Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership: Student Discipline, Dismissal & Federal Court

How do student discipline and dismissal cases work at Spertus?

Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership is a private graduate school of Jewish studies and Jewish professional leadership at 610 South Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Cook County, accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. It offers master’s degrees in Jewish Professional Studies and Jewish Studies and two doctorates, taught online and in seminars at its Chicago building, in what it calls “a welcoming nondenominational environment open to all.” Its student handbook contains a clause few colleges write: in grievance proceedings “the student has the right of self-representation, as well as the right to be represented by a party of his or her choice.” Its 2025 security report, though, describes the advisor’s role in two other ways, and the three statements do not agree.

Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership 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 Spertus 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 Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership 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 Spertus 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.

The rulebook: a 2021 handbook Spertus still links

Spertus’s Safety and Security page links its Student Handbook and says the rules on “grievances and complaints” are on pages 19 and 25. The edition it links is marked “Effective Fall 2021.” If you enrolled later, ask the Academic Office in writing whether another edition governs, and keep the answer. Two other statements in that handbook frame everything below. It says that neither the handbook nor enrollment “constitute a contract or an offer of a contract,” and it reserves “the right to require a student to withdraw from Spertus for cause at any time.” Spertus’s funding page adds that it “is no longer participating in the Federal Direct Loan Program,” which is one of the facts behind the federal-law question above.

Misconduct and sanctions: wide discretion, no hearing described

The handbook lists eleven acts of misconduct, in a list it says “does not represent an all-inclusive list”: dishonesty, “such as cheating or furnishing false information to Spertus”; forgery or misuse of records; obstructing teaching, administration or “disciplinary procedures”; physical abuse or endangering conduct; theft or damage; unauthorized entry; drugs; lewd conduct; violating published policies; failing to follow staff directions; and “Harassing or discriminatory conduct.” Authority over conduct is “vested in the President,” who delegates to the Dean and Chief Academic Officer, program directors, the Academic Office, faculty and staff. More on conduct code defense is on its own page.

Sanctions run from admonition and a written warning through disciplinary probation and restitution to suspension “not to exceed two years” and expulsion, which is recorded permanently and noted on the transcript. “The sanction to be administered is at the sole discretion of Spertus officials.” The handbook describes no hearing, no notice period and no standard of proof for any of this. The only published route for contesting a disciplinary action is the grievance procedure.

The grievance procedure — and the right to representation

A student who “takes issue with any disciplinary action, evaluation, or decision regarding his or her status” presents the grievance first in writing to the faculty member or administrator directly responsible. “If differences are not resolved within thirty days of the first written grievance,” the student may appeal in writing to the Dean and Chief Academic Officer, whose judgment, “after deliberating with all parties concerned, is considered final.” The handbook does not say whether those are calendar or business days, and it sets no outer deadline for the appeal — so file promptly anyway. Grievances against a staff or faculty member go straight to the Dean. On discrimination, the President is the final authority; on academic issues, the Dean.

Then the clause that sets Spertus apart: in grievance proceedings brought by or against an individual student, the student may represent themselves or “be represented by a party of his or her choice.” Nothing in the handbook limits who that party may be. Invoke it in writing, at the start, naming the person.

Grades, plagiarism and academic standing

The grade appeal has an unusual feature. After discussing the grade with the instructor, a student who still believes it was given in error, or was not fairly determined, or reflects discrimination may petition the Dean and Chief Academic Officer in writing. If the Dean finds merit, the disputed work “will be sent to an objective third party” in the field, whose opinion goes to the Dean, whose decision “is final in all cases of grade appeal.” No deadline is published; act within the term. See grade appeals.

Plagiarism is “always a serious matter”; the penalty is at the instructor’s discretion and “may include a failing grade for the course,” and the Dean may add suspension or expulsion. To stay in good standing a student must keep at least a B-minus average (2.7); below it comes academic probation, and “Continued poor scholarship during succeeding quarters may lead to dismissal.” The appeal route is short: “Students may appeal their standing by consulting with the Program Director.” Other rules can end a program quietly — no more than three Incompletes held beyond a year, the right to record NC for any Incomplete held over a year, one absence per module in the cohort-based MAJPS, and a five-year expectation for Jewish Studies master’s degrees. See academic misconduct and academic probation.

