DePaul University: Student Discipline, Dismissal & Federal Court

How do student discipline and dismissal cases work at DePaul?

DePaul is a private, not-for-profit Catholic university in the Vincentian tradition, with campuses in Lincoln Park and the Loop in Cook County, accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. The single most useful fact in its rules is how completely its ordinary conduct process shuts lawyers out. Under the Code of Student Responsibility, an advisor must be a current member of the DePaul community, and outside legal counsel “may not attend any meetings or hearings, and does not have a role in the Student Conduct Process.” The same Code says that interim sanctions — which “could include, for example, a suspension” — “may not be appealed.” Both rules change in sexual-misconduct cases, and the nursing programs run a separate clock measured in hours.

DePaul University 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 DePaul University 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 DePaul 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.

The Code of Student Responsibility: quick hearings, ten business days to appeal

The Dean of Students Office runs the Student Conduct Process under the Code of Student Responsibility in the 2026–2027 catalog; Academic Affairs runs academic integrity separately. At the start you are entitled to a written statement of the alleged violations “in sufficient enough detail to prepare,” “reasonable access” to the information that will be considered, and the names of the people who will decide, with a chance to ask for a substitution for conflict or bias. The University then chooses an administrative hearing — before one hearing officer, aiming to start within five business days of the initial meetings, with the complainant and you never in the same meeting — or a University Board hearing before a panel of trained students, faculty and staff, aiming to start within seven business days. At a Board hearing you may offer questions to the chair, who “may decline to ask any question provided,” and the panel learns of any previous conduct matters before it sets a sanction. Every decision turns on “whether it is more likely than not” that you violated the policy, and the University aims to issue a written decision within ten business days. If you do not take part, the decision is made on the information available, and missing a deadline “may result in a student’s inability to participate.” See conduct code defense.

The interim rule is the hardest one. DePaul “reserves the right to immediately impose interim sanctions at any point,” including suspension, where it sees an ongoing threat to a person or property or a risk of disruption, and “Interim sanctions may not be appealed.” The only protection is a commitment to take “reasonable measures” to reach a final decision within ten business days of the interim sanction — a deadline the University may extend in its sole discretion. See interim suspension.

An appeal must be submitted in writing “within ten business days of being notified of the initial decision,” typically to the Dean of Students after a Board hearing or to the hearing officer’s supervisor after an administrative one. Only three grounds count: a substantial procedural error that made the process or decision “fundamentally unfair,” new substantive information that could not have been considered, or an initial sanction that was “fundamentally unfair, disproportionate, or inappropriate.” Unless the reviewer orders otherwise, sanctions take effect “once a hearing is completed, regardless of whether an appeal is requested.” If the appeal is granted, the reviewer may modify the sanction or order a new hearing; the decision whether to grant it is final. DePaul’s law student handbook adds that a student dismissed for a conduct-related reason, “such as through the Student Conduct Process or the Academic Integrity process,” is not eligible for readmission to the University.

Advisors must be DePaul people — except in sexual misconduct cases

In an ordinary conduct case you may bring one advisor to any meeting or hearing, but the advisor must be “a member of the DePaul University community,” must be approved in advance, and “may not directly address” the board, the hearing officer “or anyone else present.” The Dean of Students keeps a pool of trained faculty and staff advisors you can ask for. The Code then says it outright: students “are prohibited from having an attorney or legal representative who is not a current member of the DePaul community be an advisor,” and while you may consult or retain a lawyer, that lawyer “may not attend any meetings or hearings.” An advisor’s availability also “shall not unreasonably interfere with or delay” the process. You may bring a language interpreter at your own expense, in addition to your advisor.

Sexual and relationship violence cases follow different rules. Under the Sexual and Relationship Violence Prevention and Response policy (effective September 21, 2026), both parties may have “an advisor of their choice (including legal counsel)” at any meeting, including hearings, if they give notice “no later than two business days prior,” though the advisor “does not have a speaking or otherwise active role.” Conduct within the federal definition goes through the Formal Title IX Sexual Harassment Policy and Procedures (effective May 13, 2026): a live hearing at which each party’s advisor questions the other party and witnesses “directly, orally, and in real time.” An attorney may be that advisor but “has no different role,” and if the advisor is a lawyer, a representative of the Office of the General Counsel “also will attend the hearing.” The hearing officer decides by preponderance of the evidence; the parties may instead agree in writing to an administrative adjudication and withdraw from it to request a hearing. An appeal is due “within seven (7) calendar days” of notice of the determination, and the policy closes every deadline at 5:00 p.m. central time. 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). See Title IX hearings.

