Viterbo University Student Defense Lawyer

Students reach me about Viterbo University at three points: when an instructor refers academic dishonesty, when a Student Conduct Administrator schedules a disciplinary conference, and when an interim action lands first, in the form of a no-contact directive, a registration hold or removal from a program before anyone has decided anything. All three run on short clocks measured in business days.

How do student discipline and dismissal cases work at Viterbo University?

Viterbo is a private nonprofit university, a Catholic and Franciscan institution founded in 1890 by the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. A private university is not a state actor, so there is no Fourteenth Amendment claim against it. 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), set the floor at public campuses and do not reach La Crosse. What reaches Viterbo is contract, the federal civil rights statutes and its accreditor’s requirements.

The contract is the handbook and the catalog. The promise the university makes about how it will decide your case is what you can hold it to, which is why a documented departure from the wording is worth more than an argument about fairness in general. Alongside it sit Title IX, Title VI, and Section 504 and the ADA, which reach a private university on the same terms as a public one because they follow the federal money rather than state action.

Nothing in the Wisconsin Administrative Code helps. Chapters UWS 14 and UWS 17, which give University of Wisconsin students a ten-day hearing request, clear and convincing proof before suspension or expulsion, and an advisor who may be a lawyer and may speak, apply only to the UW universities and their branches; UWS 17.02(10) defines an institution as “any university, or an organizational equivalent designated by the board.” Be honest about the rest: no published Wisconsin appellate decision sets out how a private university handbook is enforced as a contract in a student discipline case, and the review machinery students read about, ch. 227 petitions and certiorari under Ottman v. Town of Primrose, 2011 WI 18, ¶35, runs against public bodies. Against Viterbo the state-law theory is an ordinary breach of contract claim.

Where do Viterbo University cases come from?

Viterbo enrolls roughly 2,094 students in La Crosse, and is small enough that the same handful of people appear in most files. Its named Student Conduct Administrators are the Residence Life Area Coordinators, the Director of Residence Life, the Compliance and Title IX Coordinator, the Athletics Senior Woman Leader and the Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students.

That list tells you where cases start: residence halls, athletics and Title IX. The sanctions confirm it, running from behavioral contracts and disciplinary probation through residence unit suspension and expulsion to university suspension and expulsion, and reaching further than most codes at the end, with revocation of admission or of a degree already awarded and the withholding of a degree until sanctions are complete.

If your program places you in a clinical, practicum or student teaching setting, treat that placement as a second decision-maker you never meet: a site can decline you on its own terms whatever the university concludes, and a licensing board can ask about a finding years later. That is also why the sanction is usually more negotiable, and more important, than the finding. Courses run on a rotation, so a one-term separation is normally a year.

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

Viterbo draws the line more sharply than most schools, and the line is the classroom door. The Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students holds authority over conduct “that is not associated with classroom assignments or tests.” Academic dishonesty is addressed instead by the instructor, the academic dean or the Vice President for Academics under the academic integrity or grade appeal policies. Title IX matters run their own grievance process with their own appeal grounds, and academic standing involves no finding that you did anything wrong.

Answering in the wrong track spends the one response you get. Match the letter first: academic misconduct, conduct code charges, Title IX, or academic dismissal and suspension.

What should you do first?

Get the handbook in the version in force on your incident date and read the procedures and appeals sections before the prohibited conduct list. Then collect the syllabus, the assignment instructions and any clinical or placement policy. In a course-based allegation, what the syllabus permitted on collaboration, notes and software is usually the strongest document in the file.

Then watch two clocks. Notice of a disciplinary conference comes by Viterbo email at least 24 hours in advance with the specific alleged acts, which is not much time to prepare. And where eviction from a living unit, suspension or expulsion is possible, you have three business days to choose between a formal hearing before a Hearing Panel and a conference with a Student Conduct Administrator; if you do not choose, the university chooses for you. Ask in writing for everything the decision-maker will see, preserve messages, drafts and timestamps, and do not sit for a conference before you know what is alleged.

What does Viterbo University’s own policy actually say?

Viterbo puts its conduct code and its academic routing in one student handbook, which is why both citations below point to the same document. It is specific where many private codes are vague, and silent in one place that matters.

