Keiser University Student Defense Lawyer

Students at Keiser University call at three moments: when a professor reports plagiarism or unapproved AI use, when the Dean of Students sends a notice setting a conduct meeting, and, usually too late, after a satisfactory-academic-progress dismissal in a nursing or allied health program. All three run on very short clocks, and all three turn on a written record built in the first days.

How do student discipline and dismissal cases work at Keiser University?

Keiser is a private nonprofit university, and that single fact sets the frame. A private university is not a state actor, so the Fourteenth Amendment does not reach what it does to you and there is no constitutional due process claim to bring. Florida has said so for a century. John B. Stetson University v. Hunt, 88 Fla. 510, 102 So. 637 (1924), holds that the relation between a student and an institution of learning privately conducted is “solely contractual in character,” with “an implied condition that the student knows and will conform to the rules and regulations of the institution.” Your case is a contract case, and the contract is the catalog and handbook.

The second point is the one Florida students get wrong most often. Fla. Stat. § 1006.60(3) is a real statutory due process code — 7 business days’ written notice, disclosure of the evidence including exculpatory material 5 business days out, preponderance of the evidence with the burden on the institution, an appeal of right, and at § 1006.60(3)(g) the right to a “legal representative” at “any proceeding, whether formal or informal,” who “may directly participate in all aspects of the proceeding, including the presentation of relevant information and questioning of witnesses.” It reaches every Florida College System institution and every state university. It does not reach Keiser, and there is no certiorari petition to file because there is no state action to review. Your protections come from the university’s own published documents and nowhere else. That is the most useful thing to understand about your case.

Those documents are still worth enforcing, because Florida enforces private-school contracts with real money. In Sharick v. Southeastern University of the Health Sciences, 780 So. 2d 136 (Fla. 3d DCA 2000), a fourth-year osteopathic medical student was dismissed about two months before graduation over one failing rotation grade. A jury found the dismissal “arbitrary, capricious, and/or lacking any discernable rational basis,” and the Third District held his damages were not capped at tuition: lost future earning capacity is recoverable. On retrial a jury awarded $813,000 past and $3.5 million future lost earnings, affirmed in Nova Southeastern University of the Health Sciences, Inc. v. Sharick, 21 So. 3d 41 (Fla. 3d DCA 2009). The limits are real too. Tercier v. University of Miami, No. 3D22-1334 (Fla. 3d DCA Aug. 2, 2023), holds that “only specific promises … in a school’s bulletins, circulars[,] and handbooks, which are material to the student’s relationship with the school, are enforceable,” and Gamma Phi Chapter v. University of Miami, 718 So. 2d 910 (Fla. 3d DCA 1998), says a court will not engage until the internal process finishes. A breach of contract claim is built from numbered steps Keiser wrote down and skipped.

Where do Keiser University cases come from?

Keiser enrolls roughly 20,900 students across a large Florida footprint, from Tallahassee and Jacksonville down through Orlando, Tampa and Lakeland to Miami and the Fort Lauderdale main campus, plus a residential Flagship Campus. It is a health-professions school first. The Associate of Science in Nursing runs at a dozen campuses plus off-campus instructional sites in Fort Myers, Naples, Clearwater and New Port Richey, alongside the BSN in traditional, accelerated and FastTrack forms, and the allied health catalog includes radiologic technology, nuclear medicine technology, diagnostic medical sonography, medical laboratory technician, surgical technology, respiratory therapy, occupational therapy assistant and physical therapist assistant.

That mix explains the caseload. Entry into nursing already turns on a 3.0 prerequisite GPA, minimum B grades in anatomy and physiology, a TEAS score inside three attempts, and a background check and drug screen “in accordance with the Nurse Practice Act.” Each is a place a case can start, and a dismissal from a licensure-track program is not just a lost term; it is a fact you disclose to a licensing board. A nursing program dismissal or a professionalism finding in a clinical placement usually costs a year, because the sequence runs once, which is why the sanction is often more negotiable, and more important, than the finding.

One document problem is worth naming at the outset. The student handbook Keiser publishes online is the Flagship Campus handbook, and it says so: it names a Dean of Students as “Chief Judicial Officer (CJO) for the KU Flagship Campus” and describes residential life. Most Keiser students are not at that campus. Ask in writing which handbook governs you and keep the answer, because the whole of your procedural protection is whichever document applies.

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

The label on the letter picks the decision-maker, the deadline and the protections, and Keiser runs several tracks. A conduct allegation goes to the Dean of Students, resolved by an Administrative Meeting or a Campus Conduct Board hearing. Academic dishonesty runs on the catalog’s plagiarism ladder. A satisfactory-academic-progress dismissal is a status decision appealed by signed letter, not a hearing. Any of those can then be taken to the Grievance Committee. The handbook adds that “Title IX matters will not be adjudicated via the judicial process,” so a sexual misconduct complaint is a separate track again.

Answering in the wrong track spends the one response you get. Match your letter first: conduct code charges, academic misconduct, academic dismissal and suspension, or SAP appeals. If the letter is ambiguous, ask in writing which policy you are charged under.

