University of Colorado School of Medicine — Dismissal & Appeals

Written by Zachary Gaynor, attorney · The Florida Bar, admitted 2016 · court admissions. Reviewed 3 September 2026.

Who decides whether a CU medical student is dismissed?

The Student Promotions Committee (SPC) votes on dismissal at the University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine. An appeal goes to the Executive Vice Dean for Education, and the Dean makes the final decision. The window is ten calendar days from delivery — but an older handbook still on CU’s site says seven, and both name the same class year on the cover.

Two live handbooks, two different deadlines

CU currently serves two versions of its MD policies, and they do not agree on the single most important number:

• The AY 2026-27 handbook gives ten (10) calendar days to appeal an SPC decision, running from when notification “has been delivered to the student.”
• An AY 2023-24 edition, still live at a separate address, gives seven (7) calendar days from the same trigger.

The Class of 2027 appears on the cover of both. A student in that class who reads the handbook issued for their own year computes a seven-day deadline; the current edition says ten. The 2026-27 handbook contains a governing-version clause providing that the most current version controls — but a student who relied on the document the School gave them is in a materially different position than one who did not.

Work to seven days. It is the shorter reading, it costs nothing, and it forecloses the argument entirely. Then preserve the conflict in writing, because the School published both.

CU also mixes units inside one document: SPC appeals run in calendar days, a faculty appeal of an accessibility decision runs in university business days, and grade appeals are expressed in weeks with a parenthetical day count and no designation at all.

The burden flips against you on appeal

CU publishes a standard of proof, which most medical schools do not. Read it carefully:

“In the original hearing, the Student Promotions Committee has the burden of proving by a preponderance of evidence that the student violated the University’s policies, procedures, or rules. During the appeals process, the burden of proof rests with the student. The standard of proof remains the same.”

Two things follow. First, the appeal is not a second chance at the same argument — the party who has to persuade has changed. Second, the provision is written entirely around whether the student violated a policy, rule or procedure. That language fits a disciplinary charge. It maps poorly onto a straightforward academic-failure dismissal, which is most of what the SPC actually does — and where a school has published a burden framed in terms of violations, it is worth asking which violation is said to have occurred.

This burden provision is new. We found none in the 2023-24 edition.

Attorneys are barred from the room — and that is the fight

CU is explicit, twice. Before the SPC:

“The student is offered to be represented by the associate dean for Student Advocacy who is the only person, in addition to the student, who can speak on behalf of the student. The student may also choose to be accompanied by one specific advocate from the University of Colorado School of Medicine, who must be a CU faculty member. However, this person is not allowed to speak on behalf of the student at the meeting. This is not a legal proceeding, so attorneys and their representatives are excluded from these meetings.”

And at the dismissal appeal: “This is not a legal proceeding so lawyers may not be present. The meeting will not be recorded.”

The pool of permitted advocates also narrowed between editions. The 2023-24 handbook allowed “a faculty member, a staff member, or a fellow student.” The current edition requires a CU faculty member — someone employed by the institution deciding your case.

The same conduct, in the other forum, gets you a lawyer

CU is a public university, and its university-wide Student Code of Conduct gives a respondent “the right to have one (1) Support Person/Advisor of their choice present throughout the student conduct process… including, but not limited to, a parent, family member, or an attorney,” on three working days’ notice and with a FERPA release. That process applies preponderance and runs on five working days.

Now consider how professionalism is routed. The Student Professionalism Committee is a standing committee of the Student Promotions Committee. Where there is “a pattern of recidivism, an egregious event, or the student fails to successfully complete the remediation plan,” the matter goes to the SPC, which may place the student on probation or recommend dismissal — expressly “even if such unprofessional behavior did not affect the student’s grade.”

So the identical behavior produces two entirely different proceedings. Charged under the Code of Conduct, you may bring an attorney. Routed to the SPC as a professionalism matter, attorneys are affirmatively excluded, your advocate must be on the School’s own faculty, and the meeting is not recorded. That delta is the most litigable feature of the CU scheme, and establishing which track you are on — in writing, early — is the first move in any CU matter.

The appeal is not a rehearing

The Executive Vice Dean “will not reconsider the facts and statements on which the original decision was based.” Only four grounds are available: new information; discrimination as determined by the appropriate institutional office; a material procedural error that prejudiced the student’s ability to receive a fair hearing; or that the Committee acted arbitrarily or capriciously.