Sexual misconduct: three statements about who may stand with you

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). Spertus’s 2025 Annual Security Report names the Vice President and Chief Academic Officer as Title IX Coordinator and says determinations in sexual and relationship violence cases use the standard of whether a violation is “more likely than not.” On advisors, it says two different things. One passage gives each side an advisor of choice “(including legal counsel)” at any meeting, hearings included, if the college is told at least two business days ahead, while adding that the advisor “does not have a speaking or otherwise active role.” Another passage says the Student Handbook allows each side “one person who has had no formal legal training” at the hearing — a rule that does not appear in the Fall 2021 handbook Spertus posts, whose harassment section describes only an investigation in which the accused is “informed of the complaint and given an opportunity to respond.” Ask the Title IX Coordinator in writing which procedure and which advisor rule apply. More on Title IX and sexual misconduct is on its own page.

What a student defense lawyer can do here

Most of the value is early and quiet. It is reading Spertus’s policy against what it 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.

Two moves are specific to Spertus. First, the handbook’s representation clause is unusually open, and it should be invoked in writing at the first step of any grievance, so that the Dean’s deliberation “with all parties concerned” includes your representative. Second, in a grade dispute the petition should be built to earn the outside review the handbook offers — pointing to the published grading criteria and showing why a neutral reader in the field would grade the work differently.

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 Spertus 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 Spertus’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 Spertus that rule is written three ways — a party of your choice in grievances, legal counsel without a speaking role in the 2025 security report, and a person without legal training in the same report’s summary of the handbook — so get the answer that applies to your case in writing before the first meeting.

What to do first

1. Put the grievance in writing now. The thirty days before you may go to the Dean run from your first written grievance, so a conversation does not start the clock.
2. Save the handbook Spertus links, with the date visible, and ask the Academic Office in writing whether a later edition governed when the events happened.
3. Name your representative in writing, quoting the handbook’s “party of his or her choice” clause.
4. Ask what you are charged with and what is proposed. The handbook lists the acts and sanctions but no notice procedure, so request the specific act, the evidence and the sanction under consideration by email.
5. Raise disability early. The handbook sends accommodation requests to the Spertus Academic Office; if a condition explains the grades or attendance, that is a Section 504 and ADA question for the record now. See also 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:

• Taylor Business Institute
• Telshe Yeshiva Chicago
• Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago
• University of Chicago
• University of Illinois Chicago
• University of Illinois Chicago School of Law

Common questions about Spertus student cases

Can I bring a lawyer to a Spertus grievance or disciplinary matter?

The handbook says that in grievance proceedings the student has the right “to be represented by a party of his or her choice,” with no limit on who that may be. For sexual and relationship violence cases, the 2025 security report allows an advisor “(including legal counsel)” with no speaking role, but elsewhere says the handbook allows only a companion “who has had no formal legal training.” Ask in writing which rule applies.

How do I appeal a grade at Spertus?

Talk to the instructor first. If the grade stands, submit a written petition to the Dean and Chief Academic Officer. If the Dean finds merit, the work is sent to an objective third party in the field, whose opinion goes back to the Dean, and the Dean’s decision is final. No deadline is published, so file within the term and keep copies of every graded assignment.

Can Spertus dismiss me for low grades?

Yes. A student must keep at least a B-minus average (2.7); below it comes academic probation, and “Continued poor scholarship during succeeding quarters may lead to dismissal.” The handbook’s appeal route is to consult the Program Director, and it publishes no deadline or hearing. Put your explanation and plan in writing to the Program Director as soon as you are placed on probation.

What standard of proof does Spertus use?

For sexual and relationship violence, the 2025 security report says violations are decided on whether they are “more likely than not.” For other misconduct, the handbook publishes no standard of proof at all, and says sanctions are “at the sole discretion of Spertus officials.” That silence is worth raising in any grievance that disputes the facts.

Does Title IX apply to Spertus?

That depends on facts worth confirming early: whether Spertus receives federal financial assistance — it says it is “no longer participating in the Federal Direct Loan Program” — and, if it is religiously controlled, whether it claims the exemptions some statutes allow. Its 2025 security report still names a Title IX Coordinator and a complaint route, so file any complaint there in writing and keep the record.