McKendree University: Student Discipline, Dismissal & Federal Court

How do student discipline and dismissal cases work at McKendree?

McKendree is a private university of about 1,361 students in Lebanon, twenty-five miles east of St. Louis, accredited by the Higher Learning Commission with reaffirmation in July 2024 and carrying program accreditations from CCNE in nursing, IACBE in business, CAATE in athletic training and ISBE for its education programs. Its rules contain something unusual and, for a student, genuinely favorable: McKendree uses two different standards of proof depending on what you are accused of — and on academic integrity it uses the higher one, expressly rejecting the standard almost every other college in the district applies.

McKendree University is a private institution. There is no state action, so there is no constitutional due process claim, and arguing one wastes an appeal. The theory is contract: Illinois holds that a college and its students have a contractual relationship whose terms come from the catalog and the handbook — Raethz v. Aurora University, 346 Ill. App. 3d 728 (2004), restated by the Fourth District in Urso v. Bradley University, 2023 IL App (4th) 230165 — while adding that the relationship “is unique and cannot be strictly categorized or characterized in purely contractual terms.”

The limit is the standard of review, and it decides most of these cases before anyone reaches the facts. A student has a remedy for an adverse academic decision only if it was made arbitrarily, capriciously, or in bad faith. Frederick v. Northwestern University Dental School, 247 Ill. App. 3d 464 (1993), puts it bluntly — courts have been loath to review, much less overturn, academic dismissals — and Bosch v. NorthShore University Health System, 2019 IL App (1st) 190070, holds that a school which departs somewhat from its handbook still wins unless the departure was material. Federal law does not care that the school is private: Title IX, Title VI and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act apply because it takes federal funds, and the ADA applies to it as a place of public accommodation.

A federal claim arising at McKendree University is filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois — St. Clair County sits in that district under 28 U.S.C. § 93(c), and the court holds sessions at East St. Louis, Benton, Alton and Cairo. I was admitted to the bar of that court on 28 August 2026 on my Florida license, under its Local Rule 83.1(a), which opens general admission to any attorney licensed in any state. That means a Title IX, Section 504, ADA or due process suit for a McKendree student is one I file and try under my own name, with no pro hac vice motion and no sponsoring attorney. It also means something most districts do not offer: Local Rule 83.1 states that parties represented by counsel who do not reside in the district are not required to retain local counsel, though the court keeps the power to order it for good cause in a particular case.

Two codes, two standards of proof

Most colleges apply preponderance of the evidence to everything. McKendree does not.

• General conduct: preponderance. “The University utilizes the ‘Preponderance of Evidence’ standard, which requires that a policy violation is more likely than not to have occurred.” The Appeal Officer uses the same standard.
• Sexual harassment and discrimination: clear and convincing. The handbook states the standard “means that the evidence is highly and substantially more likely to be true than untrue that sexual harassment/discrimination occurred.”
• Academic integrity: also clear and convincing, and the catalog is emphatic about why. “The institution should present its case. It has the burden of demonstrating that a rule or rules have been violated. The standard of proof should be clear and convincing evidence. The other extremes – proof beyond a reasonable doubt or proof by a mere preponderance of evidence – should be avoided. One is not possible, and the other may not be fair.”

If you are accused of plagiarism or cheating at McKendree, the school has to meet a materially higher burden than it would at almost any neighbouring institution — and the burden is expressly on the institution, not on you. That is worth saying out loud in an academic-integrity hearing, because panels do not always apply their own written standard without being reminded of it.

The deadlines, which are short

Conduct (Student Handbook). “The Appellant must file their request for an appeal with the Office for Student Affairs within three (3) business days of the Outcome Letter being sent to the student’s McKendree email account, and it must state the specific grounds on which the appeal is being requested.” The clock runs from sending. A decision may be appealed only once, and the Appeal Officer’s decision is final; suspension and expulsion cases go to the Vice President for Student Affairs. To review your file or judicial history first, ask at least three business days before the hearing. Interim suspensions carry an initial notification of the alleged violations within two business days. McKendree does not publish a minimum notice period before a regular Judicial Hearing, nor a deadline for the Appeal Officer to decide.

