Catholic Theological Union at Chicago: Student Discipline, Dismissal & Federal Court

How do student discipline and dismissal cases work at Catholic Theological Union?

Catholic Theological Union is a private Roman Catholic graduate school of theology and ministry at 5416 South Cornell Avenue in Hyde Park, Chicago, Cook County, governed by a corporation of men’s religious communities. The Association of Theological Schools lists it as accredited in good standing for the MDiv, four MA degrees and the DMin, with 245 students reported in fall 2025, and since 2023 it has shared its campus with the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and McCormick Theological Seminary, each of which remains independent. The fact a student most needs to know is a practical one: CTU’s Student Handbook — the document that would hold its conduct, integrity, probation and dismissal rules — is posted behind the student login, not on the public website. What CTU does publish puts one officer, the Vice President and Academic Dean, at the center of nearly every complaint.

Catholic Theological Union at Chicago 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. The federal courts in Chicago apply the same test: in Doe v. Columbia College Chicago, 933 F.3d 849 (7th Cir. 2019), the Seventh Circuit affirmed dismissal of a student’s contract claim where the college had investigated and reasoned its way to a decision, and in Gash v. Rosalind Franklin University, 117 F.4th 957 (7th Cir. 2024), it held that calling a process arbitrary or predetermined, without specific facts, is not enough. What survives is specific: in Liu v. Northwestern University, 78 F. Supp. 3d 839 (N.D. Ill. 2015), a former law student’s claim went forward where the school imposed what amounted to an integrity charge while denying her the handbook procedure for contesting one. Which federal statutes reach Catholic Theological Union depends on facts worth confirming early — whether it receives federal financial assistance, and, for a religiously controlled institution, whether it claims the religious exemptions some of those statutes allow.

A federal claim arising at Catholic Theological Union at Chicago is filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois — Cook County sits in its Eastern Division under 28 U.S.C. § 93(a), and the statute fixes the places of holding court for that division at Chicago and Wheaton. I am a member of the general bar of that court, admitted on my Florida license under its Local Rule 83.10, which opens the general bar to an attorney in good standing before the highest court of any state. That means a Title IX, Section 504 or ADA complaint for a Catholic Theological Union student is one I file and litigate under my own name, with no pro hac vice motion. The Northern District abrogated its local-counsel designation rule in July 2023, so a member of its bar with no office in the district no longer has to designate local counsel. One limit, stated plainly: the court keeps a separate trial bar, and under Local Rule 83.12 a general-bar member who is not on it — that is me — appears alone in everything except testimonial proceedings, meaning evidentiary hearings and trial, where a trial-bar member must sit as advisor unless the judge grants the rule’s narrow waiver.

What CTU publishes, and what it keeps behind the login

CTU’s public “Policies and Procedures” page reproduces sections “Excerpted from CTU Student Handbook”: the anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policy (sections 4.2 and 4.3), crime reporting, and student records (section 4.4). The 2026 Clery Act Campus Safety and Security Report adds the Sexual and Relationship Violence Prevention and Response Policy. The handbook itself sits on the D2L student platform. I could find no public student conduct code, academic integrity or plagiarism policy, probation or dismissal standard, or appeal deadline. That is a gap, not a reason to guess: if you are enrolled, download the handbook and any program handbook from D2L today and save them with the date visible, because those are the terms a court would read.

Discrimination, harassment and Title IX run through one office

Under section 4.3.1, “The Vice President and Academic Dean is responsible for receiving, processing, and investigating complaints of discrimination, harassment, and/or retaliation.” The same officer “is the primary Title IX coordinator for CTU,” and the policy states that it “constitutes CTU’s Section 504 Grievance Procedure.” Complaints “should be filed within 300 days of the alleged occurrence(s)” — the policy does not say whether these are calendar or business days — and you should receive an acknowledgment “within 10 business days”; if you do not, the policy tells you to follow up directly. After a preliminary assessment, an investigator — occasionally an external one — interviews the parties and witnesses and prepares a summary and findings, and the Vice President and Academic Dean gives written notice of the findings and recommends corrective action, “up to and including discharge/expulsion.” The excerpt describes no hearing, no standard of proof and no appeal. It also warns that the office “cannot promise confidentiality.” More on discrimination against students and retaliation is on their own pages.

For sexual misconduct, the federal rule is the 2020 Title IX regulation: the 2024 rule was vacated nationwide on January 9, 2025, in Tennessee v. Cardona, and on September 29, 2026 the Department of Education formally repealed it and restored the pre-2024 text (91 Fed. Reg. 61,308). For sexual and relationship violence, the 2026 Clery report fills in more. A finding is made on “whether it is more likely than not that the alleged violation(s) has/have occurred.” Both sides may bring an advisor of their choice to any meeting, but you must tell the person running the process “no later than two business days prior to the meeting,” the advisor “does not have a speaking or otherwise active role,” and CTU reserves the right to require a different advisor if your choice “raises fundamental fairness issues,” such as a conflict of interest. For a student, the violation is decided under the anti-harassment procedures and the discipline by the Vice President for Finance and Operations in consultation with the Vice President and Academic Dean. The parties are told in writing of “the possibilities for appealing the decision, if any” — the report does not say what they are. See the Title IX page for the federal side.