Academic integrity: violations “do not require intent”

DePaul’s catalog statement of its Academic Integrity Policy is blunt: “Violations do not require intent.” Under the policy itself (approved by the Provost on September 19, 2023), the instructor sets the initial sanction, which can go “up to, and including, failure in the course,” and the Associate Provost reviews it. The instructor must file the violation and notify you through Campus Connection “before the end of the third week of classes in the term following the quarter” of the violation, and you may stay in the course while the case proceeds. See AI-related accusations.

The choices that follow are tactical. On a first violation you may request a hearing before the Academic Integrity Board “no later than 14 days following notification” — the policy does not say whether calendar or business days — and the hearing “cannot result in an additional penalty.” But the policy bars any appeal from the outcome of a hearing you request yourself, so that hearing is your one review. A second violation triggers a mandatory hearing, and an egregious first one may too; at those hearings the Board can add sanctions of its own, from a reprimand with or without a transcript notation to suspension, program dismissal, dismissal or degree revocation, each of the last four automatically noted on the transcript. A Board sanction may be appealed “within 5 days of being notified” — again without a unit — and you count as notified “once the email is sent.” Hearings are held before three faculty and two students, not during summer, with an outcome within four weeks. The policy states no standard of proof. DePaul’s own guidance encourages students to submit documents such as Google Docs version history, and for a writing accusation it is often the strongest evidence available.

Nursing: a 72-hour window after dismissal

The School of Nursing’s BSN and Master’s Entry to Nursing Practice (MENP) handbooks, both revised September 25, 2026, are strict about grades. BSN students need a 2.75 GPA and a C+ in nursing courses: a C or below means probation and a repeat, and missing the standard again means dismissal from the program, though not from DePaul. MENP students need a 3.0; a C or C- means probation, a retake with every other course dropped for that quarter, and possibly a quarter out waiting for a clinical seat, while “a D+ or lower in any course” means dismissal. A student may be placed on probation no more than twice during the program. Withdrawing from a core course while not in good standing is allowed once; a second time means dismissal.

The Admission, Progression and Retention (APR) Committee enforces these rules, and its appeal clock is measured in hours: a dismissed student who wants reinstatement must contact the APR Committee “within 72 hours from their notification of dismissal,” with an explanation and a corrective plan. While that review runs, you cannot take part in direct patient care. If the committee says no, you are removed from all class rosters immediately and may petition the Director of the School of Nursing “within a week” — the Director’s decision is final — and a student “may only be reinstated once.” In the BSN handbook, unsafe clinical practice brings immediate suspension from the clinical experience, a written report, a grade hold under which you may not withdraw from the course, and a meeting, ordinarily within three working days, at which you may bring your advisor and which decides whether you return or are administratively withdrawn with an F. See nursing school dismissal.

The College of Law: dismissal is “typically final”

A full-time first-year JD student is dismissed below a 2.000 cumulative GPA after the first semester and below 2.300 after the second, and every student must hold 2.300 at the end of each academic year. “Academic dismissals from the College of Law are typically final.” Readmission runs through a Readmissions Committee of at least five faculty whose decisions “are final and are not subject to appeal.” First-year students may petition only between January 15 and March 1 of the following academic year; later-year students by August 1. You must show “extraordinary and unforeseeable circumstances” that no longer interfere, the capacity to be admitted to the bar, and — in a curious mismatch with the 2.300 rule that governs readmitted students — the ability to raise your GPA to 2.000 within two semesters. A denied petition may be refiled once, within two years of dismissal. See law school academic standing.

The College of Law Honor Code adds its own layer. Students are “conclusively presumed to know” it, failing to report a suspected violation is itself a violation, and no degree is granted while a proceeding is pending. Unlike the University policy, the Honor Code has a mental-state standard: a student is responsible only if the student “knew or should have known that there was a high probability” the act would be found a violation. Character and fitness matter too — the Dean certifies each graduate to bar examiners, and failing to update your law school application with adverse events can itself be charged under the Honor Code.