New evidence is barred unless the student shows it was unavailable earlier and the associate dean for Student Life approves it. That same associate dean screens whether the appeal reaches the Executive Vice Dean at all — “Failure to meet these conditions shall be sufficient cause to deny an appeal.” There is a gatekeeper before the decision-maker, and satisfying the gatekeeper is a separate task from winning.

An election you cannot take back

On a dismissal appeal the student chooses one of two routes: an ad-hoc panel of five faculty who recommend to the Executive Vice Dean, or presenting directly to the Executive Vice Dean. The choice is final: “If the student chooses to present directly to the Executive Vice Dean for Education, once that appeal meeting has occurred and a decision is rendered, the student may not subsequently elect for a faculty panel appeal.”

That decision is worth making deliberately rather than by default, and it should be made before the clock runs, not during the meeting.

Other rules that decide cases

• Six years of academic enrollment to complete the program. A leave of absence counts toward the six years, except medical leave. Extensions require SPC approval.
• USMLE: dismissal grounds include being unable to pass Step 2 CK after three sittings.
• Probation follows you. It is reportable as an adverse action in the MSPE and “may need to be reported to state licensing boards and hospitals.” Students on probation may not take electives or hold leadership positions, and must do clinical work at Colorado core sites.
• A post-matriculation conviction or plea — felony or misdemeanour — must be reported and is referred to the SPC. Failure to report is itself referable.
• Fitness for duty runs through the Colorado Physician Health Program; the evaluation must be completed before the student may proceed in the curriculum.

Where the governing documents are

Verified as loading on 3 September 2026. Save a dated copy of the edition that governed you — CU has two live at once:

• MD Program Policies and Procedures, Trek Curriculum, AY 2026-27 — medschool.cuanschutz.edu
• The earlier edition still online — ucdenver.edu
• Policy index — medschool.cuanschutz.edu
• CU Anschutz Student Code of Conduct — cuanschutz.edu

The federal money on the line at Anschutz

Federal Direct Loans to University of Colorado Denver and the Anschutz Medical Campus (reported together) came to $152.2 million in the 2025–26 award year — $76.8 million of it borrowed unsubsidized by 3,456 graduate and professional students, with $47.1 million more in Grad PLUS loans.

Every dollar of it rides on academic standing. A dismissal, a failed Satisfactory Academic Progress evaluation, or a mid-term withdrawal sets off federal rules that decide whether aid continues, whether money already disbursed has to go back, and — under the borrowing caps in effect since July 1, 2026 — whether a student who leaves can still finance a return. For health-professional students the timing rules bite hardest: remediation terms, leaves, and repeated courses all feed the federal pace-of-completion math. The academic fight and the financial aid fight are the same fight, and the windows are short. How those rules work: SAP appeals and academic dismissal.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, Federal Student Aid Data Center, Direct Loan volume by school, award year 2025–26 (cumulative through June 30, 2026). University-wide federal Direct Loan totals. Reported for CU Denver and Anschutz under one federal school code.

Related reading

• Medical school dismissal, remediation and promotion committees
• Professionalism and fitness-to-practice findings
• Due process at public institutions
• Public or private? A due-process decision tree
• Colorado student defense

Other Colorado health-professional programs

Every school writes its own dismissal, appeal and conduct rules, and the filing deadlines are rarely the same from one campus to the next. These pages set out the procedure at other Colorado health-professional programs:

• Apex College of Veterinary Technology
• Colorado Academy of Veterinary Technology
• Colorado Chinese Medicine University
• Pima Medical Institute Aurora
• Pima Medical Institute Colorado Springs
• Pima Medical Institute Denver

Common questions

How long do I have to appeal a CU School of Medicine dismissal?

The current handbook says ten calendar days from delivery; an older edition still on CU’s site says seven, and both list the Class of 2027. Work to seven days and preserve the conflict in writing.

Can I bring a lawyer to the Student Promotions Committee?

No. CU states that attorneys and their representatives are excluded from SPC meetings and that lawyers may not be present at the dismissal appeal. Your advocate must be a CU faculty member and may not speak. CU’s university-wide conduct process does permit an attorney advisor.

Who has the burden of proof on appeal?

You do. CU places the burden on the Committee at the original hearing and expressly shifts it to the student on appeal, at the same preponderance standard.

Will the dismissal hearing be recorded?

No. CU states the appeal meeting will not be recorded, which makes your written submission the durable record of what was argued.

Does a leave of absence stop the six-year clock?

No, except for medical leave. Ordinary leave counts toward the six years, so a leave taken to solve one problem can create another.