National Louis University: Student Discipline, Dismissal & Federal Court

How do student discipline and dismissal cases work at National Louis?

National Louis University is a private, nonprofit university founded in 1886, based in Chicago in Cook County, that serves nearly 13,000 students a year at locations in Illinois and Florida and online; it is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, and its PsyD in Clinical Psychology by the American Psychological Association. Its rules reserve one decision to a single person: a disciplinary dismissal can be imposed only by the President. The Student Guidebook says so for conduct and sexual misconduct cases, and the catalog says the same for suspension, dismissal and degree rescission in academic dishonesty cases — so no investigator, committee or dean can impose that sanction alone.

National Louis 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 National Louis 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 National Louis 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: an investigator decides, and five business days to appeal

The current Student Guidebook (the 2025–2026 edition is the one online) gives conduct cases to the Office of Community Standards, which investigates, gives you a copy of the incident report, and its investigator decides on “a preponderance of the evidence standard (‘more likely than not’).” You get at least four (4) business days’ notice of your investigative interview, must give two (2) business days’ notice if you cannot attend, and may bring “an advocate of their choice,” named at least one (1) business day ahead, whose role “will be limited to support.” The written outcome comes within five (5) business days of the meeting. See conduct code defense.

An appeal is due “no later than five (5) business days after notification of the decision” — the same paragraph also says “within five (5) business days of receipt of the outcome,” so count from notification. The grounds are procedural irregularity, new evidence, the hearing officer’s conflict or bias, or a disproportionate sanction; the Assistant Dean of Students decides, and “All decisions made upon an appeal are final.” Then comes the sanction list, where dismissal is the sixth item and the note says: “Sanction #6 shall be imposed only by the President.”

Sexual misconduct runs under the Guidebook’s Sexual Misconduct and Relationship Violence Policy. 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, and National Louis’s policy does that: a three-member hearing board, advisors who ask cross-examination questions once the board rules them relevant, the investigative report at least ten (10) days before the hearing, and a decision within seven (7) business days on a preponderance of the evidence. Appeals are due “within five (5) business days of receipt of the outcome” to the Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students, and are final. For more, see Title IX defense.

Academic honesty: a real hearing, and AI named in the rule

The 2026–2027 catalog’s Academic Honesty policy treats ideas “reworded by the student or by AI” as plagiarism and lists “Using AI tools to write papers or responses beyond their use for limited editing unless otherwise specified by instructor” as dishonesty — so an AI accusation turns on the instructor’s own instructions. The faculty member must notify you in writing and, unless email settles it, meet within fourteen (14) business days of the incident or of learning of it; you “may also bring one witness.” Without agreement, a meeting with the program administrator or dean follows within ten (10) working days. Any party may then petition the Provost for a Hearing on Academic Dishonesty, within ten (10) business days of those meetings; a committee of a hearing officer and two faculty members hears it, you may appear “with or without an advocate,” and the decision is reported within five (5) business days. An appeal to the Provost is due within ten (10) business days, and that is “the final administrative remedy.” Repeated violations trigger a formal hearing even when the individual case was resolved — and the remedies of suspension, dismissal and rescission of a certificate or degree “shall be imposed only by the President.”

Grades, academic dismissal and nursing

Most academic decisions follow the Policy on Academic Appeals: Step I within 15 business days of formal notice — you must both file the academic appeals form and contact the person who decided — then ten business days for each of Step II (program chair), Step III (the college’s governance committee) and Step IV (the Provost). “A policy or procedure may not be appealed,” only a decision under one, and a dean may override a committee’s decision on institutional grounds the catalog says can include “financial and/or legal considerations.”

Academic standing requires a 2.0 (undergraduate) or a 3.0 program GPA (graduate) and passing 67 percent of attempted credits. Probation comes with an academic plan; failing the plan means dismissal. A dismissed student may return only after two terms away, through a one- to two-page statement routed by an advisor to the college dean — whose “decision is non-appealable,” though you may try again within one academic term. In the BSN, every course needs a C; failing a nursing course twice means dismissal from the program, and failing one component — didactic, lab or clinical — withdraws you from all of them that term.

