UCF’s Conduct Letters, Decoded: Z Designations, CREED, Sealing, and the 30-Day Court Deadline

Last reviewed November 3, 2026

Letters from UCF’s Office of Student Conduct and Academic Integrity (SCAI) are built from standard templates: informal resolution letters, formal hearing outcome letters, academic integrity versions, a not-in-violation letter, and appeal approval and denial letters. Each standard paragraph carries a meaning and often a deadline. In short, there are ten business days to appeal inside UCF, and after the appeal is decided, thirty days to go to court.

Which letter is it?

• “Resolution Agreement” (informal). The student accepted responsibility at an informal resolution conference. Under UCF-5.009 and UCF-5.015 those outcomes are final and cannot be appealed.
• Formal hearing outcome letter. The SCAI director accepted a panel’s or hearing officer’s proposed findings and sanctions. This starts the ten-business-day appeal window.
• Academic integrity versions. Same as above, plus Z designation language and a line saying SCAI will report the outcome under UCF-5.015. That report goes to the instructor and department chair (and, for graduate students, the college and the College of Graduate Studies), who can then consider separate course or program action.
• Not in violation. “You do not have a disciplinary record regarding this incident.” Worth keeping permanently.
• Appeal approved or denied. The end of UCF’s internal process, and the letter says so.

The sanction list

The sanctions appear in bold. Disciplinary status runs warning, probation, deferred suspension, suspension, dismissal, expulsion, and only a warning leaves the student in good standing. Educational sanctions (reflection papers, decision-making exercises, referrals, apology letters) come with deadlines, and the letter says missing one “will constitute further violation(s),” meaning a new case.

“A letter will be mailed to your parent(s)/guardian(s)”

Some outcome letters include a paragraph saying that, under UCF’s parental and guardian notification policy, a letter will be mailed to the student’s parents. The template marks it for use only on certain letters. When it appears, the family is likely to hear about the case.

The Z designation

For academic misconduct, the letter explains that a Z will appear on the transcript next to the course grade. UCF-5.015 makes it permanent if the sanction is deferred suspension or more, or if it is the student’s second academic misconduct finding. It does not affect the GPA, but grade forgiveness does not remove it, and it takes the student off the Dean’s and President’s lists for that semester. Graduate and professional schools, employers, and licensing boards that request transcripts will see it. The only way to remove it is CREED.

CREED: the second look

Many outcome letters say that after one semester of probation, deferred suspension, or suspension, and after all educational sanctions are complete, the student may apply to UCF’s Community ReEngagement and Educational Development (CREED) program to reduce their status, or, for a Z, once the suspension period is over. The application includes a values exercise, a creed exercise, a “10-10-10” decision-making exercise, and a “Telling Your Story” exercise, followed by a meeting with a small committee.

UCF’s training for CREED reviewers is instructive. Reviewers are told they are “NOT looking for remorse.” They look for whether the student has “taken positive steps to be a productive member of the UCF Community,” and they are told not to re-hear the incident. Under UCF-5.010, students found responsible for Title IX or sex-based misconduct are ineligible, as are students whose violation SCAI decides had a substantially negative impact on others. Applications are limited to once a semester, and there is no appeal.

Sealing

The letters also mention sealing. A minor incident that did not lead to suspension, dismissal, or expulsion can be sealed, and SCAI’s website says the request is made during the student’s last semester. The director weighs severity, community impact, the sanctions, whether they were completed, and the student’s ethical development. There is no appeal.

The appeal paragraph: ten business days, three grounds

Formal outcome letters allow ten business days from notification to file UCF’s appeal form. Under UCF-5.010 there are three grounds, and no others:

1. Irregularities in fairness or stated procedures that could have affected the outcome.
2. New and significant information that could not reasonably have been discovered or presented at the hearing.
3. Sanctions that are extraordinarily disproportionate to the violation.

The appeal must state the grounds, the supporting facts, and the remedy requested. The regulation says it is not a re-hearing and that an appeal filed simply out of dissatisfaction, or without full detail, will be denied. Filing an appeal suspends the sanctions while it is pending.

The denial letter

UCF’s standard denial wording repeats the three grounds, notes that the appellate officer may deny, alter the sanctions, or return the case for a new hearing, and then states that “the sanctions issued in this case are not extraordinarily disproportionate to the violations” and that the appeal “is therefore without merit.” It closes with “Each student in a conduct situation is treated individually.”

That standard wording speaks to the third ground. Where an appeal raised procedural irregularity or new information, it is worth reading the decision closely to see whether it responds to what was actually argued.

The 30-day paragraph

Both the approval and denial letters end the same way. The student may seek judicial review of the final university decision under Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure 9.190(b)(3) by filing a petition for writ of certiorari in the appropriate circuit court within thirty days, with a copy to UCF’s Office of the General Counsel.

Florida’s appellate courts have recognized this route for UCF specifically. A state university disciplining a student acts under its constitutional authority, not as an agency under the Administrative Procedure Act, so review is by certiorari in the circuit court rather than a direct appeal. See Couchman v. University of Central Florida, 84 So. 3d 445 (Fla. 5th DCA 2012); Decker v. University of West Florida, 85 So. 3d 571 (Fla. 1st DCA 2012).

Certiorari is not a new hearing. The circuit court considers whether the student received procedural due process, whether the university observed the essential requirements of law, and whether its findings are supported by competent, substantial evidence. Wiggins v. Florida Department of Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles, 209 So. 3d 1165 (Fla. 2017) (quoting Haines City Community Development v. Heggs, 658 So. 2d 523 (Fla. 1995)). The court works from the record made at UCF. Decker also shows that which letter counts as the final decision can matter when counting the thirty days.

The bottom line

A UCF letter usually starts at least one clock: the ten-business-day appeal, an educational sanction due date, or the thirty-day court window. The parent-notification paragraph, the Z language, and the CREED and sealing lines are the parts that decide what follows a student after the case ends. The UCF page covers the full process, what UCF teaches its conduct board covers the hearing itself, and what actually follows you covers records more generally.

This post describes UCF’s standard letters and published regulations in general terms. It is not legal advice, and every case turns on its own facts and the version of the rules in effect.