William Howard Taft University Student Defense Lawyer

Students reach me about William Howard Taft University at three points: when a faculty member reports plagiarism or AI-generated work in a course, when a claim is filed against the student and the academic dean asks for a response, and after a semester in which the grade point average falls below the program minimum. All three run on short written deadlines.

How do student discipline and dismissal cases work at William Howard Taft University?

WHTU is a private, for-profit, distance-education institution based in Denver and part of The Taft University System. Because it is private it is not a state actor, so the constitutional due process cases that govern public campuses do not apply. Your protections come from what the university published, read as a contract, plus Title IX, Title VI and Section 504 and the ADA. WHTU is accredited by the Distance Education Accrediting Commission and approved and regulated by the Colorado Commission on Higher Education.

Colorado’s controlling case is University of Denver v. Doe, 2024 CO 27 (Colo. May 6, 2024). The Colorado Supreme Court held that a private institution’s promise of a thorough, impartial and fair investigation, read with the specific requirements in its own procedures, is definite enough to be an enforceable contract, and reversed summary judgment on contract and on good faith and fair dealing. The same decision rejected a tort duty: a university “does not owe its students an extra-contractual duty to exercise reasonable care in adopting and implementing fair procedures.” So the claim is breach of contract, built on the catalog’s specific promises rather than on a general sense of fairness.

Colorado statutes add little. There is no general campus due process statute, no right to counsel and no statutory hearing right or evidentiary standard for conduct or academic cases. The exception is sexual misconduct, C.R.S. § 23-5-146, and whether it reaches this university is a threshold question rather than an assumption: it covers state institutions, local district colleges, area technical colleges and participating private institutions, so its application turns on whether WHTU is one of the latter.

Where do William Howard Taft University cases come from?

WHTU enrolls roughly 324 students, almost all working adults studying at a distance. Its schools are the W. Edwards Deming School of Business, the Boyer Graduate School of Education and the School of Government and Law, and its programs include the Doctor of Business Administration, the MBA, a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration completion program, the Doctor of Education, the Education Specialist and the Master of Laws in Taxation. One point of housekeeping first: the catalog states that it applies to all programs except the Juris Doctor Executive Track, which has its own catalog. If you are a JDET student, the governing document is not the one linked below.

Because instruction is asynchronous and written, almost every integrity case here is a documents case, decided on a similarity report, an AI-detection score, submission timestamps and drafts. The catalog is direct about software: submitting assignments generated by artificial intelligence without citation is listed as identity deceit, and outside tools are permitted only when explicitly allowed and always with proper citation. See AI accusations.

The other engine of separations is participation. Attendance at WHTU means posting to a discussion forum, submitting an assignment, or taking a quiz or exam; logging in does not count. A student who posts no attendance in the first seven days of an eight-week term is withdrawn and the registration canceled, and one inactive for fourteen consecutive days after add/drop is administratively withdrawn. Each event feeds the progress calculation and the Return to Title IV calculation, which is how a quiet stretch becomes a balance owed and a record problem; see transcript holds. Because graduate credit transfers only at the discretion of the receiving school, a dismissal here can end the credential rather than delay it.

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

WHTU runs three routes and they are easy to confuse. When a claim is filed against you, the Student Right to Appeal provision governs and the appeal goes to the academic dean. When you are the one complaining, the grievance procedure runs through student affairs. When the problem is your grade point average or pace, the satisfactory academic progress rules govern and the appeal goes to the director of student affairs and then an academic review committee. The deadlines differ, and so does who decides.

Read your letter against the right process: academic misconduct, conduct code charges, academic dismissal, or a satisfactory academic progress appeal.

What should you do first?

Download the catalog in the version in force on your enrollment date and read the appeal provisions before the code of conduct. Then collect your enrollment agreement, the syllabus, the assignment instructions and any policy on sources, collaboration and AI use. Export your discussion posts, submission receipts and learning management timestamps now, because platform access can end with an administrative withdrawal.

Put the dates in writing. Email the academic dean and the director of student affairs, ask for your appeal deadline and what documents the decision-maker will see, and keep the reply. The catalog also warns that a formal grievance may be treated as abandoned if requested information is not provided within fifteen days, so track every request made of you. Do not answer questions before you know what is alleged.

What does William Howard Taft University’s own policy actually say?

WHTU publishes its conduct rules and its academic policy in one document, the university catalog, which is why both citations below point to the same PDF. That is deliberate, not an error, and standard for a single-catalog distance institution.

