Augustana College: Student Discipline, Dismissal & Federal Court

If you are an Augustana College student facing a conduct charge, an Honor Code report, a Title IX complaint, or academic suspension, the most important fact is who can stand next to you. In an ordinary conduct hearing your advisor must come from the campus community and may not address the panel, so an outside lawyer works behind the scenes. In a Title IX hearing your advisor may be a lawyer who questions witnesses directly. The deadlines run ten calendar days for conduct appeals and five business days for Honor Code appeals.

How do student discipline and dismissal cases work at Augustana?

Augustana is a private institution, which determines the legal theory. A private institution is not a state actor, so there is no Fourteenth Amendment claim and Goss v. Lopez, 419 U.S. 565 (1975), does not govern. What governs is Augustana’s own writing: the handbook, the code of conduct, the catalog, and the program handbook for your cohort. Those documents are the contract, and the recurring question is whether the school did what it said it would do. Academic judgment draws considerable deference, an approach from 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). Procedural failures are the more workable ground. See breach of contract against universities.

Where do Augustana cases come from?

Augustana was founded in 1860 by Swedish university graduates and is a private, ELCA-related college in Rock Island. Its health-track students include those in the 2+2 direct-entry BSN with Trinity College of Nursing & Health Sciences, who must keep a 2.75 cumulative GPA, and graduate students in the Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology, who must hold a 3.0 every semester to progress. Most cases begin as Honor Code reports, residence-life incidents, or a suspension letter after a hard semester.

How does a conduct case work under the Code of Social Conduct?

The Dean of Students Office handles the Augustana Code of Social Conduct. The detailed Student Judiciary Constitution and administrative hearing procedures are available only on request — request them in writing the day you are notified.

• Three choices. You may accept responsibility and let the Dean set the sanction, accept responsibility and let the Student Judiciary set it, or deny responsibility and receive a Student Judiciary hearing. Some safety and classroom matters go instead to an Administrative Council of three administrators.
• Who decides. The Student Judiciary has seven students, four faculty members, and two administrators, and finds responsibility by a two-thirds vote under a preponderance standard.
• Your advisor. The advisor must be full-time faculty, an administrator, staff, or a student, and may not directly participate in the hearing or address the panel.
• The appeal. Ten calendar days to the Student Policy Committee, submitted through the Dean or Associate Dean, and then ten more calendar days to the President. The handbook lists no specific grounds, so the request has to state its reasons precisely.

What happens in an Augustana Honor Code case?

The Honor Code of Augustana College, revised in Spring 2026, is enforced by an Honor Council of three faculty members and six students, overseen by the Associate Provost. Sanctions are sequential: a zero on the assignment for a first or second offense (a second also costs Latin honors eligibility), a permanent-record notation for a third, and recommended suspension and expulsion for a fourth and fifth. A hearing is mandatory from the third offense on. The Council must find a violation by clear and convincing evidence, a higher bar than most campuses use, and an appeal is due within five business days of written notice, on procedural error, new evidence, or a grossly disproportionate sanction, for review by the Provost. That decision is final. Because the sanctions compound, contesting an early report matters more than its zero suggests. See academic misconduct and honor code.

How does academic suspension and dismissal work at Augustana?

Under the 2026–27 catalog, a student whose cumulative GPA falls below 1.500 (0–29.99 credits), 1.700 (30–60.99), or 2.00 (61 or more) is Suspended for Academic Reasons for one fifteen-week semester, noted on the transcript. A returning student who fails to earn a term GPA above 2.00 before reaching a 2.00 cumulative is Dismissed for Academic Reasons — a permanent dismissal. Appeals are written, the deadline appears only in the suspension or dismissal letter, and a panel chaired by the Assistant Dean and Director of Student Well-being decides finally. A student granted one appeal cannot appeal a later suspension or dismissal, so the first appeal should be treated as the only one. Readmission after a suspension requires six or more pre-approved credits elsewhere with a 2.50 GPA and reapplying at least three weeks before the semester.

How does a Title IX case work at Augustana?

