Rend Lake College: Student Discipline, Dismissal & Federal Court

How do student discipline and dismissal cases work at Rend Lake?

Rend Lake is a public community college at Ina, in Jefferson County, serving Illinois Community College District 521. Two features of its rules shape almost every case here. First, Rend Lake counts in calendar days — its policy states that “all references to days mean calendar days unless specified otherwise,” so weekends and holidays are inside your deadline, not outside it. Second, its advisor rule is the flattest prohibition in the district: whoever comes with you may not speak at all.

Rend Lake College is a public institution, so two bodies of law apply on top of its own handbook. The first is constitutional due process: the school is a state actor, and Goss v. Lopez, 419 U.S. 565 (1975), requires notice of the charge and a meaningful chance to respond. The second is the deference courts give genuine academic judgment — Board of Curators of the University of Missouri v. Horowitz, 435 U.S. 78 (1978), and Regents of the University of Michigan v. Ewing, 474 U.S. 214 (1985), under which an academic decision stands unless it is such a substantial departure from accepted academic norms that no professional judgment was actually exercised.

Illinois law treats a community college differently from a state university, and the difference matters. Review of the board’s disciplinary decision does not run through the Illinois Administrative Review Law, which the Public Community College Act does not adopt for these matters; the vehicle is a common-law writ of certiorari in the circuit court — Maas v. Board of Trustees of Community College District No. 529, 94 Ill. App. 3d 562 (1981) — on which the court asks whether the board proceeded legally and whether the evidence supports what it did, not whether it was right. A community college district is a local public entity, not the State: it falls under the Local Governmental and Governmental Employees Tort Immunity Act, 745 ILCS 10/1-206, rather than the Court of Claims Act, so a breach-of-contract claim against it is brought in circuit court — Luciano v. Waubonsee Community College, 245 Ill. App. 3d 1077 (1993). And in federal court the district has no Eleventh Amendment immunity — Hostrop v. Board of Junior College District No. 515, 523 F.2d 569 (7th Cir. 1975) — so under Monell v. Department of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658 (1978), it can be sued under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 where its own policy or custom caused the constitutional violation.

A federal claim arising at Rend Lake College is filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois — Jefferson County sits in that district under 28 U.S.C. § 93(c), and the court holds sessions at East St. Louis, Benton, Alton and Cairo. I was admitted to the bar of that court on 28 August 2026 on my Florida license, under its Local Rule 83.1(a), which opens general admission to any attorney licensed in any state. That means a Title IX, Section 504, ADA or due process suit for a Rend Lake student is one I file and try under my own name, with no pro hac vice motion and no sponsoring attorney. It also means something most districts do not offer: Local Rule 83.1 states that parties represented by counsel who do not reside in the district are not required to retain local counsel, though the court keeps the power to order it for good cause in a particular case.

Calendar days, and what that actually costs you

Most colleges in southern Illinois run on business days or school days, which quietly extend a deadline across a weekend or a break. Rend Lake does the opposite. Board Policy 2.1200 states expressly that “all references to days mean calendar days unless specified otherwise,” and the conduct provisions are written in “consecutive calendar days.”

The conduct chain, for a student recommended for expulsion:

• The Vice President of Academic and Student Services submits a written recommendation to the President within seven calendar days of completing the investigation.
• Appeal: “Student may appeal the expulsion within ten (10) consecutive calendar days from the receipt of the notification.”
• The Disciplinary Committee notifies the student by certified mail of its recommendation within five calendar days of the hearing.
• A student dissatisfied with that recommendation may file an appeal with the President within five calendar days of receipt.
• “The President shall issue her/his decision within seven calendar days … The decisions of the President shall be considered final.”

Ten consecutive calendar days is not as generous as it sounds: a notification received on the Thursday before a holiday weekend leaves seven working days at most. Diary it the day it arrives.

The discrimination and Title IX track under Policy 2.1200 runs on longer clocks — sixty days to request informal resolution after the last occurrence, fifteen days for the investigator to attempt one, fourteen days to request a formal investigation, fourteen for the respondent’s written response, seven for the Vice President’s report and decision, fourteen days to appeal, and no later than fifteen days for the President, whose decision “shall constitute the final administrative action of the College.” In the live-hearing process, parties get at least ten days to respond to the evidence and at least ten days with the investigative report before the hearing.

