East-West University: Student Discipline, Dismissal & Federal Court

How do student discipline and dismissal cases work at East-West University?

East-West University is a small private, non-profit university at 816 South Michigan Avenue in the South Loop, Cook County, founded as a “non-denominational institution of higher learning,” run on the quarter system, and accredited by the Higher Learning Commission since December 1983, with its next comprehensive evaluation scheduled for 2027. It offers associate and bachelor’s degrees in fields including business, computer and information science, electronics engineering technology, biology and the behavioral and social sciences. The rule that matters most is new and easy to miss: under the Policy Manual its Board approved in July 2026, an appeal from the Student Conduct Committee must be in writing and “received within five (5) business days,” it is “arbitrated through the Office of Development and Community Engagement,” and “Failure to meet the five-day requirement will remove the right to appeal the decision.”

East-West 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 East-West 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 an East-West 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.

Conduct appeals: three documents, three answers

East-West’s conduct rules appear in three places that do not agree. The Policy Manual (revised June 2026) lists the offenses in Policy AA7.05 — from academic dishonesty and unapproved phone or laptop use in class to “Dressing in blatantly inappropriate attire or attire with offensive language” — and says “The Student Conduct Committee decides on most violations,” while the Director of Security or the Provost may suspend a student “pending a hearing by the Student Conduct Committee.” Policy AA7.06 adds that “All concerned parties are required to appear before the Committee and abide by the Committee’s decision” and sets the five-business-day appeal to the Development and Community Engagement office. The online catalog, by contrast, says committee decisions “can be arbitrated through the Office of the Provost or the Office of the Chancellor,” with no deadline at all. Even the committee differs: the Policy Manual names the Facilities Manager, a member of Counseling and Student Affairs and one faculty representative; the catalog says faculty, administrative staff and students; the 2023–2025 Student Handbook says the Provost chairs it.

None of the three publishes a standard of proof for ordinary conduct cases, a minimum notice period, or a rule on advisors or attorneys at a conduct hearing. The sanctions, in Policy AA7.10, run from admonition through loss of privileges — which can include “withholding of official transcript or degree” — to conduct or disciplinary probation, suspension (which “becomes a part of the student’s permanent record”), expulsion and revocation of a degree. A student dismissed for non-academic reasons must appear before the Student Conduct Committee to be readmitted. One offense has no appeal at all: the handbook says a student with an unauthorized firearm on campus “will be expelled from the University immediately, permanently, and without recourse to appeal.” And a cross-reference in Policy AA7.08 sends conduct appeals to Policy AA7.10, which contains no appeal procedure — the procedure is in AA7.06. Read together, the safe course is to file within five business days, in writing, to the office the Policy Manual names, with copies to the Provost and the Chancellor.

Grievances: no lawyers, a placeholder, and an arbitration sentence

Policy AA7.08 treats grade appeals, academic progress appeals, conduct appeals and sexual-harassment claims as “grievances” governed by their own policies, and everything else as a “concern.” A concern starts with your advisor “within 10 days of the occurrence of the issue” — the policy does not say whether these are calendar or business days — and then goes to a department head or program chair; the department head decides within 5 working days. Escalation is a written summary to the Registrar “within 5 working days of the decision,” and a Student Grievance Committee hearing “within seven to ten working days.” At that hearing, “No attorneys or other representatives are allowed for any party”; you may bring one support person who may not testify, and the committee must give a written decision “describing the findings of fact on which the decision is based.” For non-academic concerns, the Board-approved text still names the appeal office as “XXXX” — an unfinished placeholder — so ask in writing who decides before the five working days run.

The same policy ends with a sentence every East-West student should read before anything is filed anywhere: “Students agree to resolve legal disputes and claims against East-West University using arbitration.” Whether that sentence binds a particular student, and whether it reaches a federal civil rights claim, are questions to answer before a complaint is drafted — not after the university raises them.

Academic standing: two quarters to recover, and a readmission rule that changed

Satisfactory Academic Progress is measured every quarter: a cumulative GPA of 2.0 and completion of 67% of attempted hours, within a maximum time frame of 150% of the program. A miss brings a warning quarter, then probation with an Academic Plan, then “Probation-1” and “Probation-2,” for which the student “must submit a Letter of Appeal to the Office of Counseling and Student Affairs.” At the end of the second quarter the student must meet both standards; “Otherwise student will be dismissed.” Appeals rest on documented extenuating circumstances, and the policy is unforgiving about paperwork: “Incomplete appeals (appeals without supporting documentation) will not be reviewed nor responded to.” The Academic Progress Committee — a faculty chair, the Registrar and the Director of Financial Aid — hears the appeals, needs every member present, and decides by majority. A financial-aid grievance goes to the Director of Financial Aid, whose decision “is final.” No deadline for an academic progress appeal is published.

What happens after academic dismissal depends on which document you read. The Policy Manual and the online catalog say a student whose appeal is denied must sit out “at least one quarter,” finish a quarter elsewhere with a 2.0, and is readmitted in good standing. The 2023–2025 Student Handbook — still the handbook East-West posts — says “at least three consecutive quarters,” readmission on probation, and permanent dismissal for a further failure, and adds that academically dismissed students “are ineligible to appeal their academic standing.” The Policy Manual is the newer, Board-approved text; cite it, and put the conflict in writing when you apply. Academic forgiveness — dropping one bad term from the GPA after a later full-time quarter at 2.0 — is granted “only once” and only on “clear and convincing evidence of a renewed commitment to advancing their education,” a heavier burden than the one East-West uses to find sexual misconduct.

