Metropolitan State University of Denver Student Defense Lawyer

MSU Denver students often reach me at the worst possible moment: mid-degree, working, sometimes supporting a family, and holding a letter that threatens the whole plan. The cases are academic misconduct referrals, conduct charges, and program-level decisions about continued enrollment. What they share is a short window and a process that is written down and worth reading before you answer it.

How do student discipline and dismissal cases work at MSU Denver?

MSU Denver is a public university, so the Fourteenth Amendment applies. Under Goss v. Lopez, 419 U.S. 565 (1975), a disciplinary suspension requires notice and an opportunity to respond, and longer separations require more. Academic decisions draw deference instead: under Board of Curators of the University of Missouri v. Horowitz, 435 U.S. 78 (1978) and Regents of the University of Michigan v. Ewing, 474 U.S. 214 (1985), a court will not disturb a faculty judgment unless it departs so substantially from accepted academic norms that professional judgment was not actually exercised. The practical upshot is familiar: the strongest argument is usually that the university did not follow its own published procedure, which is the ordinary shape of due process at a public institution rather than a constitutional showdown.

Where do MSU Denver cases come from?

The Dean of Students Office runs Student Conduct and administers the Student Code of Conduct. Academic misconduct is defined to include cheating, plagiarism, and submitting the same work for different classes, and MSU Denver amended its academic misconduct process beginning in fall 2025: cases are meant to resolve more quickly, faculty may participate in the investigation alongside the Dean of Students Office, and the two collaborate on outcomes. Faculty retain full decision-making authority over grade outcomes, while the Dean of Students Office assigns educational and status outcomes.

That split is the detail to plan around. Grade consequences and status consequences are decided by different people under the same process, so a resolution that addresses only the grade can leave a conduct record open, and a resolution that addresses only the record can leave the grade untouched. Separately, MSU Denver shares the downtown Auraria Campus with CU Denver and the Community College of Denver, and its health-related departments — consolidated in the Gina and Frank Day Health Institute, spanning nursing, nutrition, behavioral health, physical therapy, and social work — apply program-level progression standards on top of university policy.

Which process are you in, and why does that matter?

Know your track before responding. An academic misconduct referral, a student conduct charge, and an academic dismissal or suspension decision have different decision-makers and different appeal routes, and a Title IX or discrimination complaint is separate again. Health-program students should also read nursing school dismissal, because a clinical or fitness concern can end enrollment without any disciplinary finding at all.

What should you do first?

Pull the current Student Code of Conduct and the current academic misconduct procedure from MSU Denver rather than from a summary, including this one — the process changed in 2025, so an older PDF is worse than useless. Read your syllabus alongside it. Calendar the deadline in writing, request the file the university is relying on, and preserve drafts, version history, and messages before they age out. Do not sit for an interview until you understand what the evidence is.

What does MSU Denver’s own policy actually say?

MSU Denver runs conduct through the Dean of Students Office under the Student Code of Conduct, and the edition question matters here: the file the university serves as the current code is named CURRENT-Student-Code-of-Conduct.pdf, sits in the site’s 2025/08 upload folder, and opens with the line “STUDENT CODE OF CONDUCT 2024-2025.” An appeal is due within five working days of the decision under Article IV, Section F. The standard is a preponderance of the evidence. Both parties may bring any advisor or support person they choose, at their own expense, to any meeting in the conduct process, and the code states that the advisor may be an attorney; the advisor “serves in a supportive role for the party and cannot speak on behalf of the student” unless the Conduct Administrator or University Legal Counsel directs otherwise. There is a notice rule: the student must tell the Conduct Administrator of an advisor at least three business days before the meeting, with name, phone, and email.

