Concordia University Chicago: Student Discipline, Dismissal & Federal Court

How do student discipline and dismissal cases work at Concordia Chicago?

Concordia University Chicago is a private Christian university of The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod in River Forest, Cook County, accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, with undergraduate and graduate programs that include education, business and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. Its conduct rules contain a deadline measured in hours, not days: an appeal of a conduct decision must be made “within 72 hours of receiving the decision letter,” and an advisor’s presence must be declared within 72 hours of the meeting or the University may refuse it. Over a weekend, that clock is unforgiving.

Concordia University 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 Concordia Chicago 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. Federal student-aid data show that it takes part in the federal loan programs, and its handbook describes it as a Christian university of The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod.

A federal claim arising at Concordia University 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 Concordia Chicago 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.

The conduct process: a meeting, then a letter

The 2025–2026 Student Handbook routes an incident report to a review team and then to a conduct meeting officer (CMO), who investigates and emails you the code sections you are alleged to have violated and the meeting time. At the meeting you review the documentation and declare yourself “Responsible” or “Not Responsible” on each charge. If you deny a charge, the CMO decides it under the “Preponderance of Evidence standard (more likely than not).” Sanctions and a decision letter follow within ten business days, and the letter explains how to appeal. Sanctions run up to University Suspension, which requires reapplication through the Dean of Students, and expulsion.

You may have an advisor, but the advisor “may only counsel the student and may not actively participate in the hearing unless clarification is needed as determined by the CMO,” and “Notification of the presence of any advisor must be made within 72 hours of a scheduled adjudication conference or hearing,” naming the advisor’s relationship to you. Missing two CMO meetings lets the officer decide without you and add a charge of “Abuse of the Student Code Process.”

Seventy-two hours to appeal

The appeal must be written, by email or letter, within 72 hours of receiving the decision letter; only the appeals officer can extend that, and you cannot appeal before the letter arrives. It goes one level up — from a Resident Director to the Director of Residence Life, from that Director to the Dean of Students, from the Dean of Students to the President — and must allege facts supporting a procedural error sufficient to have altered the outcome, new and previously unavailable facts, discrimination, or excessive or inappropriate sanctions. An appeal that does not do so “shall be dismissed without further action.” The appeals officer decides within ten business days, and that decision is final. One choice made earlier controls the appeal: a student who declared “responsible” may appeal “solely on the grounds of excessive or inappropriate sanctions.” That is why the declaration at the conduct meeting deserves thought before you walk in.

The Honor Code: fourteen calendar days to answer

Every student signs Concordia’s honor pledge, and the Honor Code lists “the unauthorized use of artificial intelligence bots” as cheating. An uncontested violation is penalized by the instructor and reported to the Director of the Honor System. A contested one starts with a letter sent by registered mail or delivered in person, and “The student must respond to this letter within 14 calendar days of the date of the letter”; if you do not respond, the director decides whether the case proceeds. An investigative team reports, and a panel — three Honor Council students and two faculty members for undergraduates, three faculty members for graduate students — decides, with notice within 48 hours. Your advocate “can be a faculty or staff member or another student only but may not be of familial relation.” No standard of proof is published. The guideline sanctions climb from failing the assignment to failing the course, then suspension, then expulsion, and a degree can be revoked.

The appeal window is long but unlabeled: thirty days for a procedural error and ninety days for new evidence, from receipt of the verdict letter, without saying whether those are calendar or business days. And it carries risk. The instructor may appeal too, and a granted appeal goes to a new committee that “reinvestigates and rehears the case” and may “increase the original consequence.” More on honor-code cases.

Grades: one suspension appeal, ever

The 2026–2027 catalog places undergraduates below a 2.0 cumulative GPA on probation, then continued probation, then academic suspension “for a term of one calendar year.” A suspended student may appeal for reinstatement to the Academic Standards and Progress Committee; “The decision of the committee is final,” and a student “is allowed only one such appeal” during their time at Concordia. No appeal deadline is published. Readmission requires a full calendar year away and 12 credit hours elsewhere at a 2.0. Graduate students need a 3.0; probation can be appealed only for a calculation error, dismissal follows a second sub-3.0 term, reinstatement appeals go in writing to the college dean with no published deadline, and a dismissed graduate student may not reapply as a guest or to another program. Grade appeals must be resolved “within eight weeks after final course grades are due.”

Nursing: 76 percent, and one reinstatement

The Division of Nursing Student Handbook 2026–2027 treats two nursing-course failures — a final grade below 76 percent, or withdrawing while failing — as failure to progress. You may apply once for reinstatement to the Admission, Progression, and Retention Committee, which decides within three business days on a space-available basis; the application requires a plan of at least two pages covering academics, self-care, finances and “Spiritual Health.” Further appeal runs to the program director and then the dean, each “within three (3) days,” a unit the handbook leaves unstated. A failure after reinstatement means dismissal without readmission, and falsifying any clinical record means dismissal outright. Grade disputes move in business days: two to raise it with the instructor, five to file a formal appeal, three for the committee to decide.