Augustana’s Policy Against Sexual Misconduct and Title IX Sexual Harassment took effect April 1, 2025. That model reflects current federal law: the 2024 Title IX regulations were vacated nationwide on January 9, 2025, and the 2020 framework governs. In September 2026 the Department formally repealed the vacated rule and restored the pre-2024 text in the Code of Federal Regulations (91 Fed. Reg. 61,308).

• Title IX sexual harassment. A live hearing before a hearing officer, virtual by default. Your advisor, who may be an attorney, asks questions directly, orally, and in real time; the college provides an advisor if you have none. The standard is a preponderance of the evidence.
• The appeal. Within ten days to the Title IX Coordinator, on procedural irregularity, new evidence, conflict or bias, or a disproportionate sanction, and no other grounds. The procedure does not say whether the ten days are calendar or business days, so count them as calendar days.
• Other sexual misconduct. Heard by a three-person panel of the Committee on Harassment and Discrimination. Here the advisor may not present evidence or question witnesses; questions go in writing to the chair, and the appeal window is ten calendar days.

More on hearings is on my Title IX hearings and cross-examination page.

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

Integrity, conduct, academic standing, Title IX, and program progression are separate systems at Augustana, and the label fixes the deadline, the decision-maker, and the deference the result gets. It is worth pushing back when a matter that is really about alleged misconduct has been routed as an academic one. Place yourself first: academic misconduct, student conduct, Title IX, or academic dismissal.

What should you do first?

Download the current version of the governing document from Augustana’s own website rather than relying on any summary, including this one, and confirm in writing which version applies to you. Calendar the deadline the day the letter arrives — at Augustana several of the windows are counted in single digits. Ask for your file: the report, the complaint, the evaluations, the exhibits. Preserve drafts, submission timestamps, message threads, and your own dated notes. Do not sit for an interview before you understand what the school claims to have; a separate charge for a false or incomplete statement is often easier to prove than the original allegation.

What can a student defense lawyer do here?

• Reading the governing policy against the charge or decision letter
• Helping you prepare your account, your documents, and your questions
• Testing whether Augustana 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 hearings allow an attorney advisor, some a non-speaking advisor, and some no one at all. At Augustana a lawyer can question witnesses only in a Title IX sexual harassment hearing; in conduct and other misconduct hearings the advisor stays silent, and in conduct hearings must come from campus.

One honest caveat about geography. Illinois has three federal districts, and I am admitted to all three: the Northern District, which takes Chicago and the northern counties, the Central District, which takes Springfield, Peoria, Champaign-Urbana and the Quad Cities, and the Southern District. The caveat that remains: a federal court admission is not an Illinois law license, and appeals from all three districts go to the Seventh Circuit, which keeps its own bar — my appellate admission is in the Eleventh. I say so before a retainer rather than after.

Common questions about Augustana student cases

Can a lawyer attend an Augustana conduct hearing?

Not as your advisor. The Code of Social Conduct limits advisors to full-time faculty, administrators, staff, or students, and the advisor may not address the panel. An outside lawyer prepares you and your written submissions instead.

What standard does the Augustana Honor Council use?

Clear and convincing evidence, by simple majority. That is a higher standard than the preponderance standard used in most campus processes, and it is worth holding the Council to.

How many appeals do I get after an Augustana academic suspension?

Effectively one. A student granted an appeal cannot appeal a later suspension or dismissal, and the deadline is stated only in the letter, so read it the day it arrives.

How long do I have to appeal an Augustana Title IX decision?

Ten days to the Title IX Coordinator, on four listed grounds only. Because the procedure does not specify business days, treat it as ten calendar days.

Related: Knox, Western Illinois, Bradley, the Central District of Illinois admission page, and the Illinois index. A flat-fee Full Read + Game Plan is described under fees and scope of services; on early preparation, see Do Not Underestimate Your School.

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 in Florida, admitted to the federal district courts in Florida, Colorado, northern, central, and southern Illinois, Nebraska, New Mexico, and western Wisconsin, and not licensed in Illinois; Illinois 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.