Columbia College Chicago: Student Discipline, Dismissal & Federal Court

How do student discipline and dismissal cases work at Columbia College Chicago?

Columbia College Chicago is a private, nonprofit college in downtown Chicago, in Cook County, teaching more than 4,000 students in more than 40 undergraduate and graduate programs that blend the creative and media arts, liberal arts and business. The Higher Learning Commission accredits it, and the Council for Interior Design Accreditation accredits its Interior Architecture BFA. The first thing to know is that two of its own documents disagree about your deadline: the “PDF Download” on Columbia’s Student Code of Conduct page is the code revised March 16, 2023 — Judicial Board hearings and 30 days to appeal — while the online code beside it allows ten business days and no hearing board. The online code is the newer of the two; work to its shorter deadline.

Columbia College Chicago is a private institution. There is no state action, so there is no constitutional due process claim, and arguing one wastes an appeal. The theory is contract: Illinois holds that a college and its students have a contractual relationship whose terms come from the catalog and the handbook — Raethz v. Aurora University, 346 Ill. App. 3d 728 (2004), restated by the Fourth District in Urso v. Bradley University, 2023 IL App (4th) 230165 — while adding that the relationship “is unique and cannot be strictly categorized or characterized in purely contractual terms.”

The limit is the standard of review, and it decides most of these cases before anyone reaches the facts. A student has a remedy for an adverse academic decision only if it was made arbitrarily, capriciously, or in bad faith. Frederick v. Northwestern University Dental School, 247 Ill. App. 3d 464 (1993), puts it bluntly — courts have been loath to review, much less overturn, academic dismissals — and Bosch v. NorthShore University Health System, 2019 IL App (1st) 190070, holds that a school which departs somewhat from its handbook still wins unless the departure was material. The federal courts in Chicago apply the same test: in Doe v. Columbia College Chicago, 933 F.3d 849 (7th Cir. 2019), the Seventh Circuit affirmed dismissal of a student’s contract claim where the college had investigated and reasoned its way to a decision, and in Gash v. Rosalind Franklin University, 117 F.4th 957 (7th Cir. 2024), it held that calling a process arbitrary or predetermined, without specific facts, is not enough. What survives is specific: in Liu v. Northwestern University, 78 F. Supp. 3d 839 (N.D. Ill. 2015), a former law student’s claim went forward where the school imposed what amounted to an integrity charge while denying her the handbook procedure for contesting one. Federal law does not care that the school is private: Title IX, Title VI and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act apply because it takes federal funds, and the ADA applies to it as a place of public accommodation.

A federal claim arising at Columbia College Chicago is filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois — Cook County sits in its Eastern Division under 28 U.S.C. § 93(a), and the statute fixes the places of holding court for that division at Chicago and Wheaton. I am a member of the general bar of that court, admitted on my Florida license under its Local Rule 83.10, which opens the general bar to an attorney in good standing before the highest court of any state. That means a Title IX, Section 504 or ADA complaint for a Columbia College Chicago student is one I file and litigate under my own name, with no pro hac vice motion. The Northern District abrogated its local-counsel designation rule in July 2023, so a member of its bar with no office in the district no longer has to designate local counsel. One limit, stated plainly: the court keeps a separate trial bar, and under Local Rule 83.12 a general-bar member who is not on it — that is me — appears alone in everything except testimonial proceedings, meaning evidentiary hearings and trial, where a trial-bar member must sit as advisor unless the judge grants the rule’s narrow waiver.

Two codes on one page

The online Student Code of Conduct is an administrative process. A Conduct Administrator — the Dean of Students or a designee, or residence hall staff for housing cases — meets with you, gathers information, and decides responsibility by “the Preponderance of the Evidence standard” (§7.07); formal rules of evidence do not apply (§7.04). Before a decision, and only “upon request,” you get “a reasonable opportunity to review or receive a summary of information materially relied upon” (§7.06). Meetings “will not be audio- or video-recorded by the College or participants” (§7.10). Withdrawing does not end a pending case (§1.05). See conduct code defense.

Your advisor may be “a student, employee, family member, friend, attorney, or other person” (§2.01), but “may not answer questions for the Respondent, examine witnesses, or otherwise participate directly” unless the law, a disability accommodation or the Conduct Administrator allows it (§7.02). An interim suspension requires an individualized assessment of the risk (§5.02), and you may request “expedited review” by someone other than the person who imposed it, “when practicable” (§5.05); no deadline is given.

The appeal must be “submitted in writing within ten Business Days after the written outcome is sent” (§9.03) — business days being days the administrative offices are open (§2.03) — on four grounds: material procedural error, new information, a decision-maker’s conflict or bias, or a “clearly disproportionate” sanction (§9.02). The Dean of Students or a designee decides on “a review of the written record and is not a new hearing” (§9.05); the appellate officer “will not increase a sanction” (§9.06), sanctions take effect during the appeal unless stayed (§9.08), and the decision is final (§9.07). The 2023 PDF instead describes a Judicial Board, two weeks’ notice of a hearing, and an appeal to the Vice President of Student Affairs “within 30 days of the Board’s original decision.” The online code says the procedures in effect when a matter is addressed “will ordinarily govern the process.”

