University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus Student Defense Lawyer

Students at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus call me about promotion committees, remediation plans, professionalism referrals, failed clerkships, and dismissal. These are not undergraduate conduct cases. A single adverse decision here can cost a residency, delay licensure, and require disclosure for the rest of a career, and the internal timelines are short.

How do student discipline and dismissal cases work at CU Anschutz?

Anschutz is part of 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. Horowitz is worth noting specifically: it arose from the dismissal of a medical student on academic and clinical grounds, and it is the reason a court is far more willing to review how a program reached a decision than whether the faculty’s clinical judgment was right. Because this is one campus of the University of Colorado, a case also sits under system-wide regental policies alongside the campus procedures. Read both. That is the practical center of due process at a public institution in a health-professions case.

Where do CU Anschutz cases come from?

Anschutz, in Aurora, is the largest academic health center in the Rocky Mountain region and houses six schools and colleges: the School of Medicine, the School of Dental Medicine, the College of Nursing, the Colorado School of Public Health, the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, and its own Graduate School, together offering more than forty degree programs. Clinical training runs through the University of Colorado Hospital and Children’s Hospital Colorado, with the Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center across the street.

That structure means most cases begin in a program document rather than in a conduct code. A clerkship evaluation, a competency committee, a professional-standards referral, a remediation agreement, or a promotions decision generates the record, and the campus process reviews it afterward. Dismissal, remediation, and professionalism disputes follow the framework on my medical school dismissal and remediation page, and clinical failures follow clinical rotation and externship failures. Students with pending board examinations should also read USMLE and COMLEX accommodations, because timing an accommodation request against a promotion deadline is its own problem.

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

The label determines what follows. An academic or progression decision draws deference; a disciplinary finding draws procedural scrutiny; a professionalism referral sits uncomfortably between the two and is worth characterizing early. A decision that is disciplinary in substance but processed as academic is the most common structural problem in these cases, and the argument has to be made before the record closes.

What should you do first?

Get the current student handbook, the program’s promotion policy, and any professionalism policy the letter cites from the school itself rather than from a summary, including this one; the edition in force for your cohort governs. Identify any regental policy that applies. Calendar every deadline in writing. Request the complete file, including evaluations and narrative comments. Preserve messages and drafts. Do not meet with a committee before you understand what the evidence is.

What does CU Anschutz’s own policy actually say?

CU Anschutz publishes its conduct and grievance processes through the Office of Student Affairs, with the Office of Student Outreach and Support handling case management. The Student Code of Conduct is dated 6-1-2024, with internal footers reading “Updated 06/2024”; it carries no policy number and is issued under Regent Law Article 7, Part B and Regent Policy 7.B. There is no campus-wide honor code — each school publishes its own, including the Colorado School of Public Health, the Graduate School, and the Skaggs School of Pharmacy. An appeal is due within five Working Days of the date on the Decision Notice letter, and the Appeal Reader transmits a final decision within five Working Days of receiving it. The standard is a preponderance of the information. One Support Person of the student’s choice may attend throughout, expressly including an attorney, but “may not speak on behalf of the Involved Party nor actively participate in the proceeding,” and may not attend without the student present.

• Conduct office: Office of Student Affairs — Student Code of Conduct and Grievance Processes; case management through the Office of Student Outreach and Support
• Governing policy: CU Anschutz Student Code of Conduct, document dated 6-1-2024 with footers reading Updated 06/2024; no policy number, issued under Regent Law Article 7, Part B and Regent Policy 7.B
• Academic integrity: No single campus-wide honor code. Each school or college publishes its own, such as the Colorado School of Public Health Student Academic Honor and Conduct Code, the Graduate School Student Academic Honor Code, and the Skaggs School of Pharmacy Student Ethics and Conduct Code; academic dishonesty is handled there, not centrally.
• Appeal window: Five (5) Working Days of the date on the Decision Notice letter; the Appeal Reader responds within five (5) Working Days of receipt
• Standard of proof: Preponderance of the Information — more likely than not that a student engaged in a prohibited behavior
• Advisor: One Support Person of the student’s choice throughout, who may be a parent, family member, or attorney, but may not be an involved party, witness, or Case Resolution Body member, may not speak for or actively participate on behalf of the student, and may not attend without the student. Witness and document submissions are due three (3) Working Days before the Case Resolution Meeting, exchanged two (2) Working Days before, and five (5) Working Days before a Student Appeal Board.
• Title IX / equal opportunity: Office of Equity (shared with CU Denver)
• Disability accommodations: Office of Disability, Access, and Inclusion

