McCormick Theological Seminary: Student Discipline, Dismissal & Federal Court

How do student discipline and dismissal cases work at McCormick Theological Seminary?

McCormick Theological Seminary is a private seminary of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), founded in 1829 and in Chicago since before the Civil War. Since 2023 its offices have been on the fifth floor of 5416 South Cornell Avenue in Hyde Park, Chicago, Cook County, in a building it shares with Catholic Theological Union and the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. It is accredited by the Association of Theological Schools and the Higher Learning Commission for the MDiv, MA in Ministry, MTS and DMin, and reported 128 students to ATS in fall 2025. The most useful thing in its rules is a conflict: McCormick’s two governing documents disagree about who hears your appeal. The Student Life Handbook sends an appeal from the Student Standing Committee to a special meeting of the faculty at which “The student will have the right to counsel of his or her choice” and “to confront his or her accusers”; the 2026–2027 Academic Catalog sends it back to the same three-member committee. Both give you 10 days.

McCormick Theological Seminary 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 McCormick 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 McCormick Theological Seminary 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 McCormick 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 committees, ten days, and two versions of your appeal

The catalog divides the work. The Student Success Committee — faculty, administrators and students — monitors academic progress and “may place a student on academic probation, or administratively withdraw or dismiss a student.” Grievances and discipline, “for example: plagiarism, grade appeals, behavior antithetical to the values of McCormick Theological Seminary,” go to the Student Standing Committee, a subcommittee of “three faculty members appointed to the SStC by the Dean of the Faculty.” (The handbook sometimes calls that body the Student Success Committee too, so read every letter for which committee acted.)

Notice of appeal must be filed with the Dean of Students “within 10 days of the date of the receipt of the written notice of the decision”; neither document says whether these are calendar or business days, so count calendar days. Under the catalog, the appeal is taken up by the Student Standing Committee at its next meeting or within 30 days (again, unit unstated). Under the 2026–2027 Student Life Handbook, an appeal “to the faculty” brings a special faculty meeting, where you have the right to counsel of your choice, to introduce witnesses and evidence, to receive the charges in writing, to confront your accusers, and to “a copy of the proceedings in the form of a tape recording”; the faculty’s decision is final. Both documents are current. File within 10 days, and say in the notice that you invoke the handbook’s faculty appeal and its rights. See conduct code defense.

Plagiarism and AI: intent matters, and so does the first instance

McCormick’s policy separates two things. “Misuse of sources” — inadequate or incorrect citation — is handled by the instructor returning the work “for correct citation, revision, and resubmission … before assigning a grade.” “Plagiarism” is defined as “the deliberate use of someone else’s language, ideas, or other original material without acknowledging its source,” including self-plagiarism. Its penalties are severe from the start: “Even in a first instance of plagiarism, the Student Standing Committee may decide among” course failure, probation, suspension and dismissal. A first instance also brings a rewrite, a remedial plagiarism course to be reported to the Dean of Students within two weeks, and copies of the paper to your advisor; a second adds the Dean of Students to the meeting; a third is referred to the Committee, which “may invite the referred student to appear, but is not obligated to do so.” A proposed suspension or dismissal goes to the faculty in a confidential memorandum with at least seven days’ notice of the meeting (unit unstated), and more than three instances “shall result in dismissal.”

The provisional AI policy, approved by the faculty on August 27, 2025, leaves the rules to each syllabus and says “Violations of course AI policies will be considered a form of improper use of sources.” That wording matters. An AI violation framed as improper use of sources fits the correct-and-resubmit track for misuse, not the plagiarism track that requires “deliberate” conduct — an argument to make in writing at the first meeting. See AI-use accusations.

Probation, incompletes and administrative withdrawal

Good standing requires a 2.0 GPA. The Student Standing Committee places a student on academic probation for more than one Incomplete, Permanent Incomplete, F or W, or a semester GPA below 2.0; probation “normally” lasts one semester, after which the committee decides whether to continue it “or to administratively withdraw or dismiss the student.” You may carry no more than two incompletes, and three or more incompletes or F grades bring a referral “for administrative withdrawal.” Two consecutive semesters without registration or approved leave also lead to administrative withdrawal, and a returning student starts “at the beginning of the program” under the then-current catalog.

Grade appeals have their own clock: speak with the instructor in person within three weeks of the grade posting, or “the grade will be final and without appeal.” The catalog text then allows a written petition to the Dean of Students “within five weeks,” but its own timetable sets the deadline at day 28 — four weeks. Use four. If the Committee refers it on, a three-member Grade Review Panel decides, and its decision “is final and without further appeal.”

