University of Northern Colorado Student Defense Lawyer
Students at the University of Northern Colorado call me after an instructor reports academic dishonesty, after a charge arrives from the Dean of Students, or after a program raises a question about progression. UNC is a public university in Greeley with a long teacher-preparation tradition and a growing set of professional programs, and the stakes differ sharply depending on which of those you are in.
Overview
UNC is public, 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. In practice the sharper argument is procedural rather than constitutional: UNC published a code, and it either followed it or it did not. That is the ordinary shape of due process at a public institution, and it is where most of the leverage in these cases actually sits.
Where UNC cases come from
The Dean of Students Office administers both the Student Code of Conduct and the Registered Student Organization Code of Conduct. Academic misconduct is not housed in a separate honor code; it appears in the Code under dishonesty, in three categories — cheating, plagiarism, and fabrication. One published feature deserves emphasis: instructors are required to report academic misconduct to the Dean of Students, who has authority to assign additional sanctions for repeat findings. That is why a quiet resolution with a professor is rarely the end of it, and why a first grade penalty can become a suspension the second time.
Cases arise across the College of Education and Behavioral Sciences, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Monfort College of Business, the College of Natural and Health Sciences — which houses nursing and the audiology and speech-language programs — and the College of Performing and Visual Arts. UNC has also opened a College of Osteopathic Medicine in Greeley, which received pre-accreditation status from the Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation in December 2025 and recruited an inaugural class for fall 2026. Early cohorts in a new professional program are the ones most exposed to procedures applied for the first time.
Which process you are in matters
Identify the track before responding. An academic dishonesty finding, a conduct charge, and an academic dismissal or suspension decision run through different offices on different timelines. Students headed toward teacher licensure, nursing licensure, or medical training should also treat professionalism and fitness questions as part of the same problem, because a finding that looks minor on campus can be the question on a licensure application years later.
What to do first
Download the current Student Code of Conduct from the Dean of Students site rather than relying on a summary, including this one, and get your program handbook if you are in a professional or graduate program. Read the syllabus alongside the code. Calendar the deadline, 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 the evidence.
What I can help with
- Reading the governing policy against the charge or decision letter
- Helping you prepare your account, your documents, and your questions
- Testing whether UNC 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
My professor said the matter would be handled informally. Is that the end?
Probably not. UNC requires instructors to report academic misconduct to the Dean of Students, and that office can add sanctions where there is a repeat finding. An informal agreement that is not documented against the published policy can leave a record you did not know you had.
Does an academic dishonesty finding affect teacher or nursing licensure?
It can. Licensure applications and program clearance forms ask their own questions about discipline and integrity, and the answer is not controlled by whether anything appears on a transcript. That is a separate analysis, and it is worth doing before you sign a form.
I am in the new osteopathic medical program. Is that different?
Substantially. Medical programs run promotion and professionalism committees whose standards sit on top of university policy, and outcomes travel into residency applications and licensure. The medical school dismissal and remediation framework applies, and it moves faster than students expect.
Related Colorado pages: Colorado State University, CU Boulder, Rocky Vista University, and MSU Denver. 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 admitted in Florida and its federal courts, not in Colorado; 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, and association with local counsel or pro hac vice admission where required.