Academic integrity (Undergraduate Catalog). This track runs in weeks, not days. The Associate Provost determines the appropriate procedure “within two weeks” of receiving the reporting form; the student is notified of the Academic Integrity Committee’s action “within one week of the hearing”; and the appeal to the Provost’s Office is due “within one week” of formal notification, stating the grounds. The Provost then notifies the outcome within one week. The catalog does not say whether those weeks are calendar or business, so treat them as calendar and file early. Sanctions available run from a warning letter through a reduced or retroactively reduced grade to suspension for at least one full semester, or expulsion.

The attorney rule, and the trigger that brings the university’s lawyer into the room

McKendree is one of the few colleges in the district to address attorneys directly, and the rule has a condition attached that students should understand before invoking it.

In a conduct matter, an advisor may be a member of the McKendree community, a support coordinator, a parent or guardian, a relative, or — “in situations involving criminal legal proceedings” — an attorney. In every case, “An advisor may not speak, be a witness, or otherwise participate on behalf of the student. An advisor’s role is that of support.” And then the condition: “If an advisor for the student is an attorney, an attorney for the University must also attend the hearing on behalf of the University.” Advisors must sign a FERPA waiver.

There is a separate legal-counsel provision for students facing parallel exposure: counsel may be present where the University is itself represented by counsel, and/or where “the alleged policy violations could result in civil or criminal charges against them.” Even then, “legal counsel can be present at the hearing and may advise the student of their rights and responsibilities relative to possible civil action but may not otherwise participate in the campus hearing,” and a Legal Counsel Request Form must be filed five business days before the hearing.

The academic-integrity track mirrors this: “the accused is entitled to have the assistance of counsel, who may act as an advisor, during the hearing process, but the student must represent him/herself.” Counsel is limited to one person, who may be a McKendree community member “or a legal representative. If the student invites a legal representative, the university’s legal representative also will attend the hearing.”

None of that makes bringing a lawyer wrong. It makes it a decision with a known consequence, to be taken deliberately rather than discovered on the day.

Academic standing, and the appeal with no published date

Probation follows a cumulative GPA below 2.0 at every credit band — 12–29.9, 30–59.9, 60–89.9 and 90+ hours attempted — with no student placed on probation before attempting twelve hours at McKendree. A single semester GPA below 1.0 “may be subject to review and to action by the Academic Standing Committee.” On probation the load is capped at fifteen hours and a study-skills class or Student Success program is required. Suspension follows a failure to reach a 2.0 semester GPA while on probation, and suspensions may not be served during the summer term.

The appeal route is unusual in a way that matters: “Students may appeal their suspension by submitting a letter to the Provost by the date indicated in the suspension letter.” There is no published number of days. The deadline is individual to you and exists only in your own letter — which is precisely why that letter should be diaried the day it arrives and never thrown away. For dismissal, students “will be notified of their dismissal status by letter,” and no appeal deadline is published at all.

What a student defense lawyer can do here

Most of the value is early and quiet. It is reading McKendree’s policy against what the school actually did and finding the gap; writing the response or the appeal so it argues the grounds the policy recognizes rather than the ones that feel most unfair; preserving the federal issues — Title IX, Section 504 and the ADA, FERPA — so they are in the record if the case ever leaves campus; and identifying comparators, because a sanction far outside what similar cases drew is one of the few arguments that reliably moves a decision-maker.

At McKendree the two highest-value moves are specific. First, in any academic-integrity matter, hold the committee to its own written standard: the catalog puts the burden on the institution and requires clear and convincing evidence, expressly rejecting preponderance, and that is a materially harder case for the school to make on the sort of circumstantial record these cases usually rest on. Second, decide the attorney question deliberately, because bringing one brings the university’s lawyer with it — sometimes worth it, sometimes not, but never something to find out at the hearing.

What a lawyer cannot do is turn a campus hearing into a trial. The rules of evidence do not apply, there is no discovery, and the school decides its own case at first instance. That is exactly why the written record built during the campus process is the whole ballgame: by the time a court looks at it, the record is closed.

The one Illinois statute that gives you procedure

Illinois has no general statute setting notice periods, hearing formats, standards of proof or appeal rights for college students. The Illinois School Code, 105 ILCS 5, has a detailed suspension and expulsion scheme, and it applies to elementary and secondary schools, not here. The exception is the Preventing Sexual Violence in Higher Education Act, 110 ILCS 155, and it is a real one. It reaches every higher education institution in the state — public universities, community colleges, and private not-for-profit and for-profit institutions alike — and it requires timely written notice of the allegations to all parties, an investigation that is adequate, reliable and impartial, written notice of the outcome, and appeal rights. It requires the school to make confidential advisors available, trained to a statutory standard and kept separate from the people deciding the case. Both parties are entitled to an advisor of their choice, and that advisor may be an attorney — although the institution may limit how far an attorney-advisor participates in a hearing, which is why McKendree’s own rule on that, set out above, still governs what your lawyer may do in the room. The standard of proof is preponderance of the evidence, applied the same way to both sides.