• Conduct office: the academic dean hears appeals from claims filed against a student; the Director of Student Affairs handles grievances, both under the university catalog.
• Governing policy: the catalog’s Student Responsibilities: Code of Conduct section and its list of Student Code Violations, with the Non-Compliance, Harassment, Grievances and Student Right to Appeal sections. No system-wide procedure sits above the university.
• Academic integrity: a separate Academic Integrity Policy covering cheating, identity deceit, facilitating dishonesty, falsifying data, forged or altered documents and research conducted without Institutional Review Board approval. Academic dishonesty “may be grounds for dismissal from the university.”
• Appeal window: when a claim is filed against you, the appeal goes to the academic dean and must detail a specific response to the claim; the dean may consult faculty and responds within five business days. A final appeal to the chief academic officer must be filed in writing within seven business days of the dean’s decision letter, and the catalog states that it is not a review of the case but an independent review of the process used to reach the original findings. The grounds are new evidence likely to change the result, a violation of due process, and ramifications too harsh given the findings of fact. That decision is final. A formal grievance is separately reviewed within thirty working days, appealable within five working days to the Taft University System chief executive.
• Standard of proof: the catalog publishes none. No campus-specific standard of proof located; ask the academic dean in writing which standard will be applied. Where C.R.S. § 23-5-146 reaches the university, (3)(d)(II) fixes preponderance of the evidence when a student is the respondent in a sexual misconduct case.
• Advisor: the catalog says nothing about whether you may bring an advisor, whether that advisor may be an attorney, or whether the advisor may speak. No campus-specific advisor rule located; because the process is written and remote, ask before you respond whether a representative may participate. Where § 23-5-146 applies, (3)(d)(IV) allows an advisor in a sexual misconduct case but bars that person from speaking for a party.
• Academic standing: published in the same catalog. After two semesters a student must hold a grade point average allowing graduation with at least a 3.0, or 2.0 in the BSBA, JDET and LLM programs, and must finish within 150 percent of the published credits. Falling short brings academic warning, then academic probation with exposure to dismissal; a granted appeal places the student on a Student Academic Improvement Plan monitored at the end of the next semester.
• Time limits: five years to complete a bachelor’s, master’s or Education Specialist program, three for the Master of Laws in Taxation and seven for a doctorate, with administrative dismissal for exceeding it. A student inactive for a year is withdrawn and must request to return.
• Involuntary withdrawal: the listed grounds are academic integrity issues, lack of attendance, a threat to safety, and impeding the educational process.
• Title IX: the Taft University System designates a Title IX Coordinator, named in the catalog’s opening pages.
• Disability accommodations: students are told to notify the university well in advance and to contact its disability services department; documentation is placed in the student file.

One passage deserves a careful read. The Academic Dismissal section states that academic dismissal “is not a matter open to debate or negotiation by the student involved,” that the university “can and must exercise its sole discretion,” and that it “cannot be a ‘matter of right’ to the student involved.” Language like that is what a contract analysis has to grapple with, because after University of Denver v. Doe the question is which specific promises the school made and kept, not whether the outcome feels fair. The answer usually lies in the appeal provisions the same catalog does set out.

What can a student defense lawyer do here?

A federal claim arising at William Howard Taft University — Title IX, Title VI, or Section 504 and the ADA — is filed in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado, where I am admitted to the bar. No pro hac vice motion and no sponsoring local attorney is needed. The university is private and not a state actor, so there is no constitutional claim, and the contract claim on the catalog is a state-law claim. Few of these matters reach a courtroom. What decides them is the 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

Because WHTU decides these matters on paper, the written response is the case. The seven-business-day appeal to the chief academic officer is expressly a review of process, which makes a precise account of what the university did and did not do the most useful thing you can file; that is also the ground of appeals and court review.

Other Colorado 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 Colorado universities:

• Adams State University
• Colorado Christian University
• Colorado Mesa University
• Colorado State University
• Colorado State University Global
• Concordia University St. Paul Denver

Common questions about William Howard Taft University student cases

How long do I have to appeal at William Howard Taft University?

When a claim has been filed against you, the appeal goes to the academic dean and must detail a specific response to the claim; the dean responds within five business days. A final appeal to the chief academic officer must be filed within seven business days of the dean’s decision letter, on one of three grounds: new evidence likely to change the result, a violation of due process, or ramifications too harsh given the findings. That decision is final.

Can Taft dismiss me for not logging in?

Effectively, yes, because logging in is not attendance. The catalog counts participation only as posting to a discussion forum, submitting an assignment, or taking a quiz or exam. Post nothing in the first seven days of an eight-week term and you are withdrawn and the registration canceled; go fourteen consecutive days without activity after add/drop and you are administratively withdrawn. Lack of attendance is also a listed ground for involuntary withdrawal.

Why do the conduct policy and the academic policy point to the same document?

Because at Taft they are the same document. The university catalog carries the code of conduct, the academic integrity policy, the appeal provisions, the attendance rules and the satisfactory academic progress standards in one PDF, which is normal for a single-catalog distance institution. One caution: the catalog applies to all programs except the Juris Doctor Executive Track, which has its own catalog, so confirm which document governs your program before you rely on a deadline.

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 Colorado 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 Colorado and does not advise on Colorado state law.