Dominican University: Student Discipline, Dismissal & Federal Court

How do student discipline and dismissal cases work at Dominican University?

Dominican University is a private Catholic university sponsored by the Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters, with its main campus at 7900 West Division Street in River Forest, Cook County, ten miles west of the Loop. It is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, its nursing program by CCNE, and its Physician Assistant Studies program holds Accreditation-Continued status from ARC-PA. Its conduct rules run on a short clock with a built-in ambiguity: a request for review is due “within 72 hours (three business days)” of the outcome — two periods that are not the same over a weekend — and while you may read the statements against you before the hearing, students “are not allowed to have copies of any of the materials.”

Dominican 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. 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. 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 Dominican University 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 Dominican 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.

Conduct: a hearing with an advisor who cannot speak

Under the 2026–2027 Student Handbook, the Dean of Students assigns each case to an Administrative Hearing for first or lower-level offenses, or to a Dean of Students Conduct Board for “more egregious violations or repeat offenders.” You get written notice by Dominican email at least “72 hours (three business days)” before the hearing, naming the policies involved. You may bring one Dominican faculty or staff member, named 24 hours ahead, who “cannot speak for the student.” You may see the witness list and written statements in advance, bring direct witnesses on 24 hours’ notice, and speak for yourself. Responsibility turns on “whether it is more likely than not” that you violated the code, conduct history counts toward the sanction rather than the finding except in pattern cases, nothing may be recorded, and the hearing goes ahead if you do not appear. The decision arrives by email within 72 hours (three business days).

The Dean of Students may also impose interim action pending a hearing, including separation from the University, and the handbook adds a cost students may not expect: “A student is responsible for all tuition and fees, including room and board, during an interim suspension.” Dominican may instead offer alternative dispute resolution, including arbitration or mediation, but only if all parties agree “to be bound by the decision with no Review available.”

Review, not a rehearing

A request for review goes through the online Star Tracker form to the Dean of Students within 72 hours (three business days) of being notified of the outcome. It is limited to five purposes: new, outcome-determinative information; a material deviation from written procedures that affected fairness; a grossly disproportionate sanction; a finding that “does not accord with the information”; or bias on the part of a board member. The Dean screens the request for timeliness and grounds; if it passes, a board of three people not involved in the hearing decides by majority vote. “A review of the decision made at the initial hearing is NOT a rehearing of the case,” and a denied request ends the matter. Treat the 72 hours as the deadline, whatever day of the week the outcome arrives. More on the conduct process.

Academic integrity and grades: a long appeal

Academic integrity begins with the instructor, who may impose anything from refusing the work to an F in the course, must tell you in writing of your right to appeal, and copies the dean; a dean who sees repeat violations may add a warning, course failure, suspension or expulsion. The Academic Appeals Process, as reproduced on the Physician Assistant program’s policy page, then runs from the instructor to the department chair or school director, to the dean, and finally to the college committee that oversees educational policy, which requests the instructor’s response and votes. The window is long: appeals on fall courses are due by the end of the following spring semester, and on spring or summer courses by the end of the following fall semester. A successful integrity appeal removes the instructor’s letter from the dean’s file. No standard of proof is published. Dominican’s student-portal policy page adds that undergraduates on probation for two semesters are “normally” dismissed and must wait at least a semester to apply for readmission; check the 2026–2027 University Bulletin’s Academic Regulations for the current text. More on academic-integrity cases.

Nursing and PA: two business days, and a written standard

The BSN Student Handbook 2026–2027 for the Elizabeth T. MacNeil School of Nursing requires a C- or better in every nursing course and 90 percent on the medication-math test, with one retake. Its review steps move in two-business-day increments: a written request to the instructor within two business days of an unsuccessful course or clinical outcome, a meeting and decision in two more, and review by the Associate Dean on the same two-day rhythm. A student who becomes ineligible to progress may request reinstatement within two business days, once only, and not after failing the same course twice or two different courses. A dismissal or denied reinstatement goes to the Dean of the Borra College of Health Sciences within five business days, then to the College Appeals Committee within five more, whose decision is final. The handbook also commits, in its own words, that program decisions “will not be arbitrary, capricious, or discriminatory,” and defines each term — the same vocabulary as the Illinois standard of review above. See nursing dismissal.

