Pacific College of Health and Science (Chicago): Student Discipline, Dismissal & Federal Court

How do student discipline and dismissal cases work at Pacific College?

Pacific College of Health and Science is a private, for-profit college with campuses in New York, San Diego and Chicago. The Chicago campus, at 230 West Monroe Street downtown since spring 2025, sits in Cook County and teaches the master’s and doctoral acupuncture programs, with and without Chinese herbal medicine, and an herbal medicine certificate. The college is accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission, its acupuncture programs by ACAHM, and the Illinois Board of Higher Education authorizes it to grant degrees here. The fact that matters most is new: the 2026–27 catalog, in force from the fall 2026 term, rebuilt the discipline rules, and every new appeal procedure shuts out third parties — “including but not limited to family members, friends, attorneys, retained advocates, advisors” — and warns that a student who misses a scheduled meeting will “forfeit their right to participate in the process.”

Pacific College of Health and Science 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 Pacific College of Health and Science’s Chicago campus 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 Pacific College 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.

Which rulebook governs: a new catalog and a pending transfer

Pacific College publishes one catalog for all campuses, revised several times a year; the current edition is the 2026–27 catalog, version 3, dated September 17, 2026, and it states that “the most recent catalog published online supersedes all previously published editions.” A notice to students explained that before this year the college “relied primarily on a general grievance and complaint procedure,” and that new academic-appeal, conduct and academic-integrity procedures apply from fall 2026. If your case concerns events before then, get the 2025–26 catalog too; the college posts every edition on its catalog page.

There is a second reason to fix the date. In October 2025 Pacific College announced an agreement under which its Chicago and San Diego campuses would join Southern California University of Health Sciences (SCU), pending regulatory approval, with SCU’s announcement anticipating May 2026. As of early October 2026 that had not happened on the public record: the September 2026 catalog still covers Chicago, WSCUC lists Chicago as an active Pacific College location, and the October 1, 2026 security report for the Chicago campus is issued in Pacific College’s name. If the transfer closes, SCU’s rules would take over from that point, so note which institution’s documents were in force on the dates that matter.

Conduct: a zero-tolerance code, decided by one administrator

The Code of Conduct and Professional Standards declares “a zero-tolerance policy” toward conduct that violates standards of respect, safety and professionalism, and it reaches the classroom, online courses, labs, the clinic and social media. Its list is broad and clinic-shaped: gossip and “defamation,” “badgering,” disrespect toward patients or clinic staff, inaccurate or falsified documentation, HIPAA breaches — “Posting any patient/client-related content online, even without names, is strictly prohibited” — impairment, failing to report unsafe conditions, misrepresenting credentials, and treating anyone outside approved, supervised settings. Reports are due within 72 hours, or within 24 hours if patient safety, the clinic or a lab is involved. More on conduct code defense is on its own page.

There is no hearing in the procedure. The “first-level leader” — an assistant or associate dean, program director or department chair — investigates, interviews the people involved and the accused student, and sends written findings and any sanction, all “within three (3) weeks” of the report. The catalog states no standard of proof. Sanctions are “not necessarily sequential”: conduct probation, which can last until you finish the program and can include administrative withdrawal from courses or removal from clinic placements “resulting in course failures” that “trigger the progression policy”; suspension for the term after the one in which the violation occurred; or expulsion, which “is immediate” and bars reapplying to any program. That clinic consequence is why a conduct charge here is also a clinical removal problem.

The appeal runs in two steps, each on a one-week clock. The written appeal goes to the Vice President and Dean “within one (1) week of receiving the sanction notification,” stating why it is justified, any new evidence and the outcome you want; the decision is due within three weeks. A final appeal goes to the Provost and Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs within one (1) week, and that decision is due within one week and is final. The catalog counts in weeks and does not define them; count seven calendar days from the day the email arrives.

Academic integrity: the sanction first, the appeal after

The new Academic Integrity and Dishonesty policy defines cheating, plagiarism, fabrication, unauthorized collaboration and “Misuse of Technology and Artificial Intelligence,” and says there is “no pre-determined or uniform sanction.” The faculty member confers with the first-level leader, and the sanction arrives by email: a citation that goes on your academic record; course failure up to a one-term program suspension; or expulsion, again with no right to reapply. The college’s AI policy lets students use AI to brainstorm, outline and edit but not to “simply tell an LLM/AI to solve a problem or write an essay,” and requires all use to be documented. More on AI integrity accusations is on its own page.

Appeals follow the conduct pattern. A citation or course failure is appealed within one (1) week — to the first-level leader, or to the Vice President and Dean if the first-level leader imposed it — with a decision due within three weeks; the Vice President and Dean’s decision is final for these sanctions. A suspension or expulsion can go further, to the Provost and Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs within one week; the catalog’s own text sets that decision “within one three (3) weeks,” a drafting slip worth noting if the decision is late. Keep attending and meeting deadlines during the appeal unless you have been administratively withdrawn.

Grades, probation and disqualification

A grade or clinical evaluation can be appealed as inaccurate, as not reflecting your performance, or as assigned “in a manner that is arbitrary or capricious.” After a conversation with the faculty member, the written appeal goes to the first-level leader within two (2) weeks of receiving the grade; the decision is due within three weeks; a final appeal goes to the Vice President and Dean within one week, with a decision within three weeks. See grade appeals.

