College of Menominee Nation Student Defense Lawyer

Students reach me about the College of Menominee Nation at three points: when an instructor files an academic misconduct report and the file moves to the Chief Academic Officer, when the CMN Judicial Council schedules a non-academic hearing, and after a probation term ends in academic suspension. Each carries a short clock, and each is decided on a written record built in the first few days.

How do student discipline and dismissal cases work at the College of Menominee Nation?

The College of Menominee Nation is neither a state institution nor an ordinary private college, and almost everything on this page follows from that. Its catalog calls it a tribal Land Grant college chartered by the Menominee People, and it is chartered by the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin. A tribe and its arms are not state actors, which removes the Fourteenth Amendment theory at the root. Goss v. Lopez, 419 U.S. 565 (1975), 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) say what a state actor owes a student, and CMN is not one.

Wisconsin’s administrative code does not reach it either, and this is where students and some lawyers go wrong. Chapters UWS 14 and UWS 17 are Board of Regents rules, and “institution” is defined at UWS 17.02(10) as “any university, or an organizational equivalent designated by the board” — the UW universities and their branches. So UWS 17.12(4)(b), under which an advisor “may be a lawyer” and may speak for a student facing suspension or expulsion, does not apply at Keshena. Neither does Wis. Stat. ch. 227 review, which runs against state agencies.

What is left is tribal. Sovereign immunity presumptively bars suit unless it has been waived, and a waiver is not to be assumed. Exhaustion runs through the college’s own appeal and then through the courts of the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin, not a Wisconsin circuit court. The analogue to constitutional due process is the Indian Civil Rights Act, 25 U.S.C. § 1302, enforced in tribal forums for anything short of detention.

Where do College of Menominee Nation cases come from?

CMN enrolls roughly 300 students and is based at Keshena in Menominee County. Its catalog lists a broad program set for that size: Business Administration at associate and bachelor level, Natural Resources, Public Administration, Education, Substance Abuse Counselor, Medical Office Technician, Sustainable Agriculture, and the trades — Welding, Electricity, CNC Machinist and Sustainable Residential Building Systems.

That mix explains the caseload. Shop and lab courses generate safety, attendance and supervision incidents a lecture course does not. The Education degrees are held to standards the catalog says exceed the college’s general policies, and Substance Abuse Counselor students train toward a credential an outside body will eventually ask about, so a finding there follows the student past graduation. Online and hybrid enrollment generates the dishonesty referrals, increasingly on software output rather than a witness.

The attendance definitions matter here more than at most colleges. Participation means engagement in 75 percent or more of the class period, and in an asynchronous online course attendance means logging into the learning management system each week. Students lose standing on those definitions without being accused of anything. Academic suspension then runs one academic term, excluding summer, and where a required course runs once a year, one term out is usually a year.

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

CMN runs two disciplinary tracks and two academic ones, and answering the wrong office spends the one response you get. Academic misconduct runs to the Chief Academic Officer and a Disciplinary Committee. Non-academic misconduct runs to the Chief Academic Officer and the CMN Judicial Council, three staff members. Academic standing has its own petition route, and financial aid progress is a fourth track. Deadlines, decision-makers and even the standard of proof differ in each.

Match your letter to the track before you write anything: academic misconduct, conduct code charges, academic dismissal and suspension, or a SAP appeal. One incident can open two of these at once, on two clocks.

What should you do first?

Read the two catalog sections in the versions in force on your incident date, and read the hearing and appeal language before the list of prohibited conduct. The academic misconduct clock is the one students lose: ten days from personal delivery of the written report to request a hearing, and if you do not, the determination is regarded as final. Then collect the syllabus, the assignment instructions and any lab or shop policy, because what the syllabus permitted on collaboration and software is usually the strongest document in the file.

Put the dates in writing. Email the Chief Academic Officer for your response deadline, the hearing date, the standard that will be applied, and a copy of the material going to the committee. Preserve drafts, version history, learning management timestamps and instructor evaluations before anything auto-deletes. Do not sit for a meeting before you know what is alleged. If the accusation rests on an AI-detection score or a similarity percentage, read the page on AI accusations first.

What does the College of Menominee Nation’s own policy actually say?

CMN publishes both policies inside its online academic catalog. The disciplinary sections give real day-counts and real burdens of proof. Where a field is not published, this list says so rather than guessing.

