Saint Anthony College of Nursing: Student Discipline, Dismissal & Federal Court

How do student discipline and dismissal cases work at Saint Anthony?

Saint Anthony College of Nursing is a private Catholic college of nursing in Rockford, in Winnebago County, affiliated with OSF HealthCare. It is an upper-division college — students arrive with two years of college work and complete the junior and senior years of the BSN — and it also offers the MSN and DNP. The Higher Learning Commission accredits the College, the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education accredits its nursing programs, and the state approves its pre-licensure BSN. Its rules are short and severe. Under its dismissal policy the College “reserves the right to dismiss” a student for “Academic failure in any course,” and “A student dismissed from the program will not be eligible for readmission.” The appeal that stands between those two sentences must be filed within seven business days — by 4 PM on the seventh day for a grade appeal — and no lawyer may come into the room.

Saint Anthony College of Nursing 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 Saint Anthony 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 Saint Anthony College of Nursing is filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois — Winnebago County sits in its Western Division under 28 U.S.C. § 93(a), and the statute fixes the places of holding court for that division at Freeport and Rockford. 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 Saint Anthony 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.

One failed course can be enough

The rules are in the College Catalog, dated August 2026. Undergraduates need a C or better in every course; a D, F or W-F is unsatisfactory and the course must be repeated, and every course with a clinical or laboratory component in a semester must be completed before you progress. Simulation, lab and clinical performance are graded pass or fail, you must pass every component, and undergraduates must average 78% or higher on tests and exams to be eligible to pass a course at all. Graduate students need a B or better.

A grade below C, or a cumulative average below 2.0, means academic probation, which lasts until the failed course is retaken and passed, and the next semester must reach a 2.0. “More than one probation is grounds for dismissal from the College.” The dismissal policy, Policy 438, then lists the grounds: academic failure in any course, a second probation, a second W-F, a cumulative average below 2.0 (3.0 for graduate students), unsafe nursing practice, falsified records, dishonest or unethical practice, academic dishonesty, and conduct that “brings discredit to the College or profession.” The two sections pull against each other. The probation rules assume a student who fails a course retakes it; the dismissal policy reserves the power to dismiss for that same single failure. When the College chooses dismissal over the probation path, the appeal should make it explain why — and because a dismissed student is never readmitted, that appeal is the whole case. See nursing school dismissal.

Integrity cases go to the progression committees. Suspected plagiarism, cheating and other integrity violations go to the Undergraduate or Graduate Admission and Progression Committee, and “Once plagiarism, cheating, or other personal and academic integrity violations have been verified, the applicable committee will assign sanctions,” up to dismissal. The catalog publishes no standard of proof, no hearing format and no advisor rule for that step. Clinical conduct carries its own risks: a faculty member, preceptor or manager with “reasonable cause” may stop you and require drug or alcohol testing, and “Refusal to test will be construed as a positive test.” A leave of absence may not exceed one full year, and you must give written notice of your return six weeks before it ends.

The appeal: seven business days, 4 PM, no lawyer in the room

Policy 444, the Student Appeal Process, covers final course and clinical grades that cause a failure, probation or dismissal, and disciplinary actions and dismissals. It runs on business days, defined as “weekdays during the weeks when the institution is in session,” with holidays and closures excluded. Every appeal starts informally: a conference with the faculty member or other person involved “within 5 business days” of the notice or grade posting, with both sides keeping their own notes.

Grade and standing appeals. The Academic Appeal Petition goes to the program dean or coordinator “within 7 business days following the official notification of the course grade,” and the process “is considered waived if the student fails to submit the petition by 4 PM on the 7th day.” The burden is on you, and “The professional judgment of faculty members cannot be challenged.” What you can challenge is grading that was arbitrary, discriminatory or capricious — and the catalog defines capricious to include a grade “awarded using a more exacting standard than other students are held to” or one that “represents a substantial departure from the instructor’s standards announced during the first part of the term.” Three faculty members appointed by the President hear the appeal, meeting within ten business days. Whether you may speak is at the committee’s discretion, “Neither the student nor faculty have the right to legal counsel during the academic appeal meeting,” and guests wait in the lobby. While a grade appeal is pending you may attend only the first session of the next course — no further classes, labs or clinicals.