The advisor who may not speak, and the one who must

In general conduct matters, Rend Lake’s rule is unambiguous and appears twice: “The charged student may be accompanied by one advisor if so desired conditional on 24 hours notice to and approval by the Vice President of Academic and Student Services or his/her designee. The advisor may attend the meeting to counsel with the student. In no event may the advisor participate directly by speaking or questioning either party. The charged student must speak on their own behalf. At any time during the meeting, the advisor may be asked to leave should they not adhere to their role in an advisory capacity only.”

Note the two conditions people miss: twenty-four hours’ notice, and approval. Bringing someone is not simply a right you exercise on the day.

In the Title IX track the rule inverts completely. There the advisor is required to do the questioning: “At the live hearing, each party’s advisor is permitted to ask the other party and any witnesses all relevant questions and follow-up questions, including those challenging credibility. Such cross-examination at the live hearing must be conducted directly, orally, and in real time by the party’s advisor of choice and never by a party personally.” That advisor “may be but is not required to be an attorney,” and if a party has none, “the college will provide, without fee or charge to that party, an advisor of the college’s choice.” A student who does not arrange their own advisor for a Title IX hearing at Rend Lake will have one assigned — and that person will be conducting the cross-examination.

On the standard of proof: the general Student Conduct Code and its disciplinary procedures publish none at all. Policy 2.1200 does, and applies preponderance with a presumption in the student’s favor: “Individuals are presumed innocent unless a preponderance of the evidence supports a finding of misconduct.” In the Title IX process the burden of gathering evidence and the burden of proof are expressly on the college.

Academic integrity: where the instructor decides, and where they do not

Rend Lake gives the classroom instructor unusually broad final authority: a faculty member “has full authority to identify academic dishonesty in the classroom, to fail the student for the work in which the academic dishonesty occurred … The decision of the faculty member shall be considered final.” For a grade on a piece of work, that is the end of the road.

Heavier sanctions run on a seven-day chain: the instructor “shall attempt to conduct a conference with the student within seven (7) calendar days of identifying the act of dishonesty”; then “shall make a recommendation in writing to her/his Dean within seven (7) calendar days of the conference”; and “the Dean shall review the report of the instructor and apprise the student of the sanction to be taken within seven (7) class days of receipt of the instructor’s report.” Note that last unit change — class days, not calendar days — in the middle of an otherwise calendar-day policy.

The decisive sentence is this one: “The decision of the Dean shall be considered final in cases where the student admits academic dishonesty. In those instances in which the student does not admit to his or her academic dishonesty, the case shall be referred to the Vice President … and considered under the Student Code of Conduct.” Admitting therefore ends the matter at the Dean. Not admitting moves it into the conduct process, with its hearing, its committee and its appeal to the President. That is a genuine fork in the road, and it is worth understanding before a conversation with an instructor, not after.

Health programs: separate handbooks, and a dismissal that fails every class

Rend Lake publishes individual handbooks for Radiologic Technology, EMT-Paramedic, Certified Nursing Assistant and Medical Coding, each with its own dismissal grounds and its own appeal chain — and those chains run on seven calendar days at every step, which is materially tighter than the college-wide conduct clock.

Taking the Radiologic Technology handbook as the pattern: the student “is expected to initiate the appeal with the faculty member immediately responsible for the area in which the problem occurred within seven (7) calendar days of the occurrence giving rise to the complaint”; a Grade Appeal Form follows “within seven (7) calendar days of the informal discussion”; “the Dean shall respond in writing to the student within seven (7) calendar days”; an appeal to the Associate Vice President follows within seven calendar days; and the AVP responds within seven calendar days.

Two provisions carry the real weight. The handbooks list conduct “considered examples of severe, inexcusable behavior which may result in immediate dismissal from the program” — falsification, HIPAA violations, and excessive absenteeism or tardiness among them. And then: “In the event a student is dismissed from the program, the student will receive a failing grade for all classes that they are enrolled in at the time of the dismissal.” A program dismissal at Rend Lake does not just end the program; it takes the whole term’s transcript with it, which reaches financial aid, GPA and future admissions.