Readiness for ministry: more than grades

Degrees are voted by the Board of Trustees on the faculty’s recommendation, and “The faculty explicitly reserves the right to determine whom it will recommend for any degree.” The catalog’s readiness statement warns that “fulfillment of the formal academic requirements is a necessary but not sufficient condition for graduation,” naming relationships with peers and faculty, integrity as a community member, and “capacity for ministry in field education settings.” The same paragraph also says the faculty’s recommendation “is based upon the satisfactory completion of educational requirements.” If your graduation is “postponed or questioned” at the graduation review, the decision is communicated privately; ask in writing for the specific criterion and the evidence. The handbook adds that persons “unwilling to work toward resolution of conflict … jeopardize their own place in the community.” See professionalism and fitness concerns.

Harassment and Title IX: an HR investigation in ten business days

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). McCormick’s Title IX policy is a cross-reference to its Anti-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment Policy and Complaint Procedure, a document largely written for the workplace. The Director of Human Resources investigates, sometimes with a department head “and/or legal counsel,” interviewing the parties and witnesses, and must conclude “in no event more than 10 business days following receipt of the complaint.” Discipline follows if the investigation “reveals sufficient evidence to reasonably conclude” a violation occurred, on the President’s concurrence; the respondent is told in person within 5 business days. The procedure publishes no hearing, no advisor and no appeal for a student. If you are a party, write to the Title IX Coordinator at once — see the Title IX page.

What a student defense lawyer can do here

Most of the value is early and quiet. It is reading McCormick’s catalog and handbook against what the seminary actually did and finding the gap; writing the response or the appeal so it argues the grounds the documents recognize 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 the seminary; and identifying comparators, because a sanction far outside what similar cases drew is one of the few arguments that reliably moves a decision-maker.

Two moves are specific to McCormick. First, the 10-day notice of appeal should claim the handbook’s faculty appeal expressly — counsel of your choice, witnesses, the written charges, confrontation and a recording — and point out that the catalog provides a lesser procedure; if the seminary chooses the lesser one, that choice is now in the record. Second, in an integrity case, hold the seminary to its own line between misuse of sources and deliberate plagiarism, especially where the accusation is about AI and the faculty’s own policy calls it “improper use of sources.”

What a lawyer cannot do is turn a seminary 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 McCormick’s own rule on that — which its harassment procedure does not publish — 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. Diary 10 days from the written decision. That is the appeal window for any committee action. For a grade, the clocks are three weeks to speak with the instructor and four weeks to petition.
2. Save the 2026–2027 Academic Catalog and Student Life Handbook with dates visible, and the plagiarism policy and AI policy as they stood when the work was submitted.
3. Ask in writing which committee acted and what it relied on. If you are referred to the Student Standing Committee, ask to appear even though it “is not obligated” to invite you, and submit a written statement regardless.
4. Answer an integrity accusation with your process, not just your conclusion: drafts, notes, version history and the syllabus AI rule.
5. Raise any disability now with the Office of Student Services, in writing. 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:

• Meadville Lombard Theological School
• Midwest College of Oriental Medicine (Skokie)
• Midwestern Career College
• Midwestern University-Downers Grove
• Moody Bible Institute
• Morrison Institute of Technology

Common questions about McCormick Theological Seminary student cases

How long do I have to appeal at McCormick?

Ten days. Notice of appeal from a committee decision must be filed with the Dean of Students “within 10 days of the date of the receipt of the written notice of the decision,” and if nothing is filed, the decision is final. Neither the catalog nor the handbook says whether these are calendar or business days, so count calendar days. Grade disputes run on a separate schedule: three weeks to speak with the instructor, four weeks to petition.

Can I bring a lawyer to a McCormick appeal?

The Student Life Handbook says yes: on an appeal to the faculty, “The student will have the right to counsel of his or her choice,” plus witnesses, the written charges, confrontation and a tape recording of the proceedings. The 2026–2027 catalog, however, sends appeals back to the three-faculty Student Standing Committee and says nothing about counsel. Invoke the handbook’s faculty appeal expressly in your notice of appeal.

Can McCormick dismiss me for a first plagiarism offense?

It can. The policy says that “Even in a first instance of plagiarism, the Student Standing Committee may decide among” failure, probation, suspension and dismissal. But plagiarism is defined as “deliberate” use of another’s material; inadequate or incorrect citation is “misuse of sources,” to be corrected and resubmitted. The provisional AI policy calls AI violations “a form of improper use of sources.” Make that distinction in writing early.

Can McCormick refuse to recommend me for graduation?

The faculty “explicitly reserves the right to determine whom it will recommend for any degree,” and the catalog warns that meeting academic requirements is “necessary but not sufficient,” pointing to relationships, integrity and capacity for ministry in field education. The same catalog says the recommendation rests on completing educational requirements. If your graduation is postponed or questioned, ask in writing for the criterion and evidence, and appeal within 10 days.

What standard of proof does McCormick use?

The harassment and Title IX procedure asks whether the investigation “reveals sufficient evidence to reasonably conclude” that a violation occurred. The plagiarism policy and the committee procedures state no standard at all. In a sexual-violence case, the Preventing Sexual Violence in Higher Education Act calls for preponderance of the evidence; ask the seminary in writing which standard it will apply before it decides.