Luna Community College Student Defense Lawyer

Students call me about Luna Community College at three points: when an instructor accuses them of plagiarism or of using AI on a graded assignment, when the Office of Academic and Career Planning serves written charges under the Conduct Regulations, and, usually too late, after a program decision has closed off a license. Each runs on a short clock and turns on a written record built in the first week.

How do student discipline and dismissal cases work at Luna Community College?

Luna is public, so it is a state actor and the Fourteenth Amendment applies directly to what it does to you. Goss v. Lopez, 419 U.S. 565 (1975), requires notice and some kind of hearing before a suspension. Board of Curators of the University of Missouri v. Horowitz, 435 U.S. 78 (1978), holds that an academic dismissal gets far less process than a disciplinary one. Regents of the University of Michigan v. Ewing, 474 U.S. 214 (1985), tells courts to defer to genuine academic judgment unless the decision departs so substantially from accepted norms as to show professional judgment was not exercised. Which box your case falls into decides the process you are owed at a public institution.

New Mexico adds almost nothing. There is no general campus due-process statute setting a notice period, a hearing right, an advisor right, a standard of proof or an appeal right. The only statute reaching campus discipline is NMSA 1978 § 21-1-51, effective 15 May 2024, which requires public institutions to apply an affirmative-consent standard, protect investigation confidentiality, grant amnesty to complainants and witnesses, and train investigators in trauma-informed methods. It sets no notice, hearing, appeal or burden of proof. Luna is an independent community college with its own Board of Trustees, not a branch campus, so neither the UNM Pathfinder nor NMSU ARP chapter 5 governs here.

The case law is thin and mostly unhelpful to students. Ruegsegger v. Board of Regents of Western New Mexico University, 2007-NMCA-030, 141 N.M. 306, 154 P.3d 681, held that a handbook setting out a general framework of policies did not obligate the university to conduct any specific type of investigation, so a bare handbook-as-contract argument is weak. Avalos v. Board of Regents of New Mexico State University, No. 35,251 (N.M. Ct. App. July 26, 2017), is the immunity wall: an admission letter, handbook and acknowledgment form did not together make a valid written contract waiving governmental immunity under NMSA 1978 § 37-1-23(A). In Herald v. Board of Regents of UNM, 2015-NMCA-104, the contract claim failed for not finishing the internal grievance and the torts for inadequate Tort Claims Act notice. Finish the internal process and calendar that notice early. Luna’s catalog also states that the New Mexico Higher Education Department will not review complaints about grades or student conduct.

Where do Luna Community College cases come from?

Luna enrolls roughly 743 students in Las Vegas, New Mexico. Its program list is almost entirely license-facing: an associate degree in Nursing taught on the New Mexico Nursing Education Consortium statewide curriculum, allied health degrees and certificates including nursing assistant and community health worker, emergency medical technician with a field and clinical component, dental assistant, barbering and cosmetology, criminal justice, welding, electrical wiring and culinary arts.

Read the nursing rule and the stakes are plain. Nursing courses must be taken sequentially, and a student must complete every course and every clinical with 77 percent or better to move to the next level. Miss a level and you do not repeat a class next month; you wait for the sequence to come around, which is a year. Barbering and cosmetology work the same way from the other direction: clock-hour programs of 1,200 and 1,600 hours, measured against the New Mexico State Board of Barbers and Cosmetologists before you can sit the licensing exam, so a separation stops the clock on hours you have already paid for.

That is why the sanction usually matters more than the finding here. There is no second Luna campus and, for most students, no comparable program within driving distance. One line in the catalog is worth more than most of the rest: apart from expulsion, disciplinary sanctions are not part of the permanent academic record, and on graduation the confidential file may be expunged of disciplinary actions other than expulsion. What the sanction is called and where it is written down is negotiable in a way the finding often is not, and in a health-program case that is the whole game.

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

The label on your letter picks the office, the clock and the protections, and at Luna the tracks sit unusually far apart. A conduct charge goes to the Office of Academic and Career Planning and, if not disposed of by agreement, to a hearing committee. Academic dishonesty is defined in the catalog but sits expressly outside those disciplinary procedures, which do not apply to the disposition of academic questions. A grade dispute is a grade appeal to the Vice President of Instruction and Student Services, filed within three months of the end of the term. Sexual harassment involving a student and an employee is routed to the Human Resources Director, on the Title IX side. Program progression and academic separation are decided against the program’s own standards.

Answering in the wrong track spends the only response you get, and here it can also mean the wrong office entirely.

What should you do first?

Download the current Luna catalog, save it with the date, and read the Student Rights and Responsibilities and Grievances sections first. Both the conduct code and the academic policy live in that one document. Then collect the syllabus, the assignment instructions and any lab or clinical policy. The catalog treats use of AI not authorized by the instructor as cheating, so what the syllabus permitted on collaboration, notes and software is usually the strongest document in the file.

