University of Texas at Austin Student Defense Lawyer

Most UT Austin students who call a lawyer are holding one of three letters: an academic integrity referral, a conduct charge from Student Conduct and Academic Integrity in the Office of the Dean of Students, or a notice from a college or professional school that academic standing or professionalism is in question. Each one starts a clock, and each one is decided under a written policy that most students have never read.

How do student discipline and dismissal cases work at UT Austin?

UT Austin is the flagship of the University of Texas System and a public institution, which matters legally. Under Goss v. Lopez, 419 U.S. 565 (1975), a disciplinary suspension at a public university requires notice and an opportunity to respond, and longer separations require more. The university is bound by the Constitution and by its own published rules — the University Code of Conduct and the institutional rules that Student Conduct and Academic Integrity administers. Whether it followed both is the first question I ask in every file. The public-institution framework is described at due process at public institutions.

Where do UT Austin cases come from?

The volume comes from large lecture and online courses, where similarity software and AI-detection tools generate integrity referrals in batches; those cases are covered on the academic misconduct and honor code page. Group projects with ambiguous collaboration rules are a close second. Greek life and residence-hall incidents feed the conduct side, sometimes alongside organization discipline. Then there are the professional schools: the University of Texas School of Law, where a finding follows the student into bar character and fitness, and Dell Medical School, where professionalism review runs on top of the university-wide system and reaches residency applications later. Title IX matters run on their own track entirely.

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

An integrity referral, a conduct charge, an academic-standing decision, a Title IX complaint, and a professionalism concern are five different processes with different deadlines, different decision-makers, and different levels of deference. The label controls. Under Board of Curators of the University of Missouri v. Horowitz, 435 U.S. 78 (1978), academic judgments receive far more deference from courts than disciplinary findings, so a decision that is disciplinary in substance but wears an academic label is worth contesting on that basis alone. Identify your track before you write anything: student conduct, Title IX, academic dismissal or suspension, or professionalism.

How does a UT Austin disciplinary hearing work?

At UT Austin, conduct and academic integrity cases run under Chapter 11, Student Conduct and Academic Integrity, of Appendix C to the General Information Catalog (2026–27 catalog; chapter updated September 2025). You get a hearing only if you ask for one, within five business days of receiving the Administrative Disposition, and only when the sanction is serious enough to qualify. Every “day” in the chapter is a business day.

• How it starts. Student Conduct and Academic Integrity, acting for the Dean of Students, sends notice to the email and addresses the Registrar has on file and sets a meeting at least two days out. If you do not respond, the office can place a registration hold or cancel your enrollment, and it can go ahead without you.
• The Administrative Disposition. After the investigation, the office issues either a No Finding Letter or an Administrative Disposition: a proposed finding and sanction. You can accept both, or accept the finding and appeal only the sanction. You can contest the finding itself only when the sanction includes reduced or no credit, a reduced or failing grade, a bar against readmission, suspension, or expulsion.
• The five-day hearing request. The request is due within five days of receiving the disposition. Miss it, and the proposed sanction is formally adopted.
• Who hears it. A Hearing Officer, a university employee appointed by the President, hears behavioral or academic cases. For academic misconduct only, you can ask for a Student Conduct Panel of students instead. You get written notice at least five days before the hearing, and the hearing is recorded.
• Your rights at the hearing. You may present documents and witnesses, give a statement, learn who each witness is, question each witness who appears, and challenge the objectivity of the Hearing Officer or panel at least two days ahead. The standard is preponderance of the evidence.
• Where a lawyer fits. You may bring one advisor, and that can be a lawyer, but under Chapter 11 the advisor may not advocate for you or speak to the Hearing Officer or panel. The university’s side can take advice from UT System’s Office of General Counsel. That is why the preparation has to happen before the hearing.
• The appeal. You have five days from the decision to appeal to an Appellate Officer designated by the President. The grounds are a significant procedural error, new information that was not reasonably foreseeable, or a significantly disproportionate sanction. A timely appeal puts the sanction on hold, though any interim action stays in place, and the Appellate Officer’s decision is final.
• Interim action. The university can bar you from campus or classes, or withhold grades and transcripts, while a case is pending. You can contest that in writing to the Dean within three days.
• Academic integrity cases. While an academic integrity case is open, you cannot withdraw from the course, and a withdrawal already made is rescinded. If the course ends first, you receive an “X” grade. A degree already awarded can be rescinded.