What should you do first?

Move immediately, because the conduct clock at Keiser is unusually short. A student who receives a meeting notice has “24 business hours (not including weekends or holidays)” to schedule with the Dean of Students, charges are given in writing “at least 24 hours before the Campus Conduct Board hearing is held,” results come “within 72 business hours,” and an appeal is due within 72 business hours of the decision. There is no time to think it over.

Pull the catalog and the handbook in force on your incident date, not a summary, and read the appeal section first. Get the syllabus and the assignment instructions, since the catalog treats undisclosed AI use as academic dishonesty and requires you to “provide proof of originality.” Preserve drafts, version history, learning management timestamps, group chats, clinical evaluations and preceptor emails before anything auto-deletes. If the allegation rests on a similarity report or an AI-detection score, read the page on AI accusations first.

What does Keiser University’s own policy actually say?

Two documents govern, and they do different jobs. The handbook carries the judicial process; the catalog carries academic honesty, satisfactory academic progress, the grievance procedure and the arbitration clause.

• Conduct office: the student handbook judicial process, run by the Dean of Students as Chief Judicial Officer, with a Campus Conduct Board that “will usually consist of three voting members” who “may be students, faculty, and/or staff,” chaired by the Dean of Students or a designee.
• Governing policy: the handbook’s judicial procedures plus the catalog’s Student Conduct Policies and Grievance Procedures. No Florida College System rule and no Board of Governors regulation governs a private university.
• Academic integrity: the catalog sets a fixed ladder. A partially plagiarized assignment means an automatic F on the assignment, then an F in the course, then “automatic dismissal from the University” on the third occurrence; an entirely plagiarized assignment means an F in the course on the first occurrence and dismissal on the second. Dismissed students may reapply after one full semester out.
• Appeal window: in writing to the Dean of Students “within 72 business hours (excluding weekends, holidays, and Campus/University closures)” of the decision, extended to 14 business days if the decision issues while classes are not in session. Six grounds are listed. The Campus President is the highest level of appeal, “[t]he student is allotted one appeal per academic school year,” and once an appeal is heard the decision is final. A grievance must be filed “within the semester in which the policy was broken.”
• Standard of proof: “No student will be found guilty of a violation of campus rules/regulations without information showing that it is more likely than not that a policy violation occurred.” The handbook does not say who carries the burden.
• Advisor: the judicial procedures say nothing about an advisor or an attorney. They let you speak, hear and respond to those who speak against you, and request witnesses, but require that “[w]itnesses must be members of the campus community.” No campus-specific advisor rule located; ask in writing whether anyone may accompany you. At a public Florida college that answer is set by statute under § 1006.60(3)(g). Here it is not.
• Academic standing: the undergraduate catalog, requiring a 1.7 cumulative GPA after the first semester and 2.0 thereafter, 66.67 percent completion of cumulative credits attempted, and completion within 150 percent of program length. A first failure means Academic Financial Aid Warning; a second means dismissal, appealable by signed letter showing validated extenuating circumstances.
• Title IX and equal opportunity: two Title IX Coordinators, both Associate Vice Chancellors, at the Fort Lauderdale system office.
• Disability accommodations: the Section 504 Coordinator, the Associate Vice Chancellor of Student Services, with requests made through the Dean of Students.

One clause in the catalog deserves its own paragraph. Keiser’s enrollment agreement contains an arbitration clause: any dispute “shall be resolved by binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Commercial Arbitration Rules,” arbitrator fees are “split evenly between the parties,” and “if Keiser University prevails in the arbitration proceeding, Keiser University will be entitled to any reasonable attorney’s fees incurred in the defense of the student claim.” That routes a Sharick-style damages claim out of court and attaches a fee risk to bringing it.

What can a student defense lawyer do here?

A federal claim arising at Keiser University — Title IX, Title VI, or Section 504 and the ADA — is filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, where I am admitted to the bar. Broward County sits in that district, so no pro hac vice motion and no sponsoring local attorney is needed. There is no Fourteenth Amendment claim against a private university, and the contract claim under Stetson and Sharick is a state-law claim subject to the arbitration clause above. What decides these cases is the campus record:

• Reading the governing policy against the charge or decision letter
• Preparing your account, your documents and your questions
• Testing whether the school followed its own published procedure
• Scrutinising software-based evidence, including AI-detection and similarity reports
• Helping with the written response and the appeal, where policy allows
• Serving as your advisor where the process permits one
• Negotiating sanction terms, notations and disclosure language

Whether a lawyer can sit in the room is left open by the documents, so ask in writing before the meeting. What is not open is the timing. With 72 business hours to appeal and one appeal per academic year, the written response and the appeal letter have to be right the first time, and are usually drafted before the hearing rather than after.

Local representation in Palm Beach County

Keiser is a private university headquartered in Fort Lauderdale with campuses across Florida, including West Palm Beach and its flagship residential campus. Private means the handbook and catalog are the contract, and for its nursing and health-science programs a dismissal can carry licensing consequences well beyond the campus process. See Boca Raton and Palm Beach County student defense.

