Harold Washington College (City Colleges of Chicago): Student Discipline, Dismissal & Federal Court

How do student discipline and dismissal cases work at Harold Washington College?

Harold Washington College is a public community college at 30 East Lake Street in the Loop, one of the seven City Colleges of Chicago that form Community College District No. 508; each college is separately accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. Its rules are district-wide, set out in the City Colleges Academic and Student Policy manual (March 2026). The fact that matters most: the district publishes two sexual-misconduct hearing procedures that disagree about cross-examination. Its Equal Opportunity and Title IX Policy, revised June 2025, lets each party’s advisor cross-examine at a live hearing; the March 2026 manual still prints a procedure stating “There will be no direct cross-examination of either party or witnesses.”

Harold Washington College is a public community college, so two bodies of law apply on top of its own policies. The first is constitutional due process: the college is a state actor, and Goss v. Lopez, 419 U.S. 565 (1975), requires notice of the charge and a meaningful chance to respond. The second is the deference courts give genuine academic judgment — Board of Curators of the University of Missouri v. Horowitz, 435 U.S. 78 (1978), and Regents of the University of Michigan v. Ewing, 474 U.S. 214 (1985). In the Seventh Circuit a due process claim also needs a protected interest: there is no free-standing property interest in a public education, and a student has to point to a specific promise the college made — Charleston v. Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois at Chicago, 741 F.3d 769 (7th Cir. 2013).

Illinois law treats a community college differently from a state university, and the difference matters. A community college district is a local public entity, not the State: it falls under the Local Governmental and Governmental Employees Tort Immunity Act, 745 ILCS 10/1-206, not the Court of Claims Act, so a breach-of-contract claim against it is brought in circuit court — see Luciano v. Waubonsee Community College, 245 Ill. App. 3d 1077 (1993). Review of the board’s disciplinary decision does not run through the Administrative Review Law, which the Public Community College Act does not adopt for these matters; the route is a common-law writ of certiorari (or mandamus) in the circuit court — Maas v. Board of Trustees of Community College District No. 529, 94 Ill. App. 3d 562 (1981). For the City Colleges, that district is Community College District No. 508, and Inwang v. Community College District No. 508, 117 Ill. App. 3d 608 (1983), confirmed that the district board’s action is reviewable by mandamus or certiorari rather than under the Administrative Review Act. And in federal court the district is not an arm of the State and has no Eleventh Amendment immunity — Hostrop v. Board of Junior College District No. 515, 523 F.2d 569 (7th Cir. 1975) — so under Monell v. Department of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658 (1978), it can be sued under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 where its own policy or custom caused the constitutional violation.

A federal claim arising at Harold Washington College 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, ADA or due process complaint for a Harold Washington College 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.

Two district documents, two different Title IX hearings

Sexual misconduct is not decided on campus: complaints go to the district Equal Opportunity (EEO) Office within 180 days of the incident. 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). The 2020 regulation requires postsecondary institutions to hold a live hearing at which each party’s advisor conducts cross-examination. The two City Colleges documents describe that hearing differently:

• EEO and Title IX Policy (revised June 2025). The parties get “ten (10) days to review” a written evidence summary; a live video hearing follows at least ten days later, and its recording is the official record. A student respondent faces a panel of CCC employees plus an EEO hearing officer. Questions are submitted in advance and may be “modified or struck,” and “Cross-examination will be conducted orally by the party’s advisor of choice and never by a party personally.” Preponderance decides; an appeal is due within “five (5) days” on three grounds, and the appeal ruling is final. The policy never says whether these are calendar or business days.
• The manual’s EEO procedure (March 2026). A District Hearing Panel of three trained administrators; an advisor who “can be anyone, including an attorney,” on three business days’ notice; no formal rules of evidence; no direct cross-examination; appeal within five business days to the Associate Vice Chancellor of Student Services.

Ask the EEO Office in writing, before any hearing notice, which procedure governs your case. A finding then returns to HWC for a sanction. HWC also names its own confidential advisor: the Director of Wellness Services.

How a conduct case runs at HWC

Complaints go to HWC’s Students’ Rights and Responsibilities office on its Student Conduct Complaint Form; the Associate Dean of Student Services, as conduct officer, categorizes the violations and picks the type of hearing. Then the district clocks start. Once notified, you must give your version in writing “no later than two (2) academic days after receipt” — weekdays, excluding holidays, when classes meet. After a pre-hearing meeting and a signed Due Process Rights form, the hearing date must reach you in writing within two academic days.