Title IX cases are a separate system. Sexual misconduct and sex-based harassment are excluded from Chapter 11 and run under Handbook of Operating Procedures 3-3031 (revised August 23, 2026). The Department of Investigation and Adjudication investigates cases against students, and a live hearing goes before an impartial hearing officer. There the advisor asks the questions, so a lawyer-advisor can cross-examine. The appeal window is ten business days. More on that track is on my Title IX hearings and cross-examination page.

What should you do first?

Pull the current conduct and integrity policies from UT Austin’s own site rather than relying on any summary, including this one. Policies and office names change, and the version in effect for your matter is the one that governs. Then write the deadline down, request your file, and preserve your drafting history, messages, and notes before they disappear. Do not sit for an interview until you understand what the university claims to have; a separate charge for dishonesty during the process is often easier to prove than the original allegation.

What can a student defense lawyer do here?

• Reading the governing policy against the charge or decision letter
• Preparing your account, your documents, and your questions
• Testing whether UT Austin followed its own published procedures
• Scrutinizing software-based evidence, including AI-detection and similarity reports
• The written response and appeal, to the extent the policy permits
• Serving as your advisor where the process allows it
• Negotiating sanction terms, notations, and disclosure language

What a lawyer may actually do in your case depends on UT Austin’s policy for that process. Some tracks permit a participating advisor, some permit a silent one, and some permit none — in which case the work shifts to the file and the written submission.

The federal money on the line at UT Austin

University of Texas at Austin students and families took on $209.9 million in federal Direct Loans in the 2025–26 award year — including $62.6 million borrowed by 3,109 parents through Parent 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). University-wide federal Direct Loan totals.

Common questions about UT Austin student cases

Will an integrity or conduct finding show up on my transcript?

It depends on the sanction and the notation policy in effect. Separately, graduate, transfer, and licensing applications often ask about findings whether or not anything appears on the transcript, so the disclosure question is broader than the transcript question. Negotiating the wording is frequently the most valuable work in the case.

Can a lawyer attend my UT Austin hearing?

Yes, as your one advisor, but in a conduct or academic integrity hearing under Chapter 11 the advisor may not advocate for you or address the Hearing Officer or panel. In a Title IX hearing under HOP 3-3031, the advisor does ask the questions. Either way the account, the documents, the questions, and the appeal are built before the hearing.

I am at Texas Law or Dell Med. Is my situation different?

Substantially. Law findings surface in bar character and fitness review, and medical professionalism findings reach the MSPE and residency applications. See law school dismissal and academic standing and medical school dismissal and remediation.

How long do I have to request a hearing at UT Austin?

Five business days from receiving the Administrative Disposition, and only if the proposed sanction includes reduced or no credit, a reduced or failing grade, a bar against readmission, suspension, or expulsion. If you miss the deadline, the proposed sanction is formally adopted.

Nearby Texas schools: Texas State University, Texas A&M University, and Baylor University. The full list is on the Texas student defense index.

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.

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 in Florida, admitted to the federal district courts in Florida, Colorado, northern and southern Illinois, Nebraska, New Mexico, and western Wisconsin, and not licensed in Texas; Texas matters are handled through the framework described on the nationwide practice page — federal-law assessment, campus-process support where the school’s policy permits an advisor, and association with local counsel or pro hac vice admission where required.

Dell Medical School runs its own process

The medical school on this campus does not use the University’s general student conduct route for academic standing. The Medical Student Academic Standing Committee decides, the grievance window is ten business days, and whether a student stays enrolled during an appeal depends on whether the School calls the problem performance or professionalism.

• Dell Medical School — Dismissal & Appeals