Probation follows a GPA below 2.0, an F or WF, or a comprehensive-exam failure. Disqualification — being “barred from further attendance” — follows a cumulative or probation-term GPA below 2.0 after a term on probation, an F during probation, failing the same required class twice, or failing classes in consecutive terms as a graduate student. Comprehensive exams carry their own trap: a student who attends clinic beyond the permitted point without passing, absent written permission, gets no credit and “will be disqualified,” and a fourth failure of any section ends the program. The catalog publishes no appeal from disqualification; the routes are a petition on unsatisfactory-progress status to the Student Success Committee for extenuating circumstances, and reapplying after completing requirements the academic dean assigns, with no promise of readmission. See academic probation.

Interim suspension, sexual misconduct and the transcript

The campus director may impose an interim suspension on reasonable cause to protect lives, property or order, and any clinical faculty member or clinic director may immediately suspend a clinical trainee to protect “the health and welfare of persons and/or the professional reputation of the school.” A suspended student may not enter the premises “other than to attend a disciplinary hearing” — a hearing the conduct code itself never provides.

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). Pacific College names a Title IX Representative, the Vice President of Student Services, but publishes no Chicago procedure for deciding a sexual misconduct complaint: the student hub’s Title IX page links a policy address that now redirects to the college blog, the sexual misconduct policy on the consumer-information page is the New York campus’s, and the Chicago security report gives no hearing procedure, standard of proof or advisor rule. Ask for the governing procedure in writing at the start. The catalog also provides that a student found responsible for a crime of violence gets a transcript notation — “suspended after a finding of responsibility for a code of conduct violation” or the expulsion equivalent — and one who withdraws while charges are pending gets “withdrew with conduct charges pending.” More on Title IX and sexual misconduct is on its own page.

What a student defense lawyer can do here

Most of the value is early and quiet. It is reading Pacific College’s policy against what it 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.

Two moves are specific to Pacific College. First, the catalog lets no lawyer contact the college about an appeal, so the work happens behind you: preparing you for the investigative interview, which you must attend when scheduled, and drafting an appeal you sign and send within the one-week window. Second, because conduct probation can strip clinic placements and produce course failures that trigger the progression rules, argue proportionality early, before an administrative withdrawal turns a conduct finding into an academic record.

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 college 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 Pacific College’s own rule on that — which it does not publish for this campus — 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 sexual misconduct, Pacific College’s rule is published and blunt: in conduct, integrity, grade and grievance matters, third parties including attorneys “may not participate in, communicate on behalf of the student regarding, or otherwise intervene in the process.”

What to do first

1. Count seven calendar days. Conduct and integrity appeals are due within one week of the sanction email, grade appeals within two. If a notice gives a different date, work to the shorter.
2. Read your email daily and attend every meeting. Notices of interviews arrive by email, work and personal commitments are not considered in scheduling, and a missed meeting forfeits your say.
3. Save the catalog in force when the events happened — the 2026–27 edition, or 2025–26 for earlier events — with the date visible, and note the SCU transition if it closes.
4. Ask, in writing, for the evidence. Request the report, the interview notes and the first-level leader’s findings, so your appeal answers what was actually relied on.
5. Say if a disability is involved. Pacific College’s ADA/504 Coordinator sits in Student Services; an accommodation problem behind a grade or a clinic incident belongs in the record now. See also 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.

The federal money on the line at Pacific College

Pacific College of Health and Science students and families, across all of its campuses, took on $25.2 million in federal Direct Loans in the 2025–26 award year — with 235 graduate and professional students also borrowing through Grad 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.

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, all campuses.

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:

• Rasmussen University (Rockford, Illinois)
• Rockford Career College
• Rockford University
• Roosevelt University
• Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science
• Rush University

Common questions about Pacific College student cases

How long do I have to appeal a conduct sanction at Pacific College?

One week. The 2026–27 catalog requires a written appeal to the Vice President and Dean “within one (1) week of receiving the sanction notification,” with a decision due within three weeks, then a final appeal to the Provost and Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs within one week, decided within one week. The catalog does not define a week, so count seven calendar days from the email.

Can my lawyer or my parents contact Pacific College about my appeal?

No. Every new appeal procedure in the 2026–27 catalog bars third parties — “including but not limited to family members, friends, attorneys, retained advocates, advisors” — from participating or communicating on your behalf, and the college communicates only with you. You can still get advice privately; the appeal itself must come from you.

Does Pacific College hold a hearing before suspending or expelling a student?

Not under the published conduct code. The first-level leader investigates, interviews those involved, and issues written findings and any sanction within three weeks; no hearing and no standard of proof are described, and expulsion “is immediate.” Your protection is the two-step appeal, each step due within one week, so the written appeal has to carry the whole case.

What happens if I miss a meeting during a Pacific College investigation?

The catalog says a student who misses a scheduled meeting will “forfeit their right to participate in the process” and to have their side considered in deciding sanctions, and that work or personal commitments cannot be considered when meetings are scheduled. Meetings may be in person or by video. Watch your college email and confirm every appointment in writing.

Can Pacific College remove me from the clinic?

Yes, in two ways. Any clinical faculty member or clinic director may immediately impose an interim suspension on a clinical trainee to protect the health and welfare of persons or “the professional reputation of the school,” and conduct probation can include removal from clinic placements for the rest of the term, producing course failures that trigger the progression policy. Respond in writing at once.