Southeastern Illinois College: Student Discipline, Dismissal & Federal Court

How do student discipline and dismissal cases work at Southeastern?

Southeastern is a public community college of about 1,450 students at Harrisburg, in Saline County, serving Illinois Community College District 533. It has the cleanest numbered board-policy structure of any community college in the Southern District of Illinois — discipline is Board Policy 9013, academic standing is 9006, financial aid progress is 9007 — which makes it easy to find the rules and to see exactly what they leave out. And one detail in 9013 costs students their appeals: the clock runs from the day the decision was mailed, not the day you received it.

Southeastern Illinois 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 Southeastern Illinois College is filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois — Saline 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 Southeastern 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.

Five business days — from mailing

Board Policy 9013’s Disciplinary Grievance Procedure runs in business days, and the student’s own step reads: “If the student desires to appeal the findings and/or decision of the Executive Dean of Student Services, a written request for a hearing before the Disciplinary Review Panel must be filed by the student in the Office of the Executive Dean of Student Services within five (5) business days after the original decision was mailed.”

Read that again, because it is the difference between an appeal and a missed one. Most colleges run the clock from receipt. Southeastern runs it from mailing. Two or three days of postal transit come out of your five, and if the letter sits unopened over a weekend the window may be nearly gone before you know it exists. The same construction appears in Board Policy 9014, governing appeals about educational records: five business days “after the original decision was mailed,” and again five business days “after the Dean’s original decision was mailed” for a further hearing request.

The rest of the chain: reports of alleged non-academic violations must reach the Executive Dean of Student Services within five business days; the Executive Dean notifies the student within five business days; the Moderator convenes a Disciplinary Review Panel within five business days, and “should a hearing be necessary, it will be scheduled by the Moderator within seven (7) working days.” Then: “The decision of the Disciplinary Review Panel is final and will be communicated in writing to all parties involved.” There is no further internal appeal. Where a student has been placed on immediate temporary suspension, “any hearing on the charge/notice shall be held within 21 calendar days of the imposition of the temporary suspension unless agreed to by the parties or other extenuating circumstances.”

Who is allowed in the room — and what the college has to prove

Southeastern publishes no standard of proof. Board Policies 9013, 9014 and 9016 and the student handbook state none. What 9013 does define is the opposite outcome: “A student may be found not in violation when there is evidence presented during the hearing that shows the student was not responsible.” That phrasing describes exoneration by affirmative evidence rather than a burden the college must discharge, which makes it worth asking the panel, in writing and before the hearing, what standard it will actually apply.

On advisors, Southeastern goes further than silence. Board Policy 9013 lists who attends: “Those attending the hearing will be members of the Disciplinary Review Panel, the plaintiff, and the defendant.” No advisor, attorney, representative or counsel provision appears anywhere in 9013, 9014, 9016 or the handbook, and that attendee list does not include anyone else. It is not an express prohibition, but it is closer to one than a mere gap, and a student intending to bring someone should ask in advance rather than arrive with them.

Academic dishonesty sits in two policies at once

Southeastern has no standalone academic-integrity policy. Academic dishonesty appears in two places, with two different clocks, and choosing correctly matters:

• As misconduct under Board Policy 9013 — the first listed offense is “academic dishonesty, plagiarism, or willful falsification of educational data that is represented as scholarly research” — which puts it on the five-business-day-from-mailing conduct clock.
• As a ground for the Academic Grievance procedure, which expressly covers the case where “the instructor alleges that a student has been involved in academic dishonesty, plagiarism, or willful falsification of educational data that is represented as scholarly research.” That runs on calendar days and is much more generous: Step 1 is “within 15 calendar days of the official end of the term,” with the instructor meeting the student within seven calendar days; Step 2 is an appeal to the division chairperson “within 15 calendar days” of that meeting, with a written decision within ten calendar days.

Fifteen calendar days from the end of term, versus five business days from a mailing date, are very different windows for the same allegation. Establish in writing which track the college says it is using, and if the academic-grievance route is open, note that it is the one that gives you time.

Academic standing, and the sentence that saves careers

Board Policy 9006 sets a sliding GPA scale by hours earned rather than a flat 2.0: 1.60 for 0–16 hours, 1.70 for 17–32, 1.85 for 33–47, and 2.00 at 48 and above. “Academic suspension will result in the involuntary separation of the student from the institution for a period of one (1) 18 week semester, excluding summer.” Students “may appeal their academic status by submitting a written appeal and supporting documentation to the Associate Dean of Student Services/Registrar” — but no deadline is published, so the date in your own notice governs.