Disciplinary appeals and the last step. A disciplinary appeal goes to the President within seven business days and is heard by an elected Judicial Committee, which the policy says the President convenes “within 7 business days” and, a page later, “must meet within 10 business days.” The same no-counsel rule applies. Either committee’s decision may be taken to the President on a Post-Appeal Petition “within 3 business days,” and the President decides within five business days; that is “the final level of student appeal.” See grade disputes and grade appeals.

Sexual misconduct and the Title IX hearing

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). And as Saint Anthony’s own policy reflects, the 2020 regulation requires postsecondary institutions to hold a live hearing at which each party’s advisor conducts cross-examination. The College’s Title IX policy, printed in the 2026 Annual Security Report, gives each party an advisor of choice — “an advocate, attorney, friend or family member” — who “may not participate in the College’s investigation”; at the hearing, questioning of the other party and witnesses happens “by and only through their respective advisor,” and the College supplies an advisor on request. The Hearing Committee presumes the respondent not responsible and decides on a preponderance of the evidence. An appeal goes to the President “within five (5) business days of receiving the Hearing Committee’s written determination,” on bias, new evidence, procedural irregularity or a disproportionate sanction, and the President’s decision, due within ten business days, is final. The Title IX Coordinator is the Dean of Support Services, a post shared with Saint Francis Medical Center College of Nursing.

What a student defense lawyer can do here

Most of the value is early and quiet. It is reading Saint Anthony’s policy against what the College 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 Saint Anthony two moves are specific. First, a grade appeal must be framed as one of the catalog’s defined errors — a departure from the syllabus, or a standard stricter than other students faced — never as disagreement with “professional judgment,” which the policy says will not be heard; that means gathering the syllabus, rubrics and the treatment of classmates before the seventh day. Second, because no lawyer may attend the appeal meeting and the student may not even be invited to speak, the petition is the hearing: it has to carry the facts, the documents and the argument on its own.

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 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 Saint Anthony’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. Calendar both clocks today. The informal conference is due within five business days and the formal petition within seven, by 4 PM on the seventh day for a grade appeal. Count only weekdays in weeks the College is in session, and file early anyway.
2. Request the informal conference in writing and keep your own record of what was said; the policy expects “independent documentation” from both sides.
3. Assemble the comparison. Syllabus, rubrics, exam scores, clinical evaluations and anything showing how other students were graded — the capricious-grading definition turns on it.
4. Save the August 2026 College Catalog and Policies 438 and 444 as they stood when your grade was posted or the action was taken.
5. Raise any disability with the ADA Coordinator now. A condition that affected your performance is a Section 504 and ADA question that belongs in the petition, not after it. The Illinois student defense hub explains how the federal courts fit in.

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:

• Saint Xavier University
• School of the Art Institute of Chicago
• Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership
• Taylor Business Institute
• Telshe Yeshiva Chicago
• Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago

Common questions about Saint Anthony student cases

How long do I have to appeal a grade or dismissal at Saint Anthony?

Seven business days from the official notification to file the formal petition — and for a grade appeal the right is waived if the petition is not in by 4 PM on the seventh day. Before that, you must hold an informal conference within five business days. After the committee decides, you have three business days to petition the President. Business days count only weekdays in weeks the College is in session.

Can I bring a lawyer to my Saint Anthony appeal?

Not into the appeal meeting. Policy 444 says “Neither the student nor faculty have the right to legal counsel during the academic appeal meeting,” guests wait in the lobby, and the committee decides whether you speak at all. A lawyer can still help you write the petition, which is usually the whole case. In a Title IX hearing your advisor may be an attorney and conducts the questioning.

Can Saint Anthony dismiss me for failing one course?

Its dismissal policy says it can: Policy 438 reserves the right to dismiss for “Academic failure in any course,” as well as for a second probation or a second W-F. The probation rules, by contrast, assume a failed course is retaken. If you face dismissal after a single failure, the appeal should press the College to explain why the probation path was not used.

Can I be readmitted after dismissal from Saint Anthony?

Not under the current catalog: “A student dismissed from the program will not be eligible for readmission.” That makes the appeal of the dismissal decision, and the post-appeal petition to the President, the only route back. A leave of absence of up to one full year is different — return depends on the conditions the program dean set when the leave was granted.

What standard of proof does Saint Anthony use?

For Title IX cases, the preponderance of the evidence, with a presumption that the respondent is not responsible. For academic and disciplinary appeals the burden is on the student, who must show the decision was arbitrary, capricious, discriminatory or in error. For integrity violations decided by the Admission and Progression Committee, the catalog publishes no standard at all.