Grade appeals are tight. The student must first ask the instructor for a conference “no later than ten (10) working days after the start of the next quarter,” then go to the program director within five working days of that meeting, then to the Provost within ten working days of the director’s decision. The grounds are limited to departures from the announced grading procedure, errors in applying it, grades changed for nonacademic reasons, and “Gross error in judgment by the instructor.” Plagiarism under Policy AA1.09 is handled by the instructor: a zero and a required meeting for the first account, a failing grade in the course for the second, with no hearing described.

Title IX: the investigator also sits on the deciding committee

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). East-West’s published procedures describe something different. Its Title IX web page has the Title IX Coordinator investigate, finish within sixty days, and then meet each party separately to review the findings; an appeal is requested by contacting the Provost’s office, with no deadline. Policy AA7.13 in the 2026 Policy Manual gives different numbers — reports within 180 days of the incident, investigations “normally” within 90 calendar days plus 30 calendar days for a report — and sends formal cases to the Student Conduct Committee, where the parties “may not directly ‘cross-examine’ one another” but may suggest questions through the chair, and the committee decides by majority on a preponderance of the evidence. Neither document describes questioning by advisors. And the web page names the university’s Facilities Manager as Title IX Coordinator, while the Policy Manual lists the Facilities Manager as a member of the Student Conduct Committee. If the person who investigated your Title IX case also sits on the panel deciding it, object in writing before the hearing.

What a student defense lawyer can do here

Most of the value is early and quiet. It is reading East-West’s rules against what was actually done and finding the gap; writing the response or the appeal so it argues the grounds the rules recognize 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 East-West, two moves matter most. First, beat the shortest clock: file any conduct appeal in writing within five business days, delivered so it is received, to every office the university’s documents name — and argue the conflict afterward rather than lose the appeal over it. Second, hold the university to its own Student Bill of Rights, which promises that students will be “protected by well-defined procedures designed to prevent prejudiced or capricious evaluation by professors” and may “Appeal academic grades.” That language tracks the arbitrary-and-capricious question a court would ask, and an appeal that quotes it builds the record a court would later read.

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 everything: 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 East-West’s own rule on that — which it does not publish for sexual-misconduct hearings — 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. Count five business days from any conduct decision, and make sure the appeal is received. The Policy Manual says lateness “will remove the right to appeal.” Send it by email and by hand, to the Office of Development and Community Engagement, the Provost and the Chancellor.
2. Collect all three rulebooks. Save the June 2026 Policy Manual, the 2023–2025 Student Handbook and the online catalog pages as PDFs with the date visible. Where they conflict, quote the conflict.
3. Ask, in writing, for the evidence and the names of the decision-makers. Request the incident reports, the investigation file and the committee roster, and ask who will chair.
4. Document every academic appeal. Attach the medical notes, letters and records that support the extenuating circumstances — the policy says appeals without them “will not be reviewed nor responded to.”
5. Read the arbitration sentence before going outside the university. It is in Policy AA7.08. The Illinois overview page explains how campus cases reach court.
6. Raise disability early. If accommodations were requested and not provided, say so in the first written response; it is a Section 504 and ADA issue that belongs in the record now.

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 East-West

East-West University students and families took on $1.8 million in federal Direct Loans in the 2025–26 award year.

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, East-West 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:

• Elmhurst University
• Erikson Institute
• Fox College
• Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary
• Generations College
• Governors State University

Common questions about East-West University student cases

How long do I have to appeal a conduct decision at East-West?

Five business days, under Policy AA7.06 of the Policy Manual approved in July 2026: the appeal must be in writing and “received within five (5) business days,” and missing it “will remove the right to appeal the decision.” The online catalog sends appeals to the Provost or the Chancellor and names no deadline, but the safe course is to meet the five-day rule and send copies to every office the documents name.

Can I bring a lawyer to an East-West hearing?

Not to a Student Grievance Committee hearing: Policy AA7.08 says “No attorneys or other representatives are allowed for any party,” though you may bring one support person who may not testify. East-West publishes no advisor or attorney rule for Student Conduct Committee hearings. In a sexual-violence case, the Illinois statute described above entitles both parties to an advisor of their choice, who may be an attorney.

What standard of proof does East-West use?

Preponderance of the evidence — “more likely than not” — for sexual misconduct, under both the Title IX web page and Policy AA7.13, with the Student Conduct Committee deciding by majority vote. For other conduct charges, academic progress appeals and plagiarism findings, East-West publishes no standard of proof. On grade appeals, the handbook says the instructor’s judgment is “normally deemed final and conclusive.”

I was academically dismissed from East-West. How long before I can come back?

It depends on the document. The Policy Manual and the online catalog say at least one quarter away, a quarter at another school with a 2.0, and readmission in good standing. The 2023–2025 Student Handbook says at least three consecutive quarters elsewhere and readmission on probation. The Policy Manual is the newer, Board-approved text; cite it, and raise the conflict in writing with Counseling and Student Affairs.

Does East-West’s arbitration sentence stop me from suing?

The sentence alone does not answer that. Policy AA7.08 says “Students agree to resolve legal disputes and claims against East-West University using arbitration.” Whether it binds you depends on facts — what you signed and when, and what kind of claim is involved — and it should be assessed before any complaint is drafted. In the meantime, keep preserving your issues in writing on campus, inside every deadline.