Formation, field education and candidacy reviews

Much of what decides a CTU student’s future happens outside the grade book. Supervised field education, the Ministry Practicum, is required for the MDiv, the MA in Pastoral Studies and the MA in Ministry, and its prerequisites include a Virtus training workshop and a human sexuality workshop. Spiritual formation is required of lay students in the MA and MDiv programs; for members of religious communities, “formation provided by that community” takes its place — so a formation concern about a religious may run through two institutions at once. The MDiv track that fulfills the academic requirements for priestly ordination runs to 111 credits. CTU’s own account of quality assurance mentions “annual portfolio conferences, and program candidacy reviews,” but the criteria for those reviews, and what follows an adverse one, are not published. If you are told a review went badly, ask in writing for the written criteria and the written outcome. The professionalism and fitness page explains how these evaluations are usually contested.

What a student defense lawyer can do here

Most of the value is early and quiet. It is reading CTU’s handbook against what the school actually did and finding the gap; writing the response or the appeal so it argues the grounds the handbook 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 CTU two moves come first. One is getting the governing text: the handbook from D2L, and your own file under FERPA, which CTU says gives you the right to inspect your education records “within 45 days of receipt of a request,” with the Registrar scheduling an appointment within 30 days (neither count says calendar or business days); academic folders are destroyed ten years after you leave, so ask early. The other is procedural discipline in a sexual-violence case — giving the two-business-day advisor notice in writing, and asking in writing, before any decision, what appeal exists. Because the same office receives, investigates and coordinates, a written record of every request and answer matters more here than at a school with separate offices.

What a lawyer cannot do is turn a campus process 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 CTU’s own rule on that, set out above — an advisor may attend but has no speaking or otherwise active role — 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. Download the Student Handbook from D2L now, along with any program, field education or formation handbook, and save each with the date visible. If you cannot reach D2L, ask the Academic Dean’s office in writing for the edition that applies to you.
2. Ask for the deadline in writing. CTU publishes no appeal window. Whatever letter you received, ask the sender to confirm in writing how and by when you may respond or appeal.
3. Request your records under FERPA through the Registrar’s online form, including evaluations, portfolio and candidacy review documents.
4. In a harassment or Title IX matter, confirm your filing and your advisor in writing — and if no acknowledgment arrives within 10 business days, follow up as the policy instructs.
5. Raise any disability now. CTU directs accommodation requests to the Vice President and Academic Dean. A condition that explains the performance is a Section 504 and ADA question for the record. Other schools are on the Illinois student defense hub.

One honest caveat about geography. Illinois has three federal districts. I am admitted to two of them, the Northern and the Southern. 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. Appeals from the Northern District go to the Seventh Circuit, which keeps its own bar; my appellate admission is in the Eleventh. 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 schools in the Northern District of Illinois

Every school writes its own dismissal, appeal and conduct rules, and the deadlines are rarely the same from one campus to the next. These pages set out the procedure at other schools in the Northern District of Illinois:

• Chamberlain University (Illinois campuses)
• The Chicago School (Chicago campus)
• Chicago State University
• Chicago Theological Seminary
• Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology
• Columbia College Chicago

Common questions about Catholic Theological Union student cases

Where are Catholic Theological Union’s discipline and dismissal rules?

In the Student Handbook, which CTU posts on its D2L student platform rather than its public website. Only excerpts are public — the anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policy, crime reporting and student-records sections — plus the sexual-violence procedures in the 2026 Clery report. If you are enrolled, download the handbook and any program handbook now and keep dated copies; if you cannot access them, ask the Academic Dean’s office in writing for the edition that governs you.

Can I bring a lawyer to a CTU meeting about sexual misconduct?

You may bring an advisor of your choice to any meeting about whether a policy was violated or about discipline, and the Illinois statute discussed above allows that advisor to be an attorney. CTU requires notice “no later than two business days prior to the meeting,” says the advisor has no speaking or active role, and reserves the right to require a different advisor where your choice raises “fundamental fairness issues,” such as a conflict of interest.

What standard of proof does Catholic Theological Union use?

For sexual and relationship violence, the 2026 Clery report says findings turn on “whether it is more likely than not” that the violation occurred — preponderance of the evidence. The public anti-discrimination and anti-harassment excerpt states no standard, and CTU publishes no conduct code or academic integrity policy that would state one. Ask in writing which standard will be applied before any decision is made.

Is there a deadline to complain about discrimination at CTU?

The policy says complaints “should be filed within 300 days of the alleged occurrence(s),” without saying whether those are calendar or business days, and it encourages filing as soon as possible because delay can weaken the investigation. You should receive a written acknowledgment within 10 business days. The Vice President and Academic Dean receives and investigates these complaints and is also CTU’s primary Title IX coordinator, so put every request and answer in writing.