Sexual misconduct

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). Concordia’s posted Title IX policy is a 2022 document. It sends formal complaints to a hearing before decision-makers who decide by simple majority on a preponderance of the evidence, allows an advisor of choice “as long as the Advisor is eligible and available,” and requires a written appeal to the Title IX Coordinator “within 5 days of the delivery of the Notice of Outcome” — again without saying calendar or business days. Ask the Coordinator in writing which procedure governs your case. More on Title IX cases.

What a student defense lawyer can do here

Most of the value is early and quiet. It is reading Concordia’s policy against what the University 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 Concordia the timing is the case. A conduct appeal has to be ready to send within 72 hours of the decision letter, so the grounds should be mapped before the letter arrives; the advisor has to be declared 72 hours ahead; and the “responsible” declaration at the meeting decides what can be appealed later. In an honor-code case, whether to appeal at all is a real judgment call, because a rehearing can raise the penalty.

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 University decides its own case at first instance. That is 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 Concordia Chicago’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. Count hours, then days. 72 hours to appeal from receiving the conduct decision letter; advisor notice 72 hours ahead of the meeting; 14 calendar days from the date of an Honor Code letter. Mark the exact time.
2. Decide before the meeting what you will declare on each charge, knowing that “responsible” limits any appeal to the sanction.
3. Save the documents. The newest handbook posted is the 2025–2026 edition, though the consumer-information page still links 2024–2025; keep both, the 2026–2027 catalog pages, the Honor Code and your program handbook, dated.
4. Review all the documentation at the conduct meeting, and ask in writing for copies and for any witness statements relied on.
5. Raise disability early. If a condition or an unmet accommodation explains what happened, it is a Section 504 and ADA question for the record now. For the wider picture, see 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.

The federal money on the line at Concordia Chicago

Concordia University Chicago students and families took on $16.2 million in federal Direct Loans in the 2025–26 award year — including $1.8 million borrowed by 114 parents through Parent PLUS.

Every dollar of it rides on academic standing. A dismissal, a failed Satisfactory Academic Progress evaluation, or a mid-term withdrawal sets off federal rules that decide whether aid continues, whether money already disbursed has to go back, and — under the borrowing caps in effect since July 1, 2026 — whether a student who leaves can still finance a return. The academic fight and the financial aid fight are the same fight, and the windows are short. How those rules work: SAP appeals and academic dismissal.

On the Department’s financial responsibility test, Concordia University Chicago’s most recent published composite score is 2.8 (fiscal year 2022–23) — a passing score on the –1.0-to-3.0 scale, where 1.5 and above passes. How to read that number: the federal warning signs guide.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, Federal Student Aid Data Center, Direct Loan volume by school, award year 2025–26 (cumulative through June 30, 2026). Institution-wide federal Direct Loan totals.

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:

• DePaul University
• DeVry University (Illinois)
• Dominican University
• East-West University
• Elmhurst University
• Erikson Institute

Common questions about Concordia Chicago student cases

How long do I have to appeal a conduct decision at Concordia Chicago?

Seventy-two hours from receiving the decision letter — hours, not business days. The appeal must be in writing, by email or letter, and must allege facts supporting a procedural error, new facts, discrimination or an excessive sanction; only the appeals officer can extend the deadline. The decision comes within ten business days and is final.

Can I bring a lawyer to a Concordia Chicago conduct meeting?

You may bring an advisor, but the handbook says the advisor “may only counsel the student and may not actively participate,” and you must declare the advisor’s presence and relationship to you within 72 hours of the meeting. In an Honor Code case the advocate must be a faculty member, staff member or student, and not a relative.

What standard of proof does Concordia Chicago use?

Preponderance of the evidence — “more likely than not” — in conduct cases decided by the conduct meeting officer, and in Title IX hearings under the 2022 policy. The Honor Code publishes no standard at all; it speaks only of whether “guilt is found,” which is worth raising when the evidence is thin.

I was academically suspended. Can I appeal, and when can I return?

You may appeal once — the catalog allows “only one such appeal” during your time at Concordia — to the Academic Standards and Progress Committee, whose decision is final. No deadline is published, so file promptly and ask for the date in writing. Without a successful appeal, readmission waits a full calendar year and requires 12 credit hours elsewhere at a 2.0.

Can Concordia dismiss me from nursing after two failed courses?

Two nursing-course grades below 76 percent, or withdrawing while failing, count as failure to progress. You may apply once for reinstatement to the program’s progression committee, which decides within three business days, then appeal to the director and the dean within three days each. A further failure after reinstatement means dismissal without readmission.