• Conduct office: Dean of Students Office — Student Conduct
• Governing policy: Student Code of Conduct — no policy number; the file served as current is titled “STUDENT CODE OF CONDUCT 2024-2025” on its first line
• Academic integrity: Academic Misconduct — academic responsibilities are inside the Student Code of Conduct, with an Academic Misconduct Guide for Students and an amended process effective Fall 2025
• Appeal window: Five (5) working days of the decision, under Article IV, Section F. A permanent grade of F is challenged separately under the Grade Appeal Policy administered by Academic Affairs, on a deadline the Code does not publish.
• Standard of proof: Preponderance of evidence — more likely than not that a violation occurred
• Advisor: Any advisor or support person of the party’s choosing at any meeting, at the party’s own expense, expressly including an attorney; the advisor may not speak for the student unless directed by the Conduct Administrator or University Legal Counsel. The student must give the Conduct Administrator the advisor’s name, phone, and email at least three (3) business days before the meeting.
• Title IX / equal opportunity: Office of Equal Opportunity
• Disability accommodations: Access Center

Two traps sit close together. The three-business-day advisor notice runs against the meeting, so a student who finds help the night before attends alone. And the finding and the grade travel on separate tracks: winning a conduct appeal does not disturb a permanent F, which has to be challenged under the Grade Appeal Policy through Academic Affairs on its own timetable. The code also conditions an academic misconduct appeal on the student still being enrolled in the course where it happened.

What can a student defense lawyer do here?

A federal claim arising at MSU Denver — Title IX, Section 504 and the ADA, or Fourteenth Amendment due process — is filed in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado, where I am admitted to the bar. That court grants no pro hac vice admission at all: a lawyer is either a member of its bar or cannot appear there.

• Reading the governing policy against the charge or decision letter
• Helping you prepare your account, your documents, and your questions
• Testing whether MSU Denver followed its own published procedures
• Scrutinizing software-based evidence, including AI-detection and similarity reports
• Assisting with the written response and appeal, to the extent the policy permits
• Serving as your advisor where the process allows it
• Negotiating sanction terms, notations, and disclosure language

What a lawyer may actually do in your case depends on that school’s policy. Some tracks permit an advisor of choice who may be an attorney, some permit a non-participating advisor, and some permit no outside person at all. Reading the current policy is the first step, because it determines what form the assistance can take.

Common questions about MSU Denver student cases

Who decides my grade if I am found responsible?

The faculty member. Under the current process, faculty retain full decision-making authority over grade outcomes, and the Dean of Students Office assigns educational and status outcomes. Two conversations, two decision-makers — and a settlement with one of them does not bind the other.

Can I just explain what happened to my professor?

You can, but do it knowing that faculty may participate in the investigation alongside the Dean of Students Office and that what you say becomes part of the record. An explanation offered before you have read the policy and seen the evidence is usually the most damaging document in the file.

Will this follow me to a transfer or graduate application?

Possibly. Status outcomes and transcript notations are not the same thing, and disclosure questions on transfer, graduate, and licensure applications are broader than what a transcript shows. Sanction and notation language is often negotiable even where the finding is not.

Related Colorado pages: CU Denver, Regis University, University of Denver, and University of Northern Colorado. The full list is on the Colorado student defense page.

This is general information about the matters I handle and the law that applies to them. It is not legal advice about your situation, and the law in this area can change. For advice on your matter, start with the Full Read + Game Plan — your entire file read, straight answers, and exactly what to do next, in what order.

This page is informational and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the institution named on it.

Attorney advertising. Zachary Gaynor is licensed to practice law in Florida and is admitted to the bars of the United States District Courts for the Southern, Middle, and Northern Districts of Florida, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, and the United States District Courts for 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. Federal court admission is not a license to practice the law of the state in which the court sits; he is not licensed in Colorado and does not advise on Colorado state law. Colorado matters are handled through the framework described on the nationwide practice page — federal-law assessment, campus-process support where the school’s policy permits an advisor, federal litigation in the District of Colorado, and association with Colorado counsel where a state-court proceeding is required.

One Colorado-specific point worth knowing before you hire anyone: the District of Colorado grants no pro hac vice admission, so a lawyer is either already a member of that court’s bar or cannot file your case there at all. Here is what that means in practice.