Check which document is actually being applied. Two different PDFs of the code are live on cuanschutz.edu at once, the copy the campus page links carries no cover title or date block, and the table of contents still prints an unresolved Word cross-reference reading “Error! Bookmark not defined.” Save the version served on the day of the decision. Then work backwards from the meeting: the three- and two-Working-Day exchange deadlines arrive well before the five-day appeal does.

What can a student defense lawyer do here?

A federal claim arising at CU Anschutz — 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 CU Anschutz 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.

The School of Medicine runs a separate process

The MD program does not use the University’s student conduct process for academic and professionalism decisions. Promotion, probation and dismissal run through the Student Promotions Committee, where attorneys are expressly excluded from the room and the burden of proof shifts to the student on appeal — while the University’s own conduct code permits an attorney advisor. Two handbooks are currently live with different appeal deadlines. How dismissal and appeals work at CU School of Medicine.

What each Anschutz school counts as grounds for dismissal

The number that ends a program is set by the school, not by the campus. The College of Nursing Student Handbook, Section VI lists academic dismissal grounds as an undergraduate GPA below 2.0 or a graduate GPA below 3.0, failing the same course a second time, failing two separate courses, or violating the college’s Student Honor and Conduct Code or its Professional Role Behaviors policy. A first course failure means automatic academic probation, and an undergraduate on probation must complete a credit-bearing Clinical Progression course before retaking the failed course, with no other nursing courses in between.

The Skaggs School of Pharmacy’s Scholastic Advancement and Appeals Policy, effective Spring 2024, reads like a grid: two grades of F at any point, a third D, three or more D grades in one semester, an F following two D grades, failure to reach a 2.00 cumulative GPA within the time the committee sets, or failure to finish within six calendar years each mean dismissal. The same policy says the school notifies the Colorado State Board of Pharmacy when a student is dismissed. In the School of Dental Medicine, the Academic Policy (revised December 31, 2019, effective January 1, 2020) triggers probation at a semester or cumulative GPA below 2.3, and the Dental Student Performance Subcommittee only recommends; the Dean decides.

Who hears an appeal, and how many days you actually get

Each school runs its own ladder, and the first rung is short. Nursing gives five business days from the dismissal notice to file a petition. The hearing panel is two faculty, one member of the Student Affairs Committee, the relevant Assistant Dean or designee, and the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs or designee. You may bring a support person, who may not speak for you, and the handbook says the outcome of that hearing is final. Reapplying is possible after one year only if the dismissal notice provides for it.

Pharmacy has three tiers. A Tier 1 appeal goes to the Scholastic Advancement and Appeals Committee within two calendar weeks; if it reaches a formal hearing, you may bring an advisor named at least two business days in advance, who “is not permitted to speak.” Tier 2 goes to the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs within seven calendar days, on new information, a process error, or a claim the committee acted arbitrarily, and carries no hearing. Tier 3 goes to the Dean within seven calendar days and is final. Dental works differently again: at least ten business days’ notice of a Special Subcommittee meeting where an advisor or faculty member may speak in support of you, a written decision within two business days after it, then five business days to appeal to the Dean, who names a three-faculty Appeals Review Committee within five business days that must decide within ten.

