Generations College: Student Discipline, Dismissal & Federal Court

How do student discipline and dismissal cases work at Generations College?

Generations College is a private, not-for-profit college at 29 East Madison Street in Chicago’s Loop, in Cook County, founded in 1904 and known as MacCormac College until 2021. It is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and grants associate degrees in business, entrepreneurial studies, court reporting, criminal justice, legal studies and paralegal studies. Its procedures move fastest at the end: the final appeal, to the Chancellor, must be made “within two (2) class days” — and the current catalog adds a conduct rule that treats “repeatedly contacting multiple individuals about the same matter” as cause for immediate suspension.

Generations College 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 Generations 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 or ADA complaint for a Generations 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.

Discipline: the Dean, a committee’s “sole discretion,” and your transcript

Under the 2025–2026 Academic Catalog, conduct violations “shall be directed to the Dean of Academic Affairs,” and probation, suspension and expulsion are set by the Student Services Committee “in their sole discretion.” “Suspensions will be noted on the student’s disciplinary record and academic transcript,” and expulsion carries a permanent notation. No notice period, hearing, standard of proof or advisor rule is published for ordinary conduct cases; review runs through the Student Grievance Procedure. One sanction factor helps: the decision must consider “discipline issued in similar cases.” See conduct code defense.

The catalog now posted, dated May 13, 2026, adds “Disruptive or Abusive Communications and Conduct”: “repeated requests for exceptions or extensions after a decision has been made” and “repeatedly contacting multiple individuals about the same matter” are now causes for immediate suspension. Contest a decision through the written grievance steps, one office at a time.

Plagiarism: a warning first, then suspension

The ladder is written out. “If a student is caught cheating or plagiarizing once, the Dean will give the student a written warning”; a second time, the student “will be suspended from the College”; and “If the Dean receives information about more than one violation concerning the same student, the student will be suspended” — so two reports arriving together can mean suspension without a prior warning. Faculty must put the report and its evidence in writing and tell the student. To contest the allegation, the catalog sends students to the grievance procedure. See academic misconduct.

The grievance ladder: calendar days, class weeks, class days

The Student Grievance Procedure covers any “adverse action, suspension, or dismissal.” Step 1: meet the supervisor “within fifteen (15) calendar days” of when you knew or should have known of the decision. Step 2: a signed Formal Grievance to the Registrar for a Grievance Committee, which meets the student only “if circumstances warrant an in-person hearing” and decides “within two (2) class weeks.” Step 3: an Appeal Form to the Dean of Academic Affairs “within two (2) class weeks.” Step 4: a written appeal to the Chancellor “within two (2) class days,” stating “in detail the objections” and attaching everything from Steps 2 and 3; the Chancellor’s decision “shall be final.” The catalog does not define a class day or a class week.

One trap: the grievance definition excludes complaints about “disciplinary actions” and other matters with “separate appeal processes,” yet the discipline section sends suspensions and expulsions here — which answers any claim that a discipline case is excluded.

Grades and academic progress

A grade appeal is limited to claims that “an error was made in a semester course grade calculation”; “The Dean’s decision will be binding,” and changes must be completed by the end of the following semester. Satisfactory academic progress — a 2.0 cumulative GPA, 67% completion and the 150% limit — is an enrollment rule as well as an aid rule: failure means “the loss of eligibility of Title IV aid and loss of eligibility to continue enrollment.” The SAP appeal is due “prior to the posted deadline date,” and appeals “may be denied solely on failure to provide third-party documentation.” See SAP appeals.

Sexual misconduct: one committee investigates and decides

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). At Generations, sexual violence complaints against a student go to the Student Conduct Committee — the Dean of Academic Affairs, a Program Director, the Registrar and a staff designee — which investigates and decides. Both sides may have “an advisor of their choosing, including an attorney, throughout the hearing process,” but no standard of proof, hearing format or appeal deadline is published. And the confidential advisor it names is the Dean of Academic Affairs, who also sits on that committee. See Title IX and sexual misconduct.

What a student defense lawyer can do here

Most of the value is early and quiet: reading Generations College’s policy against what the school actually did; writing the response or appeal on the grounds the policy recognizes, not 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 finding comparators, because a sanction far outside what similar cases drew is one of the few arguments that reliably moves a decision-maker.

At Generations, two moves are specific: drafting the Step 3 and Step 4 papers before Step 2 is decided, because the Chancellor appeal is due within two class days and must carry the whole file; and keeping every communication inside the written grievance channel. In a sanction case, the “similar cases” factor opens the door to comparators.

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 Generations 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 Generations College’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.

At Generations that rule is generous on paper but silent on what the advisor may do in the room, and there is no advisor rule at all for ordinary conduct cases. Ask in writing.

What to do first

1. Write down the clocks: fifteen calendar days to start, two class weeks to reach the Dean, two class days to reach the Chancellor. Ask the Registrar in writing what counts as a class day.
2. Save the catalog dated May 13, 2026, and the version in force when the events happened.
3. Ask for the evidence in writing, including the faculty member’s written report.
4. Use one channel: file each step with the office the procedure names.
5. Raise disability early: requests go to the Dean of Academic Affairs “at least two weeks prior to the beginning of the term.” For how cases work across the state, 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.

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:

• Governors State University
• Hebrew Theological College
• Illinois College of Optometry
• Illinois Institute of Technology
• Institute for Clinical Social Work
• Judson University

Common questions about Generations College student cases

How long do I have to appeal at Generations College?

Not long, and the units change. The grievance starts with a meeting “within fifteen (15) calendar days” of when you knew of the decision; the appeal to the Dean of Academic Affairs is due within two class weeks of the committee’s decision; and the final appeal to the Chancellor is due “within two (2) class days.”

What happens if I’m accused of plagiarism at Generations College?

A first finding brings a written warning from the Dean of Academic Affairs; a second means suspension. If the Dean receives reports of more than one violation at once, the catalog says the student “will be suspended,” and repeated instances are cause for permanent dismissal. Contest it in writing through the grievance procedure.

Will a suspension show on my Generations College transcript?

Yes. The catalog says “Suspensions will be noted on the student’s disciplinary record and academic transcript,” and an expulsion receives a permanent notation. That notation travels with every transcript you send, which is why the grievance is worth filing even when the suspension itself is short.

Can I bring a lawyer to a Generations College hearing?

In a sexual violence case before the Student Conduct Committee, yes: both sides may have “an advisor of their choosing, including an attorney, throughout the hearing process.” For ordinary discipline and grievances the catalog publishes no advisor rule, and the Grievance Committee meets in person only “if circumstances warrant.” Ask in writing before the meeting.