Psychology and counseling: competence committees

The Illinois School of Professional Psychology’s PsyD, APA-accredited at National Louis since May 5, 2021 after Argosy University’s closure, runs on the ISPP Handbook (2024–2025 is the latest posted). Two grades below a B in one semester, or three in the program, mean dismissal, as does failing the Science Capstone Examination two years in a row. Concerns about academic work, a practicum or internship dismissal, or “Problems with fitness to practice” go to the Student Professional Development Committee, which meets within 30 days of a complaint (the handbook gives no unit), accepts your written material up to 48 hours before, and answers in writing within ten (10) business days. You may bring a support person, but “The support person must not act as an attorney,” and you must speak for yourself. Appeals follow the catalog’s academic appeal policy. One conflict: the handbook says a grievance may be filed during the term or “before the end of the next term,” while the catalog requires Step I within 15 business days — work to the shorter. In the MS in Counseling, a third C or any D or F means automatic dismissal, with no reapplication to that program. See professionalism and fitness concerns.

What a student defense lawyer can do here

Most of the value is early and quiet: reading National Louis’s policy against what the university actually did; writing the response or appeal on the grounds the policy recognizes rather than the ones that feel most unfair; preserving Title IX, Section 504, ADA and FERPA issues 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 National Louis two moves matter. First, if the outcome is suspension or dismissal, confirm in writing who imposed it: the rules reserve the most serious sanctions to the President, and a letter from anyone else is worth questioning before the five-business-day window closes. Second, in the PsyD and counseling programs, counsel cannot sit at the committee table, so the work is the written submission due 48 hours before the meeting and preparing you to speak for yourself.

The limit: there is no discovery, the rules of evidence do not apply, and an investigator decides conduct cases on what is in the file — so the written record is the whole case if a court ever looks at it.

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 National Louis’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 business days. Conduct appeal: five. Sexual misconduct appeal: five. Academic honesty hearing petition and appeal: ten. Academic appeal Step I: fifteen, from formal notice.
2. Start an academic appeal the way the catalog requires: file the academic appeals form and contact the person who made the decision.
3. Name your advocate to the Office of Community Standards at least one business day before your interview.
4. If the sanction is suspension or dismissal, ask in writing whether the President imposed it.
5. In ISPP, send your written material to the committee chair more than 48 hours before the meeting.
6. Raise any disability or accommodation issue now; it is a Section 504 and ADA question. The Illinois student defense hub explains the wider framework.

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 National Louis

National Louis University students and families, across all of its campuses, took on $27.6 million in federal Direct Loans in the 2025–26 award year — with 212 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, National Louis University’s most recent published composite score is 3.0 (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, all campuses.

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:

• National University of Health Sciences
• North Central College
• North Park University
• Northeastern Illinois University
• Northern Baptist Theological Seminary
• Northern Illinois University

Common questions about National Louis student cases

How long do I have to appeal a conduct decision at National Louis?

Five business days. The Student Guidebook says “no later than five (5) business days after notification of the decision” and, in the same paragraph, “within five (5) business days of receipt of the outcome” — count from notification to be safe. The Assistant Dean of Students reviews the appeal on four listed grounds, and the decision is final.

Who can dismiss me from National Louis?

For discipline, only the President: the Guidebook reserves dismissal to the President in conduct and sexual misconduct cases, and the catalog does the same for suspension, dismissal and degree rescission for academic dishonesty. Academic dismissal for grades works differently — it follows a failed academic plan, you may return after two terms away, and the college dean’s readmission decision cannot be appealed.

Can I bring a lawyer to a National Louis hearing?

It depends on the process. In conduct cases an advocate may attend for support only. At an academic dishonesty hearing you may appear “with or without an advocate.” In the ISPP committee process a support person “must not act as an attorney.” In a sexual misconduct hearing your advisor conducts the cross-examination questions.

Is using AI academic dishonesty at National Louis?

It can be. The catalog lists using AI tools to write papers or responses “beyond their use for limited editing unless otherwise specified by instructor,” and treats ideas reworded by AI as plagiarism. The instructor’s own written instructions therefore decide most of these cases, and you can contest a finding at a Hearing on Academic Dishonesty.

What happens if I fail a nursing course twice at National Louis?

You are dismissed from the BSN program; the catalog does not allow a third attempt at the same nursing course. Failing any one component — didactic, lab or clinical — also means administrative withdrawal from every component of that course for the term. A dismissal can be challenged under the Policy on Academic Appeals, starting within 15 business days.