Now the provision that matters most, and which Board Policy 9006 states twice: “Some programs have academic progress standards which are higher than the institutional standards. In such cases when programs have higher standards, the program standards take precedence. A student dismissed from a program for failing to meet the program’s standards may still remain a student at Southeastern if he/she continues to meet the general academic progress standards.“

That sentence is genuinely useful and students rarely know it. Being removed from the nursing program at Southeastern does not automatically mean being removed from the college. Enrollment, financial aid eligibility, credits already earned and the route to a different credential can survive a program dismissal, and that changes what a sensible response looks like — sometimes the fight worth having is about the program, and sometimes it is about protecting everything around it.

Financial aid runs under Board Policy 9007, with a rising completion-rate scale of 50%, 55%, 60% and 67% and a 150% maximum timeframe, where “financial aid suspension for this reason is permanent unless it is determined through the appeal process” otherwise. No SAP appeal deadline is published; the policy describes only the substance — “poor health, family crisis, or other significant occurrences outside the control of the student.” A denied appeal may go to the Executive Dean of Student Services, and “decisions made by the dean are final.”

The nursing handbook two board policies point to, and nobody can read

Southeastern has two board policies whose entire operative content is a cross-reference. Board Policy 9003, “Attendance and Absenteeism Policy – LPN Program” (amended October 2017) reads: “Refer to the current Nursing Handbook for attendance and absenteeism – LPN program.” Board Policy 9004, “Recycling of LPN Students” (amended December 2017) reads: “Refer to the current Nursing Handbook.”

The catalog says the same thing more broadly: “All Nursing and Allied Health programs have specific standards of academic performance that all students must meet to continue enrollment in these programs. Students who are enrolled in these programs should refer to the program handbook and guidelines for information concerning these academic standards.”

The SIC Nursing Handbook is not published on the public website. So the board has formally delegated attendance rules and the “recycling” (repeat) rules for LPN students to a document a student cannot obtain without asking for it. For a nursing student facing dismissal on attendance grounds, that handbook is the case. Request it in writing, note the date, and keep the request — a rule that was never provided is a different proposition from one that was.

What a student defense lawyer can do here

Most of the value is early and quiet. It is reading Southeastern’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 Southeastern three specifics repay attention immediately. Find the mailing date on your decision letter and count from there, not from when you opened it. If the allegation is academic dishonesty, establish in writing whether the college is proceeding under Board Policy 9013 or the Academic Grievance procedure, because fifteen calendar days and five business days are not the same case. And if a health program is dismissing you, read Board Policy 9006 before you assume you are leaving the college — it says in terms that you may not be.

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 Southeastern’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 Southeastern’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:

• Southwestern Illinois College
• Wabash Valley College
• John A. Logan College
• Kaskaskia College
• Lincoln Trail College
• Olney Central College

Common questions about Southeastern student cases

When does my five days start at Southeastern?

When the decision was mailed, not when you received it. Board Policy 9013 requires the written request for a hearing before the Disciplinary Review Panel to be filed “within five (5) business days after the original decision was mailed.” Postal transit comes out of your window. Check the date on the letter itself the moment it arrives, and if the timing is already tight, say so in writing when you file.

Can I bring an advisor or attorney to a Southeastern hearing?

The policies do not provide for one. Board Policy 9013 lists the attendees as “members of the Disciplinary Review Panel, the plaintiff, and the defendant,” and no advisor, attorney or representative provision appears in 9013, 9014, 9016 or the handbook. That is not an express ban, but the attendee list does not include anyone else. Ask the Executive Dean of Student Services in writing in advance rather than turning up with someone.

What standard of proof applies?

Southeastern does not publish one. What Board Policy 9013 does say is that “a student may be found not in violation when there is evidence presented during the hearing that shows the student was not responsible” — which describes exoneration rather than a burden on the college. Ask the panel in writing, before the hearing, what standard it will apply, and keep the answer.

I was dismissed from the nursing program. Am I out of the college?

Not necessarily, and Board Policy 9006 says so expressly: “A student dismissed from a program for failing to meet the program’s standards may still remain a student at Southeastern if he/she continues to meet the general academic progress standards.” Program standards take precedence over institutional ones where they are higher, but the two are separate questions. Your enrollment, credits and aid eligibility may survive a program dismissal.

I cannot find the nursing handbook the board policies refer to.

It is not published. Board Policy 9003 on LPN attendance and Board Policy 9004 on recycling LPN students both consist of nothing but an instruction to “refer to the current Nursing Handbook,” and that handbook is not posted publicly. Request it in writing from the Director of Nursing and Allied Health, keep a copy of the request and note the date. If a dismissal later turns on a rule you were never given, the fact that you asked matters.