Keiser fell below the statutory nursing benchmark at nine separate campuses in 2025

This is worth setting out campus by campus, because Keiser operates many Florida locations and the figure that matters is the one for the campus you attended.

On the associate-degree side, against a 2025 statutory floor of 76.05%: Miami 64.52%, Sarasota 67.74%, Pembroke Pines 69.23%, West Palm Beach 73.33%, Lakeland 73.63% (on 91 candidates), Naples 75.00%, Tampa 75.61%, Fort Myers 75.86%. On the baccalaureate side, against a floor of 77.59%: Fort Lauderdale 70.59%, Miami 75.00%, Tampa 77.14%.

Under Fla. Stat. section 464.019(5)(a)1 a Florida nursing programme’s first-time NCLEX passage rate must stay within 10 percentage points of the national average for comparable programmes — for associate-degree programmes in 2025 that floor was 76.05%. Section 464.019(5)(a)2 puts a programme two consecutive years below it at risk of probation and loss of approval, and section 464.019(5)(c) then obliges the programme to disclose that probationary status in writing to its students and applicants. The full list is here.

A programme measured on first-time passage rates has an institutional interest in who sits the exam, because the rate improves either by teaching better or by graduating fewer of the students judged least likely to pass. That is not unlawful and it explains no individual dismissal. What it justifies is reading the documents closely rather than accepting a progression decision at face value: were the published rules followed or reached ahead of, was a standardised test score treated as dispositive when the policy does not make it so, was a withdrawal recharacterised as a failure, and was promised remediation actually delivered on the stated terms.

Two questions belong in the first written communication of any nursing dismissal here: was this programme on probation at any point during my enrolment, and if so, when and in what form was I given the written notice section 464.019(5)(c) requires. The Board publishes no probation roster, so that status has to come from board minutes and orders or a public-records request — which is exactly why asking the college directly, in writing, is worth doing.

Keiser is a private institution, so Fla. Stat. section 1006.60(3) does not reach it — that statute binds Florida’s public colleges and state universities only. Protections here are contractual, arising from the catalog and enrolment agreement. In Florida that still carries a real remedy: Sharick v. Southeastern University of the Health Sciences means an institution that departs from its own published procedures can face damages measured by the lost value of the degree.

Two further things to check in your own paperwork before deciding how to proceed. Keiser’s enrolment documents contain a binding arbitration clause — an AAA clause with split arbitrator fees and one-way attorney’s fees to the school if it prevails — which materially changes the damages analysis and should be read before anything is promised about litigation. And an arbitration clause does not bar a complaint to the Office for Civil Rights, to the accreditor, to the Florida Commission for Independent Education, or to the Board of Nursing about an approved nursing programme.

See also nursing school dismissal and clinical removal.

Every Keiser nursing campus, its court and its 2025 results

Keiser operates across three federal districts and seven divisional courthouses, so the campus a case arises at decides the forum. Candidate numbers are in brackets; the 2025 statutory floors were 76.05% for associate-degree programmes and 77.59% for baccalaureate programmes. Campuses in bold have their own page.

Two cautions on reading this table. Small cohorts move a long way on a single result, so the Naples figures (16 and 10 candidates) and the second West Palm Beach baccalaureate code (4 candidates, omitted here) carry little weight. And one Keiser associate code in the Board of Nursing report has no campus suffix at all, so its 85.71% on 49 candidates cannot be assigned to a location.

Common questions about Keiser University student cases

Does the Florida student due process statute protect me at Keiser?

No. Fla. Stat. section 1006.60(3) requires 7 business days of notice, disclosure of exculpatory evidence, preponderance of the evidence with the burden on the institution, an appeal of right, and a legal representative who may question witnesses. It reaches only Florida College System institutions and state universities. Keiser is a private nonprofit university, so neither that statute nor the Fourteenth Amendment applies, and there is no certiorari petition to file. Your protections come from the Keiser catalog and handbook, which is why their exact wording matters.

How long do I have to appeal a Keiser conduct decision?

Seventy-two business hours, excluding weekends, holidays and university closures, in writing to the Dean of Students. If the decision issues while classes are not in session you have 14 business days instead. The handbook lists six grounds, allots one appeal per academic school year, makes the Campus President the highest level of appeal, and provides that once an appeal is heard the decision is final. A grievance to the Grievance Committee must be filed within the semester in which the policy was broken.

Can I sue Keiser University over a dismissal?

Possibly, but read the enrollment agreement first. Keiser’s catalog contains an arbitration clause sending any dispute to binding arbitration before the American Arbitration Association under its Commercial Arbitration Rules, splitting the arbitrator’s fees between the parties, and awarding Keiser its reasonable attorney’s fees if it prevails. Each side may be represented by an attorney there. A Florida contract claim under Stetson and Sharick still measures the damages, but the forum and the fee risk are set by that clause.

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. Other campuses are covered on the Florida schools page.

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