In Physician Assistant Studies, a Student Progress Committee reviews every student each semester. A GPA below 3.00 triggers probation and review, a grade of C or below is unsatisfactory progress, and dismissal is recommended by the committee and initiated by the Program Director for grounds that include failing to remediate two clinical rotations and severe or persistent unprofessional behavior. The program allows a one-time deceleration, and its appeal route points to the Graduate Student Regulations. See PA program dismissal.

Sexual misconduct: check which policy applies

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). Dominican’s policy page lists the “Title IX Sexual Harassment Policy 2020” and a Non-Discrimination and Prohibited Conduct Policy for complaints occurring after January 9, 2025 — both posted as files named “Draft” — and a separate 2024 policy for complaints “on or after August 1, 2024,” headings that overlap. The 2020 policy follows the federal rule — the 2020 regulation requires postsecondary institutions to hold a live hearing at which each party’s advisor conducts cross-examination. Its advisor “may be, but is not required to be, an attorney,” responsibility is decided by a preponderance of the evidence, and an appeal is due “within 7 business days” of notice. Ask the Title IX Coordinator in writing which document governs your case.

What a student defense lawyer can do here

Most of the value is early and quiet. It is reading Dominican’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 Dominican, preparation has to fit a 72-hour rhythm: asking for the witness list and statements as soon as notice arrives, taking careful notes because copies are not allowed, and having the review request drafted before the outcome lands. Agreeing to alternative dispute resolution gives up review, so it is a decision to make deliberately. In nursing, the two-business-day windows mean the review request should go out almost at once — and it can hold the program to its own written promise that decisions will not be arbitrary or capricious.

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 Dominican’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. Write down the clock. 72 hours (three business days) to request conduct review; two business days for a nursing review or reinstatement request; five business days for each formal nursing appeal; seven business days for a Title IX appeal. When hours and business days differ, use the shorter.
2. Save the documents, dated: the 2026–2027 Student Handbook, your program handbook or policy page, and the Title IX policy the Coordinator confirms applies.
3. Ask in writing to review the witness list and statements before the hearing, and take notes, since you cannot keep copies.
4. Choose your faculty or staff advisor and send the name to the conduct officer at least 24 hours ahead, along with your witnesses.
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 Dominican

Dominican University students and families took on $17.4 million in federal Direct Loans in the 2025–26 award year — with 97 graduate and professional students also borrowing through Grad 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, Dominican University’s most recent published composite score is 2.2 (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:

• East-West University
• Elmhurst University
• Erikson Institute
• Fox College
• Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary
• Generations College

Common questions about Dominican student cases

How long do I have to request review of a conduct decision at Dominican?

The handbook says “72 hours (three business days)” after you are notified of the outcome, through the Star Tracker request form. Because 72 hours and three business days end at different times over a weekend, file within 72 hours. Review is limited to five grounds, is not a rehearing, and a denied request ends the case.

Can I bring a lawyer to a Dominican conduct hearing?

Not as your advisor. The handbook allows one Dominican faculty or staff member, named at least 24 hours ahead, who can advise you but “cannot speak for the student,” and it limits who may be in the room. A lawyer can prepare you beforehand. In a Title IX case under the 2020 policy, your advisor may be an attorney.

What standard of proof does Dominican use?

In conduct cases, the conduct officers decide “whether it is more likely than not” that you violated the code. The 2020 Title IX policy uses a preponderance of the evidence, which is the same test. The academic-integrity procedure publishes no standard, so ask the instructor and the dean in writing what evidence they relied on.

How fast must I act after failing a nursing course at Dominican?

Within two business days. That is the window to ask the instructor to review an unsuccessful course or clinical outcome, and also the window to request reinstatement once you are told you cannot progress. Formal appeals of a dismissal or denied reinstatement then go to the Dean and the College Appeals Committee, five business days each.

Do I still owe tuition if Dominican suspends me before my hearing?

Yes. The handbook says a student is responsible for all tuition and fees, including room and board, during an interim suspension. The Dean of Students may, with the college dean, allow alternative coursework to limit the academic impact, so ask in writing for that option as soon as the interim action is imposed.