What a student defense lawyer can do here

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

At DePaul that work happens entirely outside the room in ordinary conduct cases, since counsel cannot attend, so it goes into the written statement, the witness information and the ten-business-day appeal on the Code’s three grounds. Two decisions are specific. In an academic-integrity case, whether to request the student-initiated hearing is a one-shot choice, because its outcome cannot be appealed; it should be made with the evidence, including version history, assembled first. In nursing, the reinstatement application must be ready within 72 hours, which in practice means drafting it the moment a dismissal looks possible.

What a lawyer cannot do is turn a campus process into a trial. The rules of evidence do not apply, there is no discovery, and the school decides its own case at first instance. That is exactly why the written record built during the campus process is the whole ballgame: by the time a court looks at it, the record is closed.

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 DePaul’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.

DePaul’s split follows that line exactly: legal counsel may accompany a party in a sexual or relationship violence case, but may not attend an ordinary conduct meeting or hearing at all.

What to do first

1. Find your clock. Code appeal: ten business days from notice. Title IX appeal: seven calendar days, closing at 5:00 p.m. central time. Academic-integrity hearing request: 14 days; Board-sanction appeal: 5 days, from when the email is sent — neither unit is stated, so count calendar days. Nursing reinstatement: 72 hours, then one week to the Director.
2. Ask for the information in writing. The Code promises “reasonable access” to what will be considered; request it by email so the date exists.
3. Choose your advisor early. In a Code case it must be a DePaul community member approved in advance; in a sexual-violence case, give two business days’ notice of any advisor, including a lawyer.
4. Preserve your drafts. Version history, notes and submission timestamps answer a no-intent integrity charge better than any explanation.
5. Raise disability early. Students registered with the Center for Students with Disabilities may request accommodations in the conduct process through the Dean of Students. See the Illinois student defense page for other campuses.

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 DePaul

DePaul University students and families took on $172.2 million in federal Direct Loans in the 2025–26 award year — including $57.9 million borrowed by 2,078 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, DePaul University’s most recent published composite score is 3.0 (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:

• DeVry University (Illinois)
• Dominican University
• East-West University
• Elmhurst University
• Erikson Institute
• Fox College

Common questions about DePaul student cases

Can I bring a lawyer to my DePaul conduct hearing?

Not in an ordinary Code of Student Responsibility case. Your advisor must be a current member of the DePaul community, and outside counsel “may not attend any meetings or hearings,” though you may consult one privately. The rule changes for sexual and relationship violence: there you may bring an advisor of your choice, including legal counsel, with two business days’ notice, and in a Title IX hearing your advisor — who may be a lawyer — questions the other party and witnesses.

How long do I have to appeal at DePaul?

Ten business days after you are notified of a conduct decision, on three grounds. Seven calendar days in a Title IX case. In academic integrity, 14 days to request a hearing on a first violation and 5 days to appeal a Board sanction, counted from when the email is sent; the policy gives no unit for either, so count calendar days. Nursing dismissals are the tightest: 72 hours to contact the APR Committee, then a week to petition the Director.

Can I appeal an interim suspension at DePaul?

No. The Code of Student Responsibility says plainly that “Interim sanctions may not be appealed,” and an interim sanction can include suspension. What the Code offers instead is a commitment to take reasonable measures to reach a final decision within ten business days of the interim sanction, a deadline the University may extend. That makes speed your leverage: ask in writing for the initial meetings and the hearing to be scheduled promptly.

I was dismissed from DePaul’s nursing program. What is my deadline?

Seventy-two hours. Both the BSN and MENP handbooks require a dismissed student seeking reinstatement to contact the APR Committee “within 72 hours from their notification of dismissal,” with an explanation and a corrective plan. You may not do direct patient care while it decides. If it refuses, you may petition the Director of the School of Nursing within a week; that decision is final, and a student may be reinstated only once.

Can I be readmitted to DePaul’s College of Law after an academic dismissal?

Sometimes. Dismissals are “typically final,” but you may petition the Readmissions Committee — between January 15 and March 1 of the next academic year if dismissed in your first year, or by August 1 if later. You must show extraordinary, unforeseeable circumstances that no longer interfere, the capacity to raise your GPA, and capacity for bar admission. The committee’s decision cannot be appealed; a denied petition may be refiled once, within two years of dismissal.