University of Saint Mary of the Lake (Mundelein Seminary): Student Discipline, Dismissal & Federal Court

How do student discipline and dismissal cases work at Mundelein Seminary?

The University of Saint Mary of the Lake (USML) is the Roman Catholic seminary and school of theology of the Archdiocese of Chicago, in Mundelein, Lake County. It grants degrees through Mundelein Seminary, a residential graduate seminary that forms men for the diocesan priesthood under the U.S. bishops’ Program of Priestly Formation; the School of Parish Leadership and Evangelization (SPLE), for lay students and deacon candidates; and a Pontifical Faculty of Theology. Its accreditor, the Commission on Accrediting of the Association of Theological Schools, lists it as accredited in good standing for a period that runs to July 31, 2032, and USML says its seminarians come from about thirty dioceses. The rule that matters most is one sentence in the catalog: the seminary may “require the withdrawal of any seminarian at any time” who fails to show “academic ability, formational progress, earnestness of purpose, or active cooperation” — and USML publishes no hearing, deadline or appeal for that decision.

The University of Saint Mary of the Lake 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 USML 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 the University of Saint Mary of the Lake is filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois — Lake 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 USML 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.

“At any time”: how a seminarian leaves Mundelein

The catalog’s Academic Policies set two academic triggers. First, “a seminarian whose G.P.A. falls below the minimum of 2.5 in a semester is placed on seminary probation for the following semester,” and seminarians “failing to improve are subject to dismissal unless there are extenuating circumstances.” Second, a seminarian who fails more than one required course in a single semester — “whether or not this triggers probation” — or fails a required course in one semester and another in the next is “automatically subject to a review board and possible dismissal from the formation program.”

The same paragraph then reaches past grades: the seminary may “refuse to admit or readmit any student at any time,” and may require withdrawal for want of “formational progress” or “active cooperation in all the requirements for acceptable formation.” What the catalog never publishes is a procedure — who sits on a review board, what notice a seminarian gets, whether he may answer in writing or in person or bring anyone, what standard applies, or whether he can appeal. For everything non-academic it points elsewhere: “Non-academic questions for seminarians are addressed by the Dean of Formation,” under a Seminarian Handbook that USML does not post publicly. Facing a review board, your copy of that handbook is the first document to find; if you have none, ask for it in writing. The academic dismissal page explains how these decisions are challenged.

A seminarian also answers to his sponsoring diocese. Students for dioceses other than Chicago must have “the sponsorship of their Ordinary”; grades go, once he signs a release, to his Ordinary, vocation director and formation advisor; and the Ordinary and vocation director head the catalog’s list of people authorized to see his records. International seminarians should know one more line of the admission policy: “Dioceses are responsible for maintaining their international students’ immigration status.” A withdrawal can therefore also become an immigration and SEVIS question.

SPLE students live under different numbers. Probation follows a cumulative GPA below 3.0, with possible restrictions from required courses to exclusion from internships; it is “in general” limited to one term; and a student may be placed on probation only once — a second shortfall may lead instead to “suspension or dismissal.” In the Master of Arts in Pastoral Studies, “Failure to meet expectations in either the academic or the formation area may be grounds for dismissal from the program.”

Your file, your bishop, and the Rector’s presence

USML’s “Access to Files” rule is unusual. A request to see your own file goes to the Rector-President, and you see it “in the presence of the Rector President.” Material “placed in the file under the promise of confidentiality” is shown only with its author’s permission or with identifying details removed, and you “cannot photocopy any portion of the record” without permission. USML’s FERPA annual notice promises inspection “within 45 days after the day the USML receives an access request,” and its FERPA policy has the Rector decide an objection to a record’s accuracy “within 45 days of receiving the objection.” Neither says whether those are calendar or business days.

You may add “a written comment or rebuttal” to the file, and the catalog says you “may take appropriate canonical or civil legal action to remove any factually incorrect information.” Because your Ordinary and vocation director may read the file, use the rebuttal right early and in measured language. More on education-records rights is on its own page.

Drinking, the diocese and “formation probation”: the one public page of the rulebook

The only public window into how Mundelein handles conduct is an unlikely one. Its Clery Act/Title IX page links a 2022 report filed under the Preventing Sexual Violence in Higher Education Act, and that report includes two pages from what appears to be the seminary’s rule of life — section 5.6.10, “Alcohol Policy.” A seminarian may keep “a small amount of alcohol in his room”; repeated use that “betrays his avowed purpose” makes him “liable to a specific review of his suitability for orders”; and bars are off-limits after 8 p.m.: “Any seminarian who does so is liable to expulsion.” Seminarians who see excessive drinking “are obliged to notify the Dean of Formation.”

The protocol is the closest thing USML publishes to a conduct procedure. The Dean of Formation investigates and speaks with the seminarian; in a case of warranted concern the Rector “will notify the diocese of the concern”; a seminary counselor assesses him; he must follow the Dean’s recommendations, and “Violation of the recommendation may be cause for dismissal.” Serious cases bring “formation probation,” and a note “chronicling any of these events” goes into his file. The excerpt is plainly a working copy — it still carries an internal note asking that one line be verified — so treat it as evidence of design, not the current rule, and ask for the handbook in force.

Academic integrity, AI, and the only published complaint route

The 2026–2027 catalog, issued in July 2026, rewrote the integrity rule for generative AI: “Any dependence on or use of other works, including AI, must be clearly noted,” and a faculty member who restricts AI tools “will state so in their syllabus.” A student who plagiarizes “will face discipline up to and including dismissal from the program.” That is the whole rule — no reporting step, meeting, standard of proof, hearing or appeal — so the course syllabus, and exactly what it said about AI, is the first document to collect in any AI-related accusation.

