A “responsible” outcome to a disciplinary misconduct case doesn’t have to mean the end of your academic career. Even if you’re facing dismissal from Western Kentucky University, there are still ways you can challenge your situation. You can appeal the hearing outcome. You can also try negotiating directly with the WKU administration.

Neither of those options is easy, though. Filing an appeal isn’t anything like presenting your case at a hearing, and university presidents aren’t usually anxious to talk with students about their cases. Both options require strategy and subtlety.

You don’t have to face WKU alone, though. The LLF National Law Firm is always on your side, and our Student Defense Team has helped hundreds of students just like you salvage their futures. We know the law and how to construct an airtight case, but we also know how WKU operates and what’s involved in a university appeal. You can count on us to use every resource at our disposal to get you the best possible resolution to your case.

It’s important you contact us quickly, though. WKU gives you just five business days in which to file your appeal, and there’s a lot to do in that timeframe. Call the LLF National Law Firm today at 888-535-3686, or use our online questionnaire to tell us more about your situation.

Filing an Appeal

Let’s start with the basic steps to filing an appeal at WKU. Those are relatively straightforward.

  • Your first step is to write the appeal itself. That’s actually the difficult part, and you have just five days in which to do it.
  • Once you’ve written the appeal, you file it with the WKU Vice President for Enrollment and Student Experience.
  • Once you’ve submitted your appeal, you wait for the Vice President to render their decision. WKU’s appeals policy makes no mention of how long this might take.

Writing Your Appeal

As we mentioned, the most difficult—and most important—part of an appeal is writing it. Western Kentucky doesn’t provide a form. Instead, you’re expected to create your own document explaining your arguments and backing those arguments with clear evidence. Right away, that’s a big ask. There are no hearings in appeals cases. That means you won’t have an opportunity to address the appeals officer, to cross-examine witnesses, or to clear up confusion about any of your points. Your appeal must be compelling, and it must be clear.

You’ve also got to find a new argument. To this point, you’ve been arguing your innocence, as you do any time you’re charged with wrongdoing. The question of your innocence was decided at the hearing. You may disagree with the decision, but an appeal is not an opportunity to challenge that decision.

An appeal is a very specific judicial procedure designed to verify that the system worked the way it was supposed to in your case. No one at this point is interested in your innocence. That means your arguments must be about something else—how the process worked. You have three options.

  • You can argue that the sanction WKU has imposed in your case is disproportionate to the nature of your offense. You’ll still be held “responsible” for the offense, but if you’ve been dismissed, this is one way to stay on at WKU and finish your degree.
  • You can argue that procedures were conducted unfairly, and this cost you the chance to make your case.
  • You can argue that the decision in the case was not based on a “preponderance of evidence,” the standard of responsibility in WKU misconduct cases.

You have one more hurdle to jump in your appeals case. Because you were “innocent until proven guilty,” you didn’t have to provide any evidence in your defense. All you needed to do was demonstrate the inadequacies in the university’s case against you. Now, you’re the one making the accusation, and the university has the presumption of innocence. That means you need enough concrete evidence to prove you deserve a new hearing.

If you’re paying attention, you know that an appeal is an uphill battle. You’ve exhausted most of your due process rights at this point, and you’re trying to undo a decision that’s already been made. The good news is that schools make a lot of mistakes. When faculty, administrators, and students are put in charge of justice, they’re going to get things wrong a fair amount of the time. When they do, you absolutely have the right to demand a new hearing.

It’s also true that this time around, you’re not alone. The LLF National Law Firm can help you go over the record of your hearing, looking for grounds for your appeal. We can help you draft your appeal. And we can make sure the university treats you fairly every step of the way.

The Office of General Counsel

There is a second path to justice, should your appeal fail. You can try negotiating a settlement directly with the WKU administration. This can be tricky as well. As a starting point, you’re going to need to convince the university that your case is worth consideration.

The LLF National Law Firm can help here as well. We maintain relationships with Offices of General Counsel (OGCs) around the country. These are attorneys hired by colleges and universities to provide legal advice. We can sometimes leverage these relationships to convince a school to negotiate with our clients.

In the past, we’ve been able to convince schools to lessen sanctions, remove offenses from records, and even overturn sanctions altogether. This is not a service you should expect a local attorney to provide. We can do this because we work so extensively in the field of student rights.

The LLF National Law Firm is on Your Side

Whether you’re entirely innocent or simply looking to get fair treatment from Western Kentucky University, you owe it to yourself to continue the fight. The LLF National Law Firm’s Student Defense Team is here and ready to help. We’ll guide you through the entire appeals process, make sure you put forward your very strongest arguments, and guarantee the university respects your rights.

As we said in the beginning, though, you cannot afford to wait. There are deadlines for filing your appeal. Get started now. Contact the LLF National Law Firm at 888-535-3686 or use our online form.

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