Warner University Student Defense Lawyer

Students call about Warner University at three points: when a faculty member reports academic dishonesty, when the Office of Student Life sends a disciplinary response after an incident report, and, usually too late, after a suspension has already cost a season of eligibility or a semester of aid. All three run on short clocks, and the shortest is two business days.

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

Warner University is a private nonprofit Christian university, and that single fact sets the frame. A private university is not a state actor, so the Fourteenth Amendment does not reach it and there is no constitutional due process claim. 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 a privately conducted institution of learning 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 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’ 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 a senior administrator must hear, and at § 1006.60(3)(g) the right to an “advisor, advocate, or 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 Warner, whose handbook is the whole of your protection.

What the handbook gives you is 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 student dismissed two months before graduation over one failing grade won a jury finding that the dismissal was “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 at 21 So. 3d 41 (Fla. 3d DCA 2009).

Two limits matter. Not every handbook sentence is a promise: 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,” not “[g]eneral policy statements and broad and unspecified procedures.” A breach of contract claim is built on numbered steps the university wrote down and then skipped. And you must finish the internal process first: the Gamma Phi line at the Third District will set aside sanctions built on “an ex parte fact-finding process which was neither adequate nor fair,” 703 So. 2d 497 (Fla. 3d DCA 1997), but will not intervene before “exhaustion of an available administrative remedy,” 718 So. 2d 910 (Fla. 3d DCA 1998).

Where do Warner University cases come from?

Warner enrolls about 900 students on a residential campus in Lake Wales and competes in the NAIA, which explains most of the caseload. At this size one decision usually lands on three things at once: your standing, your eligibility to compete or perform, and your aid. The handbook says so directly. A disciplinary response can include an athletic, club or social group suspension, and when a student is out of season the suspension is held until the season begins, so a violation in one semester can cost competitions in the next. First-time Tier Two offenses typically draw a ten percent suspension of games.

Aid and eligibility sit on the same page. To keep financial aid a full-time student must earn 24 credit hours across fall and spring, must complete at least 66.67 percent of attempted credits, and must hold a cumulative grade point average of 1.70 below 30 hours, 1.85 from 30 to 59, and 2.00 at 60 or more, and must not be on academic probation. The handbook adds a warning students miss: those aid requirements are not the NAIA eligibility requirements, so clearing one does not clear the other.

A third ladder surprises people. Warner requires Spiritual Growth credits, and failing to accrue them produces a Warning, then Probation, then Suspension, which the handbook describes as unenrollment for one semester. A student who has not earned half the assigned credits by noon on the Friday of Week 8 may also be barred from all non-academic activities, sports teams included. One term out at a small college is usually a year in the degree plan, which is why the sanction is often more negotiable, and more important, than the finding.

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 Warner runs several tracks at once. A behavior incident goes to the Office of Student Life as a conduct code charge. Cheating or plagiarism is academic misconduct under Warner’s Academic Honesty policies, which the handbook names but does not print. Falling below a grade point standard is academic dismissal and suspension, and losing aid for missing the credit or completion standard is a SAP appeal to Student Financial Services. A sexual misconduct complaint runs on the Title IX track. Missing Spiritual Growth credits is appealed to the Spiritual Life Office on its own form.

Answering in the wrong track spends the only response you get, and grade-based decisions carry no hearing rights in Florida at all. Beheshtitabar v. Florida State University, 432 So. 2d 166 (Fla. 1st DCA 1983), applying Board of Curators of the University of Missouri v. Horowitz, 435 U.S. 78 (1978), holds that an academic dismissal is not a disciplinary one and needs no hearing, because it “requires an expert evaluation of cumulative information.” If your letter does not name the policy you are charged under, ask in writing before you reply.

What should you do first?

Calendar the appeal deadline the day the letter arrives, because at Warner it is two business days. Pull the handbook version in force on your incident date and read the Appeals Process section first. If you need more time, the handbook lets you request an extension by email to the Office of Student Life, but the request has to be sent inside the same two business days.

Collect the documents that decide these cases: the incident report, the syllabus and assignment instructions in an integrity case, coach correspondence about eligibility, and your aid award letters. Preserve drafts, version history, learning management timestamps and group chats before anything auto-deletes. Do not sit for a disciplinary meeting before you know what is alleged; participation is mandatory under the handbook, but that is not the same as answering before you have read the charge. If the allegation rests on a similarity report or an AI-detection score, read the page on AI accusations first.

What does Warner University’s own policy actually say?