The only published route for contesting an academic decision is the general complaint policy. It covers any decision a student believes is “illegal, unjust or creates unnecessary hardship,” can be taken to the area supervisor, an advisor, human resources or the Provost, and promises to “investigate and respond in a timely manner” — with no deadline on either side — before pointing to the Illinois Board of Higher Education’s complaint portal.

Federal aid runs on its own track. The Satisfactory Academic Progress policy requires a 2.000 cumulative GPA and 66 percent completion and gives 30 days from notice of aid suspension to build an Academic Plan with the dean, and 30 days from notice to appeal a continuing shortfall; the Dean of Formation decides seminarians’ appeals, the Provost SPLE students’, and “The decision at that point is final.” The policy does not say whether those are calendar or business days.

Sexual misconduct: what USML actually posts

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).

USML’s own public materials are thin and dated. Its Clery Act/Title IX page links a survivor’s-rights notice — a Word file created in 2017 — that names a Title IX Coordinator and a confidential advisor but leaves blank the list of people with “the authority to make a finding or to impose a sanction,” and says a request to replace a conflicted decision-maker goes to a blank line “within 48 hours upon notice of complaint.” The “comprehensive policy” attached to the 2022 report is an Archdiocese of Chicago employee-handbook policy on sexual harassment, written for employees and supervisors, that acts on “a finding of reasonable evidence.” USML publishes no student hearing procedure, standard of proof, advisor rule or appeal route for these cases, so a party should ask the Title IX Coordinator in writing for the governing procedure before the first interview. More on Title IX cases is on its own page.

What a student defense lawyer can do here

Most of the value is early and quiet. It is reading USML’s catalog, and whatever handbook governs you, 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 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 Mundelein two moves are specific. First, because no review-board procedure is published, the first letter should ask in writing for the rules that will govern — who sits, what the board will consider, whether you may respond in writing and in person, whether there is an appeal — so the seminary commits to a process before it decides. Second, use the file rules deliberately: request inspection under the FERPA notice and add a measured rebuttal wherever a record misstates facts, remembering that your diocese can read what you write.

What a lawyer cannot do is turn a formation decision into a trial. The rules of evidence do not apply, there is no discovery, and the seminary decides its own case at first instance. That is exactly why the written record built during the internal 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 USML’s own rule on that — which it 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. Ask for the rules in writing. Write to the Dean of Formation (seminarians) or the SPLE dean for the current handbook and the procedure that will govern your case: who decides, what you may submit, and whether and when you may appeal.
2. Download the catalog for your year. USML posts its 2026–2027 catalog, and the integrity rule changed this year to cover AI; if your problem began earlier, ask for the edition then in force. Save a PDF with the date visible.
3. Request your file. Put the request to the Rector-President in writing so the 45-day period in USML’s FERPA notice has a start date, then rebut anything factually wrong.
4. Write nothing about the merits until you know the process. Statements to formators can reach your file — the alcohol protocol requires a note in it — and the file is open to your diocese.
5. Raise disability early. USML’s accommodation policy sends requests first to the Director of the Center for Speech and Writing and says anyone not accommodated may report it to “the OEC,” which it never defines. If a condition affected your work or formation, put it in writing now under Section 504 and the ADA.
6. Read the overview. The Illinois student defense hub explains how the federal and state pieces fit together.

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:

• University of St. Francis
• VanderCook College of Music
• Wheaton College
• Worsham College of Mortuary Science
• Adler University
• American Islamic College

Common questions about Mundelein Seminary student cases

Can Mundelein Seminary dismiss me without a hearing?

The catalog does not promise one. It lets the seminary require a seminarian’s withdrawal “at any time” for want of academic ability, formational progress, earnestness of purpose or active cooperation, and two failed required courses in one semester, or in back-to-back semesters, trigger a review board and possible dismissal. It publishes no review-board procedure, notice period or appeal. Ask the Dean of Formation in writing for the procedure before the board meets.

What GPA puts a seminarian on probation at Mundelein?

A semester GPA below 2.5 places a seminarian on seminary probation for the next semester, and one who fails to improve is subject to dismissal unless there are extenuating circumstances. Federal aid uses a lower measure: USML’s satisfactory academic progress policy requires a 2.000 cumulative GPA and 66 percent completion. SPLE graduate students go on probation below a 3.0 cumulative GPA, and only once.

Can I see my seminary file?

Yes, with conditions. You review it in the Rector-President’s presence, may not photocopy it without permission, and see material given in confidence only with the author’s consent or with identifying details removed. USML’s FERPA notice promises inspection within 45 days of a request, without saying calendar or business days. You may add a written rebuttal — and your Ordinary and vocation director may also see the file.

Can I bring a lawyer to a review board or a Title IX meeting?

USML publishes no rule either way for review boards, formation decisions or integrity cases, so ask in writing beforehand. For sexual-misconduct cases, the state’s Preventing Sexual Violence in Higher Education Act gives both parties an advisor of their choice who may be an attorney, though a school may limit that advisor’s role in a hearing. USML publishes no rule on that limit; put the question to the Title IX Coordinator in writing.

How long do I have to appeal at Mundelein Seminary?

For most decisions USML publishes no appeal deadline — not for a review board, a formation withdrawal or an integrity finding. The published deadlines are in the federal-aid policy: 30 days from notice of aid suspension to develop an Academic Plan, and 30 days from notice to appeal a continuing shortfall, with no calendar-or-business-day label. If a letter names a date, treat it as your deadline and put it on your calendar the day it arrives.