The Graduate School, and the honor committee your school must have

The Graduate School will not re-decide your program’s academic judgment. Its published policy says it cannot reverse academic decisions made by programs, and limits its role to suspensions and dismissals. You have one week from the written notice to appeal in writing to the Dean of the Graduate School, who normally replies within ten working days, and that decision is final. Colorado School of Public Health students use an academic grievance policy still carrying its 2010 approval date: the hearing committee must be seated within 30 days, each side is interviewed privately and recorded, and the recommendation moves to the Associate Dean and then the Dean in five-working-day steps.

One campus rule ties these together. The Academic Honor and Conduct Code printed in the CU Anschutz Catalog requires every school to keep a standing Student Honor and Conduct Committee of faculty and students to examine alleged violations and recommend to its dean, while expressly directing each school to write its own procedure. That is why two students accused of the same thing in different buildings can get very different processes.

Filing or answering an Office of Equity complaint

The governing document is the Office of Equity Resolution Procedures, effective November 14, 2025 and shared with CU Denver. There is no deadline for reporting. The published timelines are 90 days for evidence gathering, 90 days for the hearing phase, and 30 days for appeal. A live hearing is offered and will be held unless both parties waive it. Each party brings one advisor to conduct cross-examination; you may not question the other party yourself, and if you have no advisor the university appoints one, aiming for at least 14 calendar days before the pre-hearing conference. You get 14 calendar days to respond in writing to the final investigative report. Student sanctions come from a three-member board, one member appointed by the dean of the school the respondent attends. Either party may appeal within seven calendar days of the determination, or of the notice of sanction, on procedural irregularity, new evidence, or conflict of interest. Appeals are documentary, and the appeal officer may not make new findings of fact.

Accommodations, denials, and the two appeals

A denial is reviewed before it ever reaches you: the Office of Disability, Access, and Inclusion has its Assistant Director review every proposed denial automatically. If the denial stands, you have ten business days to appeal to the ODAI Director, who answers within twenty business days, then ten business days to take a second appeal to the Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, who answers within twenty business days and is final. Both appeals are confined to information already before your access coordinator; anything new means re-entering the interactive process instead. Documentation must come from a licensed provider who is not a family member and must identify the diagnosis, the functional limitations, and severity or prognosis. ODAI notes that board-examination requests usually require a psychoeducational evaluation from the last three years.

Common questions about CU Anschutz student cases

Can a court overturn my dismissal from a health-professions program?

Rarely on the merits of the academic judgment. Under Horowitz and Ewing, faculty evaluations get substantial deference. What courts and internal reviewers do scrutinize is process: whether the school followed the policy it published, gave the notice it promised, and considered what it said it would consider.

What does a professionalism finding actually cost?

More than students expect. Professionalism language travels into the dean’s letter or MSPE, residency and fellowship applications, credentialing, and licensure questionnaires. That is why the wording of a finding, a remediation plan, or a letter of concern is often more negotiable, and more important, than the finding itself.

Does the CU system add another layer?

It does. Anschutz is a campus of the University of Colorado, so regental policies apply alongside campus and school procedures. Where a school-level handbook and a system policy describe the same requirement differently, that discrepancy belongs in the written appeal.

Related Colorado pages: Rocky Vista University, CU Denver, Regis University, 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.

Can someone come with me to a dismissal hearing at Anschutz, and can they speak?

It depends entirely on which school’s document applies. The College of Nursing allows a support person at a dismissal appeal hearing who “may not speak on behalf of the student,” and the Skaggs School of Pharmacy allows an advisor, named at least two business days ahead, who “is not permitted to speak.” The School of Dental Medicine is the outlier: at a Special Subcommittee meeting, an accompanying advisor or faculty member may speak in support of you, though you must answer the committee’s questions yourself.

Will the Graduate School overturn my program’s decision to dismiss me?

It says it will not. The Graduate School’s published policy states that it cannot reverse academic decisions made by programs, schools or colleges, and it handles only suspensions and dismissals rather than other grievances. You have one week from the written notice to submit a written appeal to the Dean of the Graduate School, who normally responds within ten working days, and that decision is final.