is a separate calculation involving no finding of wrongdoing, and the grievance procedure is a third route with its own clock. Sexual harassment and discrimination complaints are their own category again. Match the letter to the track first: academic misconduct, conduct code charges, academic dismissal and suspension, or Title IX.

What should you do first?

Ask the Registrar in writing which catalog edition governs your registration. The catalog itself makes that the operative contract, so the edition matters more here than at most schools. Then ask the Dean of Students for the Student Handbook in the edition in force on your incident date. The catalog refers to the handbook repeatedly for conduct detail, grade replacement and internship rules, but the handbook is not published at a public address, and an inaccessible document is not adequate published notice. The email you send and the reply you get are both evidence.

Then collect the documents that decide the case: the course syllabus and its stated submission and evaluation method, your submitted modules, and every message from a dean or faculty member about the problem. Preserve drafts, file version history and email timestamps. Put your response deadline in writing and ask who will decide. Do not accept an informal meeting as the whole process before you know what is alleged.

What does Trinity Southwest University’s own policy actually say?

The catalog is public and specific about grades and probation, and thin about procedure. This list says which is which rather than guessing.

• Conduct office: the Dean of Students, under the Student Conduct section of the TSU catalog, with dismissal reserved to the Academic Committee.
• Governing policy: the TSU catalog, which the university itself calls a legal contract, together with the Student Handbook it references. No New Mexico system code governs a private university; the UNM Pathfinder and NMSU ARP chapter 5 do not apply.
• Academic integrity: the catalog publishes no academic integrity or plagiarism policy and no misconduct procedure. No campus-specific academic-integrity policy located; request it in writing from the Dean of Students and keep the response.
• Appeal window: no campus-specific day-count located for a conduct or academic dismissal. The catalog publishes two other clocks. A written complaint to the Dean of Students draws a written response within 30 days. A complaint to the New Mexico Commission on Higher Education must be on the Commission’s form and filed within three years of the last date of enrollment.
• Standard of proof: the catalog does not publish one. No campus-specific standard of proof located; ask in writing which standard the Academic Committee will apply.
• Advisor: the catalog does not say whether you may bring an advisor, whether the advisor may be a lawyer, or whether the advisor may speak. No campus-specific advisor rule located, and New Mexico supplies no default for a private university.
• Academic standing: published in the same TSU catalog. Undergraduate and Master of Divinity students fall onto academic probation below a 1.9 cumulative grade point average and come off it at 1.9; Master of Arts and doctoral students fall on below 2.9 and come off at 2.9. You cannot graduate while on probation. A course grade of D or below while on probation, or C or below for a Master of Arts or doctoral student, makes you subject to dismissal from TSU.
• Grievances: in writing to the Dean of Students, who refers the complaint to an impartial staff member for investigation and recommended resolution, with written notice of the findings within 30 days.

One catalog rule deserves separate mention because students walk into it. The grade replacement procedure is described as irreversible, and the catalog warns that the new grade may not be higher than the old one and may be lower. Do not use it to fix a probation problem without reading the handbook rule first.

What can a student defense lawyer do here?

A federal claim arising at Trinity Southwest University — Title IX, Title VI, or Section 504 and the ADA — is filed in the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico, where I am admitted to the bar. No pro hac vice motion and no sponsoring local attorney is needed. There is no Fourteenth Amendment claim, because a private university is not a state actor, and the contract claim is a state-law claim. One caution belongs here and not on most pages: those federal statutes turn on federal financial assistance, TSU takes no Title IV funding, and religious institutions have a separate statutory exemption from Title IX, so do not assume the federal route is open. The contract route is the one the catalog itself opens. Very few of these matters end anywhere but 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 rule TSU has not published, which is itself a reason to ask before the meeting rather than after. And exhaust what the school does publish. In Herald v. Board of Regents of the University of New Mexico, 2015-NMCA-104, a student’s contract claim failed because he did not complete the institution’s three-step grievance procedure. That was a public university, but the lesson travels: finish the process the catalog describes. Where a decision is final, see appeals and court review.

Other New Mexico 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 New Mexico universities:

• University of New Mexico
• University of New Mexico Gallup
• University of New Mexico Los Alamos
• University of New Mexico Taos
• University of New Mexico Valencia
• University of the Southwest

Common questions about Trinity Southwest University student cases

Is Trinity Southwest University accredited?

The catalog says TSU has chosen to remain non-aligned with respect to accrediting agencies approved by the US Department of Education, and that it operates as an exempt, religious, degree-granting institution reporting annually to the New Mexico Commission on Higher Education. Since 2016 the Albuquerque campus has also been a teaching site for Veritas International University. That matters practically, because credits and degrees from a non-accredited school transfer only case by case.

Can I file a satisfactory academic progress appeal at Trinity Southwest?

No. Satisfactory academic progress is a federal financial aid rule, and it bites where a school participates in Title IV. Trinity Southwest does not participate, files no federal enrollment data, and publishes no federal aid program in its catalog. So the appeal route that saves students at most schools does not exist here. What exists instead is the catalog’s academic probation rule, dismissal by action of the Academic Committee, and the written grievance procedure through the Dean of Students. Those are the only routes, so use them.

How long do I have to challenge a dismissal from Trinity Southwest?

No campus-specific day-count located. The catalog publishes no appeal window for an academic or conduct dismissal and refers the detail to a Student Handbook that is not published at a public address. The two published clocks are different things: the Dean of Students answers a written grievance within 30 days, and a complaint to the state Commission must be filed within three years of your last date of enrollment. Ask the Dean of Students in writing for the handbook and the appeal deadline on the day the decision arrives.

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 New Mexico 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 New Mexico and does not advise on New Mexico state law.