On academic standing generally: probation follows a cumulative GPA below 2.0, suspension follows if both the term and cumulative GPA remain below 2.0 while on probation, and “if a student is placed on Academic Suspension more than two times, he/she will be placed on a one-year suspension period each time.” No appeal deadline is published for academic suspension, and none is published for a SAP appeal under Board Policy 4.1415.

What a student defense lawyer can do here

Most of the value is early and quiet. It is reading Rend Lake’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 Rend Lake the early decisions are unusually consequential. Count deadlines in calendar days, including weekends. Give the twenty-four hours’ notice and seek approval before assuming you can bring anyone. In an academic dishonesty matter, think carefully before admitting, because admission makes the Dean the final word and forecloses the conduct process that would otherwise follow. And in a health program, act inside the seven-calendar-day window and treat a threatened program dismissal as a threat to the entire term, because the handbook says it fails every course you are enrolled in.

What a lawyer cannot do is turn a campus hearing 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 Rend Lake’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. Find the deadline and write it down. Every deadline on this page came from Rend Lake’s own published document, and the unit matters as much as the number — business days, school days and calendar days produce very different dates from the same starting point. If the notice you were sent gives a different date from the policy, work to whichever is shorter.
2. Download the version of the policy that governed your cohort, not the one on the website today. Schools revise handbooks between catalog years, and the operative document is the one in force when the conduct happened. Save a PDF with the date visible.
3. Ask, in writing, for the evidence. Request the investigation file, the report, the exhibits and the names of anyone who decided. Put the request in email so the date exists.
4. Write nothing to the school about the merits until you know the process. A statement made to be helpful in a meeting becomes the record a court reviews later.
5. Say if you have a disability or requested an accommodation. If accommodations were requested and not provided, or a condition explains the performance, that is a Section 504 and ADA question that belongs in the record now, not on appeal.

One honest caveat about geography. Illinois has three federal districts. I am admitted to two of them: the Northern District, which takes Chicago and the northern counties, and the Southern District. 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. 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 Illinois colleges

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

• SIU Carbondale
• SIU Edwardsville
• Southeastern Illinois College
• Southwestern Illinois College
• Wabash Valley College
• John A. Logan College

Common questions about Rend Lake student cases

Are Rend Lake deadlines calendar days or business days?

Calendar days. Policy 2.1200 states that “all references to days mean calendar days unless specified otherwise,” and the expulsion appeal is expressly ten “consecutive calendar days” from receipt. Weekends and holidays are inside the count. One exception appears in the academic integrity policy, where the Dean acts within seven class days — a different unit in the middle of the same handbook.

Can my advisor say anything at a Rend Lake hearing?

In a general conduct matter, no: “In no event may the advisor participate directly by speaking or questioning either party. The charged student must speak on their own behalf.” You also need to give twenty-four hours’ notice and obtain approval to bring one. In a Title IX live hearing the position reverses entirely — cross-examination must be conducted by the advisor and never by the party personally, and the college will assign an advisor if you do not bring one.

Should I admit to academic dishonesty if the instructor asks?

Understand the consequence first. Rend Lake provides that “the decision of the Dean shall be considered final in cases where the student admits academic dishonesty,” while a student who does not admit has the case referred to the Vice President and handled under the Student Code of Conduct — with a hearing, a committee and an appeal to the President. Admitting ends the process at the Dean. That is a decision worth taking advice on.

What happens to my other classes if I am dismissed from a health program?

Under the published program handbooks, they fail. The provision reads: “In the event a student is dismissed from the program, the student will receive a failing grade for all classes that they are enrolled in at the time of the dismissal.” That reaches your GPA, your financial aid standing and future applications, which is why a program dismissal is worth treating as a full-term problem from the first day.

What standard of proof does Rend Lake use in a conduct case?

The general Student Conduct Code and its disciplinary procedures do not publish one. The discrimination and Title IX policy does: preponderance of the evidence, with individuals “presumed innocent unless a preponderance of the evidence supports a finding of misconduct,” and the burden of proof on the college. In a general conduct matter it is fair to ask, in writing and in advance, what standard the committee will apply.