Bryan College of Health Sciences Student Defense Lawyer

Students reach me about Bryan College of Health Sciences at three points: when a course faculty member reports a suspected academic integrity violation, when the Vice President of Student Affairs opens a Student Code of Conduct investigation, and, usually too late, after a clinical evaluation or a grade has already triggered a dismissal. Each runs on a short clock, and each is decided on a written record built early.

How do student discipline and dismissal cases work at Bryan College of Health Sciences?

Bryan College of Health Sciences is a private nonprofit. It is not a state actor, so there is no Fourteenth Amendment due process claim against it and no state constitutional hearing right. The theory is contract: the catalog, the Student Code of Conduct and the program policies are the promise, and the question is whether the College kept it. Alongside that sit the federal statutes that reach private recipients of federal funds — Title IX, Title VI, and Section 504 and the ADA — and its accreditors’ requirements. The contract framework is covered under breach of contract.

Nebraska’s only student-discipline statute does not help here. Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 85-601 to 85-605 requires a public hearing and a written order containing findings of fact entered within thirty days, but § 85-605 defines the covered governing body as the Board of Regents or the Community College Board of Governors. A private college is outside it, and the statute reaches only force, threat of force and seizure of institutional property in any event. Nebraska sets no minimum procedural rights beyond that band, so Bryan’s own policy supplies the whole of the process.

The controlling case is Armstrong v. Clarkson College, 297 Neb. 595, 901 N.W.2d 1 (2017), and it cuts both ways. The Nebraska Supreme Court held that the student’s relationship with a private college can rest on an implied-in-fact contract whose terms come from handbooks and policy manuals, and that academic deference is not an affirmative defense but a standard of review, because not every decision by an academic institution is entitled to deference. But it also held that exhaustion is a condition precedent: where an institution provides a mandatory grievance procedure, the enforceability of your rights under the contract is conditioned on your exercising it. Miss the internal appeal at Bryan and the claim is gone before it starts.

Where do Bryan College of Health Sciences cases come from?

Bryan enrolls roughly 765 students in Lincoln, and every degree it offers is a health-sciences degree: the Bachelor of Science in Nursing, the Bachelor of Science in Health Professions with majors in diagnostic medical sonography and cardiovascular sonography, the Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Sciences, the Bachelor of Science in Healthcare Studies, and an Associate of Science in Health Professions. The Code of Conduct reaches conduct on Bryan Medical Center property and expressly incorporates Medical Center and affiliate policies.

That is why the serious cases here are not classic dormitory conduct cases. They are professionalism findings and clinical placement problems: a supervisor’s evaluation, an incident at a hospital site, a documentation or medication error, a social media post. The College publishes a policy on removal from a clinical site under which the Dean of Healthcare Studies notifies the Vice President of Student Affairs to determine whether the Code was violated, so one site’s decision to send a student home can become a conduct case. See professionalism findings.

The stakes are structural. Nursing runs in cohorts, and the progression policy says a student who cannot continue with the entering cohort may be placed in the next available one depending on course availability, cohort size and sequence, that a repeated course means retaking all coursework and clinical experiences, and that a gap between clinical courses may require a transition course. One term out is rarely one term. It is a cohort year, and the licensure timeline moves with it. See nursing dismissal.

Which process are you in, and why does that matter?

Bryan runs four separate tracks and they do not share deadlines or decision-makers. The Student Code of Conduct is investigated by the Vice President of Student Affairs and decided by a Student Conduct Board. Academic integrity is handled outside the Code, under the Academic Integrity Violation Policy, by the course faculty, an Integrity Committee and an Integrity Panel, with appeal to the Provost. Academic standing is arithmetic. A final grade goes through the Final Course Grade Dispute Policy.

The trap is the fifth route. Administrative withdrawal covers, among other things, inability to progress in a program due to academic performance, it is noted on the transcript, and the catalog states that it is not subject to the procedures set out in the Student Code of Conduct. A student can be separated for what feels like a disciplinary judgment with none of the Code’s protections. Match your letter to the right track first: academic misconduct, conduct code charges, or academic dismissal and suspension.

What should you do first?

Download the catalog policy in force on your incident date, not a summary, and save a dated copy. Read the appeal paragraph before the list of prohibited conduct, because at Bryan the appeal right is narrow: only for suspension and dismissal, and only on three grounds. Then collect the syllabus, the assignment instructions, the clinical evaluation tool and the site’s own policies, because a professionalism finding is usually argued out of the evaluation criteria rather than out of the Code.

Put the dates in writing. Email the Vice President of Student Affairs, confirm the date you received the decision, confirm your ten-calendar-day appeal deadline, and ask for a copy of everything the Student Conduct Board saw. Keep the reply. Preserve drafts, learning management timestamps, group chats, clinical evaluations and any correspondence with a preceptor before it is overwritten. Do not sit for an investigative meeting before you know what is actually alleged. If a disability or an accommodation denial sits behind the conduct or the grades, raise it on its own track; see 504 and ADA accommodations.

What does Bryan College of Health Sciences’s own policy actually say?

Bryan publishes more than most private colleges its size. The numbers below are the College’s own.