An Informal Resolution Agreement for minor cases requires admitting the violation and waiving the hearing and any appeal. A formal hearing goes to a committee of at least five members, including two administrators, a faculty member and a student; you may testify, call witnesses and “hear and question adverse witnesses.” You may bring one observer, who may not speak, and you present your own case. The manual states no standard of proof; HWC’s 2026 Annual Security Report supplies preponderance and written charges at least 24 hours ahead. Missing the hearing without just cause forfeits your appeal.

Only a suspension over five academic days, a college dismissal or an expulsion can be appealed — on the district Discipline Appeal Form to judicialaffairs@ccc.edu, “within ten (10) academic days” of receiving the President’s decision. A district committee advises the Provost, whose ruling is final.

Cheating complaints go to the Dean of Instruction

HWC routes academic-dishonesty complaints to its Dean of Instruction. The instructor sets the penalty, from an F on the assignment to an F in the course; only an academic-dishonesty withdrawal needs a vice president’s approval. You contest a finding through the district grade-appeal ladder — start within thirty calendar days, then the department chair, then the Academic Vice President, whose decision is final. HWC’s career programs, including its ABA-approved paralegal degree, post no separate disciplinary rules, so the manual governs them.

What a student defense lawyer can do here

Most of the value is early and quiet: reading the City Colleges rules against what HWC actually did; writing the response or appeal on the grounds the policy recognizes; preserving Title IX, Section 504, ADA and FERPA issues for the record; and finding comparators, because a sanction out of line with similar cases moves decision-makers.

Two moves are specific to HWC. In a sexual-misconduct case, pin down which hearing procedure applies before the hearing is set, and draft the cross-examination questions early, because the hearing officer screens them and your advisor must stick to the approved list. In a conduct case, treat the two-day written response as your opening brief.

The limit: a campus hearing is not a trial. There is no discovery, the rules of evidence do not apply, and the college decides its own case first — so the written record built now is all a court will ever see.

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 Harold Washington College’s own rule on that — the district rule 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 academic days. Two to answer a conduct complaint, ten to appeal. The Title IX policy’s five-day window has no unit, so treat it as calendar days.
2. Save both Title IX documents and the March 2026 manual as dated PDFs.
3. Ask in writing which hearing procedure applies, and for the investigation file. The college has 45 calendar days to produce education records — longer than your appeal window, so never wait for them to file.
4. Say nothing on the merits until you know which process you are in.
5. Raise disability now: hearing accommodations must be requested within three academic days of the first letter. My Illinois student defense page compares other schools.

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 college writes its own conduct, academic-standing and appeal rules, and the deadlines are rarely the same from one campus to the next. These pages set out the procedure at other community colleges in the Northern District of Illinois:

• Harper College
• Harry S Truman College (City Colleges of Chicago)
• Highland Community College
• Illinois Valley Community College
• Joliet Junior College
• Kennedy-King College (City Colleges of Chicago)

Common questions about Harold Washington College student cases

Can I bring a lawyer to a Harold Washington College hearing?

In a campus conduct hearing you may bring one observer, and the policy’s list of who may observe is open-ended — but the observer may not speak, and you present your own case. In a Title IX matter the June 2025 policy allows one advisor of your choice, who cross-examines from questions submitted in advance.

How long do I have to appeal a discipline decision at Harold Washington College?

Ten academic days from receiving the College President’s decision, counting weekdays when classes are in session. Only a suspension longer than five academic days, a college dismissal or an expulsion can be appealed, on listed grounds such as an unfair hearing or insufficient evidence. Title IX appeals have their own five-day window.

Is there cross-examination in a Title IX hearing at Harold Washington College?

The June 2025 Equal Opportunity and Title IX Policy says yes: your advisor cross-examines orally at a live video hearing, using questions the hearing officer has screened. The March 2026 manual still prints an older procedure saying there will be no direct cross-examination. Ask the EEO Office in writing which one governs your case.

What standard of proof does Harold Washington College use?

Preponderance of the evidence in Title IX and EEO matters, under the district policy. For ordinary conduct hearings the March 2026 manual states no standard; HWC’s 2026 Annual Security Report fills the gap with preponderance. On an academic-dishonesty appeal, the burden of proof is the instructor’s, not yours.

Can Harold Washington College suspend me for low grades?

Not under the current district rules. A cumulative GPA below 2.0 brings Academic Warning and then Academic Standing Intervention, with an advisor and an improvement plan, but the procedures say none of those statuses has enrollment impacts. Financial aid is different: missing Satisfactory Academic Progress standards can put a hold on your aid.