What to do first

1. Find the deadline and write it down. Every deadline on this page came from McKendree’s own published document, and the unit matters as much as the number — business days, school days and calendar days produce very different dates from the same starting point. If the notice you were sent gives a different date from the policy, work to whichever is shorter.
2. Download the version of the policy that governed your cohort, not the one on the website today. Schools revise handbooks between catalog years, and the operative document is the one in force when the conduct happened. Save a PDF with the date visible.
3. Ask, in writing, for the evidence. Request the investigation file, the report, the exhibits and the names of anyone who decided. Put the request in email so the date exists.
4. Write nothing to the school about the merits until you know the process. A statement made to be helpful in a meeting becomes the record a court reviews later.
5. Say if you have a disability or requested an accommodation. If accommodations were requested and not provided, or a condition explains the performance, that is a Section 504 and ADA question that belongs in the record now, not on appeal.

One honest caveat about geography. Illinois has three federal districts. I am admitted to two of them: the Northern District, which takes Chicago and the northern counties, and the Southern District. A federal claim arising at a school in Springfield, Peoria, Champaign-Urbana or the Quad Cities falls in the Central District; I am not a member of that bar, and those matters I handle with local counsel in that district or by pro hac vice admission. I say so before a retainer rather than after.

Where I am licensed. I am licensed to practice law in Florida. I am admitted to the bars of the U.S. District Courts for the Southern, Middle and Northern Districts of Florida, the District of Colorado, the Northern and Southern Districts of Illinois, the District of Nebraska, the District of New Mexico, and the Western District of Wisconsin, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Federal court admission is not a license to practice the law of the state in which the court sits. I am not licensed in Illinois and do not advise on Illinois state law or appear in Illinois state court.

Other Illinois 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 Illinois universities:

• Midwestern University
• Northern Illinois University
• Northwestern University
• Rosalind Franklin University
• Rush University
• University of Chicago

Common questions about McKendree student cases

What standard of proof does McKendree use?

It depends on the allegation. General conduct is decided on preponderance of the evidence. Sexual harassment and discrimination use clear and convincing evidence. So does academic integrity — and the catalog says so in terms, stating that the burden is on the institution and that “proof by a mere preponderance of evidence” should be avoided. If you are accused of cheating or plagiarism, that is a higher bar than most colleges apply, and it is worth holding the panel to it.

How long do I have to appeal at McKendree?

Three business days for a conduct decision, running from when the Outcome Letter was sent to your McKendree email, not when you read it. For academic integrity the window is “within one week” of formal notification, which the catalog does not label calendar or business — so treat it as calendar and file early. A conduct decision may be appealed only once, and the Appeal Officer’s decision is final.

Can I bring a lawyer to a McKendree hearing?

Yes, in defined circumstances — and with a consequence. In a conduct matter an attorney may serve as your advisor “in situations involving criminal legal proceedings,” and counsel may attend where the University is represented or where the allegations could lead to civil or criminal charges. But an advisor “may not speak, be a witness, or otherwise participate on behalf of the student,” and if your advisor is an attorney, “an attorney for the University must also attend the hearing.” In the academic-integrity track counsel may advise, but “the student must represent him/herself.”

I was academically suspended and the policy gives no deadline. What is my deadline?

Whatever date your suspension letter names. McKendree does not publish a number of days: the catalog says only that students may appeal “by the date indicated in the suspension letter.” That makes the letter itself the governing document. Diary the date immediately, keep the letter, and if the date is unclear or already close, write to the Provost’s office asking them to confirm it in writing.

Does McKendree have to tell me when my hearing is?

You will be told, but McKendree publishes no minimum notice period before a regular Judicial Hearing — the handbook says only that it will be scheduled “as soon as reasonably possible” after the Notice of Charges. It also publishes no deadline for the Appeal Officer to decide. If you need time to review your file, note that the handbook lets you request it at least three business days before the hearing, and ask in writing.