Academic integrity: a knowledge requirement, and an appeal that can go up

The Academic Integrity Policy in the 2026–2027 Catalog defines plagiarism narrowly: it “is committed when a student knowingly represents another person’s work as his/her own.” A good-faith citation error is “Misuse of Sources (not a violation),” and a “Minor” category is also “not a violation”; “Significant” and “Serious” violations involve an intent to deceive. The policy does not mention generative AI by name, so an academic misconduct charge built on an AI detector still has to fit those definitions — including knowledge.

The procedure starts with a meeting with the faculty member, and “The student may not bring anyone to this meeting.” You see the evidence and may answer it; the instructor then decides in writing. An appeal goes to the school director “within two weeks of the written decision,” and then to the school dean within two weeks of the director’s decision; the catalog does not say whether those are calendar or business weeks, so treat them as calendar. The step that surprises students is the last one: the dean may impose “a reduction or an increase in the original classification,” with the penalty adjusted to match. Unlike a conduct appeal, an integrity appeal can make things worse. Repeat findings go to the academic integrity officer, who may add probation, suspension or dismissal.

Academic standing is the financial-aid rule

Columbia’s academic standing policy and its federal satisfactory academic progress policy are the same policy, applied to every undergraduate “regardless of if they are Title IV recipients”: a 2.0 cumulative GPA, completion of 67 percent of attempted credits, and finishing within 150 percent of program length. Fall short after a warning semester and you are on “Financial Aid Suspension/Academic Dismissal” — no registration and no aid. One appeal, decided by a committee from the College Advising Center and Student Financial Services, decides both. It must explain why you fell short (death of a relative, illness or injury, an extraordinary change in circumstances, or demonstrated academic progress), document it, and show how you will recover; see SAP appeals.

The deadlines are short and give no unit: “15 days after notification” for a fall suspension, “7 days after notification” for summer, and “30 days prior to the start of Fall Enrollment” for spring. Miss the deadline or lose and you “must sit out from Columbia for at least two semesters,” show progress at another college for two semesters, and only then seek readmission. Graduate students need a 3.0 and get “7 days after notification of dismissal” for fall or summer.

Sexual misconduct: Columbia kept the cross-examination rule

Title IX cases run under Columbia’s Title IX Sexual Harassment Policy & Procedures, dated April 22, 2026; other sexual misconduct falls under its Anti-Discrimination & Harassment Policy. For sexual misconduct, the federal rule is the 2020 Title IX regulation: the 2024 rule was vacated nationwide on January 9, 2025, in Tennessee v. Cardona, and on September 29, 2026 the Department of Education formally repealed it and restored the pre-2024 text (91 Fed. Reg. 61,308). The 2020 regulation requires postsecondary institutions to hold a live hearing at which each party’s advisor conducts cross-examination, and Columbia’s policy does that, before a Hearing Panel that decides on a preponderance of the evidence. It also keeps a rule many policies dropped: if a party or witness “does not submit to cross-examination at all during the Hearing, the Panel must not rely on any statement of that person.” Advisors, who may be attorneys, otherwise only confer and may request a recess. An appeal goes to the Title IX Coordinator within ten (10) days of formal notice, and the policy makes every “day” a calendar day. In Doe v. Columbia College Chicago, 933 F.3d 849 (7th Cir. 2019), the Seventh Circuit held against a student of this college that generalized allegations about federal pressure, without case-specific facts of sex bias in that proceeding, were not enough for a Title IX claim — the student had received the investigative materials and the panel had reviewed the record.

What a student defense lawyer can do here

Most of the value is early and quiet: reading Columbia’s policy against what the college actually did; writing the response or appeal on the grounds the policy recognizes rather than the ones that feel most unfair; preserving Title IX, Section 504, ADA and FERPA issues so they are in the record if the case ever leaves campus; and finding comparators, because a sanction far outside what similar cases drew is one of the few arguments that reliably moves a decision-maker.

At Columbia the moves follow the documents. In conduct cases: lock in the ten-business-day date, use §7.06 to see what the decision will rest on, and write the appeal for a record review. In integrity cases: the knowledge element is the case, so prepare a written account before the meeting you attend alone, and weigh the dean-level appeal, because the classification can rise. In SAP cases: the appeal is documentation, and the deadline may be a week.

The limit: none of this becomes a trial. There is no discovery, the rules of evidence do not apply, and meetings cannot be recorded, so the written record is the whole case if a court ever looks at it.