Put the dates in writing. Ask the Office of Academic and Career Planning for your hearing date, your grievance deadline and a copy of the charges and of what the committee will see. Preserve drafts, version history, learning management timestamps, group chats and clinical evaluations before anything auto-deletes. One trap deserves naming: the catalog allows a matter to be disposed of administratively by mutual consent, and says such a disposition is final, with no subsequent proceedings and the agreed sanctions imposed immediately. Signing that to end it is the moment you give up the hearing and the grievance. If the accusation rests on an AI-detection score, read the page on AI accusations first.

What does Luna Community College’s own policy actually say?

Luna publishes the conduct code and the academic policy inside one catalog, which is why the two links below are the same document. That is deliberate. Some fields are stated plainly there, others are not published at all.

• Conduct office: charges are filed with the Office of Academic and Career Planning in the Luna catalog, preferably within five working days of the event. The Vice President of Instruction and Student Services imposes or modifies the sanctions the committee recommends.
• Governing policy: the Conduct Regulations in the Luna catalog, adopted by the Luna Board of Trustees. There is no system-wide code, because Luna belongs to no system.
• Academic integrity: the catalog defines plagiarism and cheating, including use of AI not authorized by the instructor, but the disciplinary procedures apply only to the Conduct Regulations and not to the disposition of academic questions. No published academic-misconduct procedure, penalty schedule or decision-maker located.
• Hearing and appeal windows: a hearing is set not less than five and not more than fifteen calendar days after the student is notified, the outer limit extendable by the Vice President. A committee decision or an imposed sanction is appealed through the Student Grievance procedures, started within fifteen days of the event and then run in five-day steps to the President, who decides within ten calendar days.
• Standard of proof: the committee decides by majority vote whether it is more likely than not that the student violated a Conduct Regulation. That is preponderance of the evidence.
• Advisor: any advisor of your choice, at your own expense, and the advisor may be an attorney. Each party presents their own case, and advisors are not permitted to speak or to participate directly in any hearing before a committee.
• Sanctions: warning, probation, loss of privileges, educational or counselling sessions at your own cost, restitution, work assignments, college suspension for a defined period with conditions for readmission, a restriction order limiting campus access, and expulsion. Failing to complete a sanction results in a hold on grades or an escalation.
• Interim suspension: the Vice President or a designee may impose one before any hearing, denying access to campus and classes, on three published grounds relating to safety, the student’s own wellbeing or a definite threat of disruption.
• Academic standing: the same Luna catalog publishes grading, repeat and graduation rules and a hardship petition, but no campus-wide academic probation or suspension policy. No campus-specific academic standing thresholds or day-count located; progression standards sit inside each program, and the only published warning-and-suspension ladder is the financial aid one, appealed to the Luna Financial Aid Office Committee.
• Disability accommodations: ADA and Section 504 services are requested through the Academic and Career Planning Office.

The catalog is the operative document and is reissued each year, so download the edition in force on your incident date and keep it. It does not name a Title IX Coordinator; it routes a sexual harassment complaint involving a student and an employee to the Human Resources Director. Ask in writing who holds that role now.

What can a student defense lawyer do here?

A federal claim arising at Luna Community College — Title IX, Section 504 and the ADA, or Fourteenth Amendment due process — is filed in the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico, where I am admitted to the bar. New Mexico is a single federal district covering the whole state, so no pro hac vice motion and no sponsoring local attorney is needed. Under Herald an unfinished internal grievance can end a contract claim, so the campus record decides these cases:

• 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

What a lawyer can do in the room turns on the policy. At Luna an attorney may attend as your advisor but may not speak or participate directly in the hearing, so the weight falls on the account you give, the documents you put in and the grievance you file afterwards.

Other New Mexico community and state 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 New Mexico community and state colleges:

• Mesalands Community College
• Santa Fe Community College
• Central New Mexico Community College
• Clovis Community College
• Doña Ana Community College

Common questions about Luna Community College student cases

Can I bring a lawyer to a Luna Community College hearing?

Yes, and the catalog says so in terms. The accused may be assisted by any advisor they choose, at their own expense, and the advisor may be an attorney. The limit is what that advisor may do: both parties present their own cases, and advisors are not permitted to speak or to participate directly in any hearing before a committee. A lawyer can prepare the account you give and draft what you file, but you do the speaking.

How do I appeal a Luna conduct decision?

Not through a conduct appeal. The catalog routes a hearing committee decision, or a sanction imposed by the Vice President of Instruction and Student Services, into the Student Grievance procedures instead. A grievance must be started within fifteen days of the event or of when you learned of it, and the steps then run on five-day clocks through the department director, the Office of Academic and Career Planning and a vice president to the President, whose decision is final.

Does Luna publish a process for academic dishonesty?

Not a procedural one. The catalog defines plagiarism and cheating in detail and counts unauthorized use of AI in a graded activity as cheating. But the disciplinary section says its procedures apply only to the Conduct Regulations, not to academic questions, and no penalty schedule, decision-maker or deadline is published for academic dishonesty. No campus-specific day-count or standard of proof located for that track.

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 New Mexico 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 New Mexico and does not advise on New Mexico state law.