One document does most of the work here. The Warner University Student Handbook carries the Community Commitments, the disciplinary response process, the appeal window, the accommodations policy and the aid progress standards, and sends students to the University catalog for academic matters.

• Conduct office: the Office of Student Life, which receives incident reports and issues the disciplinary response. The Vice President and Assistant Vice President for Student Life set the seriousness of an offense and may raise or lower it case by case, and the Vice President decides any immediate dismissal.
• Governing policy: the handbook, its Community Commitments and Behavioral Expectations, and the Redemptive Discipline Plan of Student Enrichment and Student Consequence. No Florida College System rule and no Board of Governors regulation governs a private university.
• Academic integrity: the handbook refers to Warner’s Academic Honesty policies but does not print the procedure. Ask academic affairs in writing for the policy and its appeal route.
• Appeal window: two business days. The handbook says a disciplinary response may be appealed “within 48 business hours” and then that students “have 48 hours (2 business days) to appeal all disciplinary responses.” Those do not describe the same period, so treat the shorter reading as the deadline. The grounds are new information, a substantial error in due process, and a response inconsistent with the type and severity of the violation.
• Standard of proof: the handbook publishes none. At a Florida public college § 1006.60(3)(b) would fix it at preponderance of the evidence with the burden on the institution. Nothing fixes it here.
• Advisor: the handbook does not say whether you may bring one, whether that advisor may be a lawyer, or whether the advisor may speak. Ask in writing before the meeting. A public Florida college could restrict none of the three, because § 1006.60(3)(g) lets a legal representative participate directly in any proceeding.
• Academic standing: the handbook publishes the aid progress standards and the Spiritual Growth ladder and routes academic probation to the Academic Dean. No campus-specific day-count located for an academic appeal.
• Title IX: the Vice President for Student Life is also the Title IX Coordinator, so the same officer sits atop the conduct process and receives conduct appeals.
• Disability accommodations: the Office of Accommodations, under Section 504 and the ADA. Students register with the Director, give documentation, and finalize a plan for each course every semester.

One Florida statute reaches Warner even though it is private. College hazing is governed by Fla. Stat. § 1006.63, not § 1006.135, which covers grades 6 through 12, and § 1006.63(7) reaches nonpublic institutions whose students receive state financial assistance. Subsections (11) and (12) carry the Andrew’s Law medical amnesty, whose elements are strict and worth checking at the first meeting.

What can a student defense lawyer do here?

A federal claim arising at Warner University — Title IX, Title VI, or Section 504 and the ADA — is filed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, where I am admitted to the bar. Polk 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. Almost none of these reach a courtroom. What decides them 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

What a lawyer can do inside the room turns on the handbook, and here the handbook does not answer the question. Because Warner neither grants nor forbids an advisor in writing, the practical work is the two-business-day appeal, the record made before it, and the sanction itself. Sanction terms are where these cases are won at a residential college: whether a suspension runs this season or the next, whether a hold goes on the account, and whether housing and aid survive.

The federal money on the line at Warner

Warner University students and families took on $7.8 million in federal Direct Loans in the 2025–26 award year — including $3.5 million borrowed by 179 parents through Parent PLUS.

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. 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.

Other Florida universities

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 Florida universities:

• Webber International University
• West Coast University Miami
• AdventHealth University
• Albizu University Miami
• Ana G. Méndez University Florida
• Atlantis University Miami

Common questions about Warner University student cases

How long do I have to appeal a Warner University disciplinary response?

Two business days. The handbook says both that a student may appeal within 48 business hours and that students have 48 hours, described as two business days, to appeal all disciplinary responses. Because those do not describe the same period, treat the shorter reading as your deadline. The three grounds are new information, a substantial error in due process, and a response inconsistent with the type and severity of the violation. You may email the Office of Student Life for an extension, but only inside those same two business days.

Can a Warner University suspension cost me my season?

Yes, and it can cost a later one. The handbook allows an athletic, club or social group suspension as a disciplinary consequence, and says that when a student is out of season the suspension is withheld until the official season begins. A violation in the fall can therefore remove you from spring competitions. First-time Tier Two offenses typically draw a ten percent suspension of games, and missing Spiritual Growth credits at the Week 8 midpoint can bar extracurricular participation entirely.

Does the Florida student due process statute protect me at Warner University?

No. Fla. Stat. section 1006.60(3) requires 7 business days of written notice, disclosure of inculpatory and exculpatory evidence 5 business days out, 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. Warner is a private nonprofit, so neither that statute nor the Fourteenth Amendment applies. Your protections come from the handbook, which publishes no standard of proof and no advisor rule.

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.