• Conduct office: the Chief Academic Officer, under the rights and responsibilities section of the CMN academic catalog, with a Disciplinary Committee for academic misconduct and the CMN Judicial Council, three staff members, for non-academic misconduct. Appeals go to the President.
• Governing policy: the college’s own catalog, adopted under its tribal charter. Chapters UWS 14 and UWS 17 do not govern CMN, because UWS 17.02(10) limits “institution” to the UW universities. The catalog borrows the UWS structure, but it binds as CMN’s own promise, not as state administrative law. It refers drug and alcohol penalties to Menominee Tribal Code chapters 250 and 306, and names the tribe’s external complaint procedure and the MITW Director of Legal Services as the route after the internal process ends.
• Academic integrity: a separate track, with sanctions in three levels running from an oral reprimand and repeating the work, through a written reprimand and a lower or failing grade, to probation, removal from the course or program, suspension and expulsion.
• Appeal window, academic misconduct: request a hearing within ten days of personal delivery of the written report, or the determination is final. The committee schedules the hearing within ten days, and its decision becomes final ten days after service unless appealed. Appeal to the President is available only for suspension or expulsion, on the record. No campus-specific day-count located for that appeal; ask the day the decision arrives.
• Appeal window, non-academic misconduct: written charges are sent at least five business days before the hearing. The Judicial Council generally decides within ten business days, and an appeal to the President must be filed no later than seven business days after the notice of decision.
• Standard of proof: published, and different by track. In academic misconduct, suspension or expulsion requires clear and convincing proof; other findings rest on a preponderance of the credible evidence. In non-academic misconduct the catalog uses “more likely than not.”
• Advisor: also different by track, and the field to read twice. In academic misconduct the student may question adverse witnesses, present evidence and be “accompanied by a representative of his or her choice” — the catalog does not say that person may be a lawyer. In non-academic misconduct the right is to present your own defense or “to choose a CMN student or staff member to speak on one’s behalf,” which leaves no outside attorney as a speaker.
• Academic standing: published in the CMN policies and requirements section. Good standing is a cumulative resident grade point average of 2.00 or greater; below it means probation, for a maximum of four terms while the term average holds at 2.00. Missing a 2.00 term average on probation means suspension for one academic term. Reinstatement runs by petition, with a written explanation, documentation and an individual academic plan, filed at least two weeks before the first day of class.
• Financial aid progress: a separate calculation on its own clock, using the grade point average and a 67 percent successful completion ratio of classes attempted. A grade appeal is a third route, due to the Chief Academic Officer within fifteen business days of the end of the term.
• Disability accommodations: the Student Services Office, with an Academic Success Coach as the contact. If a documented condition explains part of the record, it belongs in the file early — see 504 and ADA accommodations.

Two silences matter: the catalog names no Title IX Coordinator by office and publishes no interim suspension rule. If you have been told to stay off campus while a case is pending, ask in writing under what authority.

What can a student defense lawyer do here?

The honest answer starts with what is not available. There is no Fourteenth Amendment claim, because CMN is not a state actor. Chapters UWS 14 and UWS 17 do not reach it, so the Wisconsin rule that lets a lawyer speak for a student is not in play. Sovereign immunity presumptively bars suit unless the tribe has waived it, review beyond the campus runs through the courts of the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin, and the analogue to due process is the Indian Civil Rights Act, 25 U.S.C. § 1302. Keshena sits in the Eastern District of Wisconsin, where I am not admitted — I am admitted in the Western District — but that is beside the point, because a discipline claim against a tribally chartered college does not belong in a federal district court at all. If anyone promises you a state or federal lawsuit against CMN, ask them to explain the waiver.

What that leaves is what decides these cases anyway, and here the record is worth fighting over, because the code gives you real burdens and real hearings:

• 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

The last two carry an asterisk, because who may speak for you turns on which track you are in. Where a decision is already final, the questions shift to the record and the grounds, covered under appeals and court review.

Other Wisconsin 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 Wisconsin colleges:

• Lakeshore College
• Milwaukee School of Engineering
• Nashotah House Theological Seminary
• Ripon College
• Sacred Heart Seminary and School of Theology
• St. Norbert College

Common questions about College of Menominee Nation student cases

Can I sue the College of Menominee Nation in Wisconsin state court?

Almost certainly not. CMN is a tribal Land Grant college chartered by the Menominee People, and sovereign immunity presumptively bars suit against a tribe or its arms unless it has been waived. It is also not a state actor, so there is no Fourteenth Amendment claim of the kind available against a UW campus. Exhaustion runs through the internal appeal to the President and then the courts of the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin, and the analogue to due process is the Indian Civil Rights Act.

Do the Wisconsin UWS 14 and UWS 17 rules apply at the College of Menominee Nation?

No. Those chapters are Board of Regents rules, and UWS 17.02(10) defines an institution as any university or an organizational equivalent designated by the board, meaning the UW universities and their branches. A tribal college is not covered, so UWS 17.12(4)(b), which lets a UW student bring an advisor who may be a lawyer and who may speak when suspension or expulsion is at stake, does not reach Keshena.

How long do I have to appeal at the College of Menominee Nation?

It depends on the track. In academic misconduct you must request a hearing within ten days of personal delivery of the written report or the determination becomes final, and the decision itself becomes final ten days after service unless appealed to the President, which is available only for suspension or expulsion. In non-academic misconduct, an appeal to the President is due no later than seven business days after the notice of decision. Academic suspension runs by petition, filed two weeks before classes start.

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 Wisconsin 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 Wisconsin and does not advise on Wisconsin state law.