• Conduct office: the Student Code of Conduct places responsibility with the Office of the Vice President of Student Affairs, which educates students about the Code, receives the written complaint, and initiates and conducts proceedings.
• Governing policy: the Student Code of Conduct in the Undergraduate Student Catalog. It incorporates College and Bryan Medical Center policies, reaches off-campus conduct and conduct between semesters at the Vice President’s discretion, and permits withdrawal of an admission offer for conduct learned of before matriculation.
• Academic integrity: a separate route under the Academic Integrity Violation Policy. Violations are classified Level 1 incidental, Level 2 significant and Level 3 egregious; consequences run from remediation and reduced credit up to program dismissal or College suspension or expulsion; and a student is dismissed after a third Integrity Panel Review finding a violation more likely than not.
• Appeal window: ten calendar days, in writing, from a Student Conduct Board sanction of suspension or dismissal only, on one of three grounds. The President reviews and issues a written determination within ten calendar days, and that decision is final. The sanction may be imposed pending appeal. Separately, the investigation itself is typically completed within thirty calendar days, with written notice if it will run longer.
• Standard of proof: preponderance of the evidence, applied twice. The Vice President of Student Affairs must find it more likely than not that the violation occurred before referring the matter, and the Student Conduct Board then applies the same standard and decides by majority vote. The Board is the College Provost, the Vice President of Operations and Finance, and the Dean of the program the student is enrolled in.
• Advisor: no campus-specific advisor rule located in the Code. It refers to advisors in its confidentiality provision but does not say whether you may bring one, whether the advisor may be a lawyer, or whether the advisor may speak. The Student Grievance Policy is explicit in the other direction: the process in its entirety is internal and legal counsel is not permitted. In a final grade dispute a support person may attend but may not participate, and the student must present the concerns personally.
• Academic standing: published in the academic standing policy. A cumulative grade point average below 2.00 triggers academic warning; remaining below 2.00 at the end of the warning semester triggers probation; remaining below 2.00 at the end of the probation semester is academic dismissal. A dismissed student may not enroll the next semester or at any time in the future unless special permission is secured.
• Title IX and equal opportunity: the Title IX Coordinator is the Vice President of Student Affairs. Note what that means in practice: the same office coordinates Title IX, investigates conduct, decides whether to refer a charge, and facilitates the non-academic grievance.
• Disability accommodations: the Disability Services Department, working through the Academic Support Services Director and ADA Coordinator, who determines the scope of accommodations case by case.

One more provision deserves attention. The Dismissal Policy permits dismissal at any time when performance is deemed unacceptable or unsafe in the faculty’s professional judgment, and makes failure to follow hospital, affiliate agency or College policies cause for immediate dismissal. Appeal of a dismissal runs through the Student Grievance Process, which is the process Armstrong requires you to complete.

What can a student defense lawyer do here?

A federal claim arising at Bryan College of Health Sciences — Title IX, Title VI, or Section 504 and the ADA — is filed in the United States District Court for the District of Nebraska, where I am admitted to the bar. No pro hac vice motion and no sponsoring local attorney is needed. A contract claim under Armstrong is a state-law claim. Very few of these matters end in court. What decides them is the campus record:

• Reading the governing policy against the charge or decision letter
• Preparing your account, your documents and your questions
• Testing whether the school followed its own published procedure
• Scrutinising software-based evidence, including AI-detection and similarity reports
• Helping with the written response and the appeal, where policy allows
• Serving as your advisor where the process permits one
• Negotiating sanction terms, notations and disclosure language

At Bryan the grievance policy shuts counsel out of the room, so the work is done on paper: the written response, the appeal on the three permitted grounds, and the record you build before the Board meets. Where a decision is already final, see appeals and court review.

Other Nebraska 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 Nebraska colleges:

• Clarkson College
• College of Saint Mary
• Hastings College
• Little Priest Tribal College
• Nebraska Methodist College
• Ricketts Great Books College

Common questions about Bryan College of Health Sciences student cases

How long do I have to appeal a Bryan College of Health Sciences conduct decision?

Ten calendar days, in writing, and only from a sanction of suspension or dismissal. Lesser sanctions from the Student Conduct Board are final. The appeal must rest on one of three grounds: new material evidence that could not have been presented earlier, a violation of the procedures in the Student Code of Conduct, or a sanction that is not appropriate. The President reviews it and issues a written determination within ten calendar days, and that decision is final. The sanction may be imposed while the appeal is pending.

Can I bring a lawyer into a Bryan College of Health Sciences proceeding?

Not into the grievance process. The Student Grievance Policy states that the process in its entirety is internal and that legal counsel is not permitted, and the grade dispute policy allows a support person who may not participate. The Student Code of Conduct mentions advisors in its confidentiality provision but does not say whether you may bring one, whether the advisor may be a lawyer, or whether the advisor may speak. Ask in writing before the meeting. A lawyer can still prepare your written response and your documents.

What is the difference between dismissal for cause and academic dismissal at Bryan?

Academic dismissal is arithmetic: a cumulative grade point average that stays below 2.00 through the warning and probation semesters, or exceeding the repeat limits. Dismissal for cause is judgment: the Dismissal Policy allows dismissal at any time when performance is deemed unacceptable or unsafe in the faculty’s professional judgment, and makes failure to follow hospital or affiliate policies cause for immediate dismissal. Neither runs through the Student Conduct Board. Both are appealed through the Student Grievance Process.

This is general information about the matters I handle and the law that applies to them. It is not legal advice about your situation, and the law in this area can change. For advice on your matter, start with the Full Read + Game Plan — your entire file read, straight answers, and exactly what to do next, in what order. Other campuses are covered on the Nebraska student defense page.

This page is informational and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the institution named on it.

Attorney advertising. Zachary Gaynor is licensed to practice law in Florida and is admitted to the bars of the United States District Courts for the Southern, Middle, and Northern Districts of Florida, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, the United States District Court for the District of Colorado, the United States District Courts for the Northern and Southern Districts of Illinois, the United States District Court for the District of Nebraska, the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico, and the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin. Federal court admission is not a license to practice the law of the state in which the court sits; he is not licensed in Nebraska and does not advise on Nebraska state law.