• Conduct office: the Code of Student Conduct in the Viterbo student handbook, with authority vested in the Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students, who decides who hears a case and may appoint investigators and appeals officers.
• Governing policy: the Code of Student Conduct in the Student Handbook and Planner, a contract document, not a regulation. Chapters UWS 14 and UWS 17 do not reach a private university.
• Academic integrity: expressly outside the Code. Acts of academic dishonesty are addressed by the instructor, the academic dean or the Vice President for Academics under the academic integrity or grade appeal policies published with the academic regulations. No campus-specific day-count located for that route; ask the academic dean in writing for the deadline and keep the answer.
• Appeal window: five business days from receipt of the decision, to the Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students, the Title IX Coordinator or a designee. Sanctions take effect immediately and are not stayed pending appeal. The Code grounds are a significant failure to follow procedure that affected the finding or the sanction, a sanction whose severity does not fit, and new information not known to you earlier; a Title IX appeal instead runs on procedural irregularity, newly available evidence, or bias. The appeal is the final step.
• Standard of proof: preponderance of the evidence, which the handbook glosses as “more likely than not.” The same standard governs decisions about interim restrictions and actions.
• Hearing: a disciplinary conference with a Student Conduct Administrator is the default, on at least 24 hours’ written notice of the date and the specific allegations. Where eviction from a living unit, suspension or expulsion is on the table, you have three business days to elect a formal hearing before a Hearing Panel, whose determination is communicated within five business days.
• Advisor: a support person of your choice, at your own expense, who “may advise the student using written communication but is not permitted to speak or participate in the disciplinary proceeding,” may not appear in your place, and whose unavailability will not generally delay the process. A lawyer is not excluded, but a lawyer in that seat may not speak, the opposite of UWS 17.12(4)(b), under which a University of Wisconsin respondent’s advisor “may be a lawyer” and may speak when suspension or expulsion is at stake.
• Interim action: before any finding the university may issue a no-contact directive, place a registration hold, remove you from a program on an emergency basis or suspend your student status. You contest it in writing to the Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students and are answered within five business days; the action stays in force meanwhile and there is no further appeal. See interim suspension and no-contact orders.
• Academic standing: the same student handbook carries no grade point thresholds and no probation or dismissal procedure, referring you to the University Catalog and the academic regulations and noting that the HUB for Student Success supports students on academic probation. No campus-specific day-count located.
• Title IX and equal opportunity: the Compliance and Title IX Coordinator, who is also one of the named Student Conduct Administrators.
• Disability accommodations: the Office of Accessibility, within the HUB for Student Success. See 504 and ADA accommodations.

One document doing two jobs is convenient until it is not. The handbook is precise about the conduct track and hands the academic track to policies it does not reproduce, so a student accused of cheating cannot find the governing rule in the book they were given.

What can a student defense lawyer do here?

A federal claim arising at Viterbo University — Title IX, Title VI, or Section 504 and the ADA — is filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, where I am admitted to the bar. La Crosse County sits in that district, so no pro hac vice motion and no sponsoring local attorney is needed. The contract claim is a state-law claim, and there is no Fourteenth Amendment claim because Viterbo is not a state actor. What decides most of these matters 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

Here the policy answers the question, and the answer shapes the work. Because a support person may advise only in writing and may not speak, preparation matters more than the appearance: the written account, the documents attached to the appeal and the questions you ask carry the case. Once a decision is final the questions narrow to the record and the grounds, covered under appeals and court review.

Other Wisconsin universities

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 universities:

• Carroll University
• Concordia University Wisconsin
• Edgewood University
• Herzing University
• Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University
• Lakeland University

Common questions about Viterbo University student cases

How long do I have to appeal a Viterbo University conduct decision?

Five business days from receipt of the decision. The appeal goes to the Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students, the Title IX Coordinator, or a designee, and it must be in writing with your grounds, your rationale and every document you want considered attached when you file. Under the Code the grounds are a significant failure to follow procedure, a sanction whose severity does not fit, or new information you did not have before. Sanctions take effect immediately and are not stayed while the appeal is pending, and the appeal decision is final.

Can I bring a lawyer to a Viterbo University disciplinary conference?

You may bring a support person of your choice, at your own expense, but the handbook limits what that person can do: the support person may advise you using written communication, is not permitted to speak or participate in the proceeding, and may not appear in your place. The university also says it will not generally delay a conference because a support person is unavailable. Wisconsin students often read about UWS 17.12(4)(b), under which a University of Wisconsin advisor may be a lawyer and may speak, but that rule does not reach a private university.

Does the Viterbo University Code of Student Conduct cover academic dishonesty?

No, and the handbook says so directly. The Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students has authority over student conduct that is not associated with classroom assignments or tests, and acts of academic dishonesty are addressed by the instructor, the academic dean or the Vice President for Academics through the academic integrity and grade appeal policies published with the academic regulations. That is a different office, a different policy and a different deadline, so identify which one your letter comes from before you answer it.

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.