The one Illinois statute that gives you procedure

Illinois has no general statute setting notice periods, hearing formats, standards of proof or appeal rights for college students. The Illinois School Code, 105 ILCS 5, has a detailed suspension and expulsion scheme, and it applies to elementary and secondary schools, not here. The exception is the Preventing Sexual Violence in Higher Education Act, 110 ILCS 155, and it is a real one. It reaches every higher education institution in the state — public universities, community colleges, and private not-for-profit and for-profit institutions alike — and it requires timely written notice of the allegations to all parties, an investigation that is adequate, reliable and impartial, written notice of the outcome, and appeal rights. It requires the school to make confidential advisors available, trained to a statutory standard and kept separate from the people deciding the case. Both parties are entitled to an advisor of their choice, and that advisor may be an attorney — although the institution may limit how far an attorney-advisor participates in a hearing, which is why Columbia College Chicago’s own rule on that, set out above, still governs what your lawyer may do in the room. The standard of proof is preponderance of the evidence, applied the same way to both sides.

What to do first

1. Use the online code, not the PDF. Save the online version as a dated PDF; if anyone at Columbia mentions 30 days, get the ten-business-day date confirmed in writing.
2. Diary the right clock: ten business days from when the conduct outcome is sent; two weeks for each integrity appeal; 15, 7 or 30 days for SAP; ten calendar days for Title IX.
3. Ask under §7.06, in writing, to review or receive a summary of the information relied upon — before the decision.
4. Write your account before the faculty meeting, since you may not bring anyone to it.
5. Gather SAP documentation now — medical, family and personal records — and send the appeal to both the College Advising Center and Student Financial Services.
6. Raise disability accommodations through Services for Students with Disabilities (§7.03); it is a Section 504 and ADA issue. The Illinois student defense hub covers the wider framework.

One honest caveat about geography. Illinois has three federal districts. I am admitted to two of them, the Northern and the Southern. A federal claim arising at a school in Springfield, Peoria, Champaign-Urbana or the Quad Cities falls in the Central District; I am not a member of that bar, and those matters I handle with local counsel in that district or by pro hac vice admission. Appeals from the Northern District 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.

Where I am licensed. I am licensed to practice law in Florida. I am admitted to the bars of the U.S. District Courts for the Southern, Middle and Northern Districts of Florida, the District of Colorado, the Northern and Southern Districts of Illinois, the District of Nebraska, the District of New Mexico, and the Western District of Wisconsin, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Federal court admission is not a license to practice the law of the state in which the court sits. I am not licensed in Illinois and do not advise on Illinois state law or appear in Illinois state court.

The federal money on the line at Columbia College Chicago

Columbia College Chicago students and families took on $41.0 million in federal Direct Loans in the 2025–26 award year — including $21.4 million borrowed by 698 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.

On the Department’s financial responsibility test, Columbia College Chicago’s most recent published composite score is 2.2 (fiscal year 2022–23) — a passing score on the –1.0-to-3.0 scale, where 1.5 and above passes. How to read that number: the federal warning signs guide.

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). Institution-wide federal Direct Loan totals.

Other schools in the Northern District of Illinois

Every school writes its own dismissal, appeal and conduct rules, and the deadlines are rarely the same from one campus to the next. These pages set out the procedure at other schools in the Northern District of Illinois:

• Concordia University Chicago
• DePaul University
• DeVry University (Illinois)
• Dominican University
• East-West University
• Elmhurst University

Common questions about Columbia College Chicago student cases

How long do I have to appeal a conduct decision at Columbia College Chicago?

Ten business days after the written outcome is sent (§9.03 of the online code), not after you read it. Ignore the 30-day figure in the PDF linked from the same page; that is the superseded March 2023 code. The appeal must name a listed ground and is decided on the written record by the Dean of Students or a designee; the decision is final.

Can I bring a lawyer to my Columbia College Chicago conduct meeting?

Yes, as your advisor — the code lists “attorney” among permitted advisors — but the advisor may not answer questions for you, examine witnesses or otherwise participate unless the law, an accommodation or the Conduct Administrator allows it. You may not bring anyone to the first academic integrity meeting. In a Title IX hearing your advisor conducts the cross-examination.

What standard of proof does Columbia use?

Preponderance of the evidence, for conduct cases (§7.07) and Title IX cases alike. In academic integrity the important rule is the definition: plagiarism requires that a student “knowingly” represent another’s work as their own, and good-faith citation mistakes are expressly not violations.

I was placed on financial aid suspension. Am I dismissed from Columbia?

For undergraduates, yes: Columbia’s academic standing policy is its satisfactory academic progress policy, so “Financial Aid Suspension” is also academic dismissal. One appeal decides both. The deadline is 15 days after notification for a fall suspension and 7 for summer, with no unit stated. If it fails, you must sit out at least two semesters and show progress elsewhere before reapplying.

Can an academic integrity appeal make things worse at Columbia?

Yes. At the final step the dean may order “a reduction or an increase in the original classification” and adjust the penalty to match. That is the opposite of the conduct code, where the appellate officer “will not increase a sanction.” Decide whether to take the last step with that risk in view.