Morrison Institute of Technology: Student Discipline, Dismissal & Federal Court

How do student discipline and dismissal cases work at Morrison Tech?

Morrison Institute of Technology — Morrison Tech — is a small, private, not-for-profit technical college in Morrison, in Whiteside County, founded in 1973. It is accredited by the Council on Occupational Education, its Engineering Technology program by the ETAC commission of ABET, and it awards the Associate in Applied Science in engineering technology and network administration; most first-year students under 21 from more than 60 miles away must live in its residence hall. Its student handbook sends discipline appeals to a five-member Appeal/Waiver Board and then to a hearing before the Board of Directors — and publishes no deadline for either step, while a harassment finding must be appealed “within three (3) days,” without saying whether those are calendar or business days.

Morrison Institute of Technology 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 Morrison Institute of Technology is filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois — Whiteside County sits in its Western Division under 28 U.S.C. § 93(a), and the statute fixes the places of holding court for that division at Freeport and Rockford. 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 Morrison Tech 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.

Discipline and the Appeal/Waiver Board

The Student Handbook (Revision C) linked from the college’s consumer-information page lists fifteen sanctions, up to “withholding of transcript or degree,” suspension and expulsion. Cheating can bring “an ‘F’ for the assignment, in addition to possible disciplinary action,” and students who “consistently fail to attend classes, fail to act honestly and responsibly” or misbehave in class may be dismissed “from one or all of their classes by the administration.” Appeals go to the Appeal/Waiver Board — in the handbook, the President, the Dean of Academic Advancement, the Vice President in Charge of Academic Affairs and two faculty members — after which the student may “contact the college President to schedule a hearing before the college’s Board of Directors.” No deadline, standard of proof or advisor rule is published. The 2023 Residence Hall Handbook lists the board differently, with a Vice President of Financial Affairs in place of the Dean, and requires housing appeals “within one week following notification.” See conduct code defense.

Residence-hall cases carry another rule: when evidence turns up in an apartment and cannot be tied to anyone, “all students currently renting that apartment whether present at the time of evidence discovery or not … may be considered to be in violation until further information is disclosed.” The Residence Hall Supervisor meets each student involved, and a student who skips the meeting is decided “without benefit of that student’s input.”

Academic progress: one warning term, then dismissal

The 2022–2024 College Catalog — still the edition the college links — sets minimum cumulative GPAs of 1.50 through 17 attempted hours, 1.75 through 36 and 2.00 after that, plus 67% completion and the 150% limit. A student who misses them gets one term of warning, and “A student who fails to meet SAP after one term on financial aid warning will be dismissed from the College.” The appeal goes to the Vice President of Academic Affairs with a form, a letter and documentation; “Appeals submitted without all three required components will not be reviewed,” and no deadline is published. Readmission after an academic dismissal requires a written request to the Appeal/Waiver Board “30 days prior to the start of the semester” — the catalog does not say whether calendar or business days — with a further appeal to the Board of Directors, whose decision is final. See academic dismissal and readmission after dismissal.

Harassment and sexual misconduct: three days to appeal

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). Morrison Tech’s Protection Against Discriminatory Harassment policy, posted in 2023, runs an Equity Resolution Process: investigators drawn from the Appeal/Waiver Board, a three-member hearing panel, and findings on “a preponderance of the evidence.” Parties may question witnesses, “though formal cross-examination is not used between the parties” — so ask the Title IX Coordinator in writing, at the start, how any hearing will be run under the current federal rule. An advisor “may be a friend, mentor, family member, attorney or any other supporter,” but “Advisors may not address campus officials in a meeting or interview unless invited to.” An appeal is due “within three (3) days of the delivery of the written finding” — the policy does not say whether calendar or business days — to the Title IX Coordinator, for a panel of the Board of Directors; the published text still contains a bracketed drafting note, “[Option: …],” about whether a second appeal exists. See Title IX appeals.

What a student defense lawyer can do here

Most of the value is early and quiet: reading Morrison Tech’s policy against what the school actually did; writing the response or appeal on the grounds the policy recognizes, not 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 finding comparators, because a sanction far outside what similar cases drew is one of the few arguments that reliably moves a decision-maker.

At Morrison Tech, two moves are specific. With no published deadline, the appeal should go to the Appeal/Waiver Board at once, with a written request to the registrar for “the necessary forms and procedures.” And in a residence-hall case, the meeting with the Residence Hall Supervisor is effectively the hearing: attend it, with specific facts about who rented, who was present and what was found.

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 Morrison Tech decides its own case at first instance. That is 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 Morrison Tech’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.

Outside the harassment policy, the student handbook says only that “A support person may be present during the complaint process,” so ask in writing whether that person may speak.

What to do first

1. Appeal in writing now. No deadline is published for discipline; housing appeals run one week, and harassment findings three days, which you should count as calendar days.
2. Ask the registrar in writing for the appeal forms and procedures, and who sits on the board.
3. Save what the college links today — the catalog, both handbooks and the harassment policy — with dates visible.
4. For readmission, file 30 days before the semester starts, counting calendar days.
5. Raise disability early, in writing to the Title IX/Section 504 Coordinator. For how cases work across the state, see the Illinois student defense hub.

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.

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:

• National Louis University
• National University of Health Sciences
• North Central College
• North Park University
• Northeastern Illinois University
• Northern Baptist Theological Seminary

Common questions about Morrison Tech student cases

How long do I have to appeal a disciplinary decision at Morrison Tech?

The student handbook gives no deadline: appeals go to the Appeal/Waiver Board, then to a hearing before the Board of Directors. Residence-hall discipline must be appealed “within one week following notification,” and a harassment finding “within three (3) days” of the written finding, a period the policy does not label calendar or business days. File at once.

Can Morrison Tech dismiss me for low grades?

Yes. After one term of financial aid warning, a student who still misses the GPA or completion standard “will be dismissed from the College.” An appeal with a form, letter and documentation goes to the Vice President of Academic Affairs, and incomplete appeals are not reviewed. Readmission requires a written request to the Appeal/Waiver Board 30 days before the semester; the catalog does not say calendar or business days.

Can I be disciplined for something found in my residence hall apartment that was not mine?

Possibly. The Residence Hall Handbook says that when evidence cannot be tied to a specific student, everyone renting that apartment, present or not, may be considered in violation “until further information is disclosed.” Attend the meeting with the Residence Hall Supervisor and give specific facts, because a decision will be made without you if you do not.

Can I bring a lawyer to a Morrison Tech hearing?

In a harassment or sexual misconduct case, yes: the policy lets an advisor be an attorney, though advisors may not address campus officials unless invited. For ordinary discipline, the handbook mentions only a “support person” in complaints and says nothing about the Appeal/Waiver Board or Board of Directors hearing. Ask the President’s office in writing.