Disciplinary Appeals at CUNY New York City College of Technology

Let’s be clear right from the start. You are in a tough situation. You lost your disciplinary misconduct hearing at CUNY New York City College of Technology. Now you’re facing a serious sanction—suspension or dismissal. Both can have lasting consequences on your life and career.

You do still have a couple of options open to you. You can take advantage of your right to appeal the hearing outcome. Failing that, you can try negotiating directly with the NYCCT administration. Neither of these options is easy, though, and you’re going to need help.

The LLF National Law Firm’s Student Defense Team was founded to provide you with that help. No one in the country gives you a better chance of salvaging your academic career. We’ve worked with hundreds of students, helping them defend themselves from every conceivable type of charge. We know how the NYCCT system works, including what’s involved in filing appeals.

We can help with your case, but it’s important you contact us quickly. You have just fifteen calendar days from the end of your hearing in which to file your appeal, and there’s a lot to do. Call the LLF National Law Firm today at 888-535-3686, or use our online questionnaire to tell us more about your situation.

The Appeals Process

Let’s start with a basic overview of the NYCCT appeals process.

• Your most important job is writing the appeal itself. There are no forms to fill out or specific guidelines to follow. You offer up your best arguments, and you support them with concrete evidence.

• Once you’ve written your appeal, you submit it to the college president. Remember, you have just fifteen days in which to do this.

• Within three days, the president must inform the other party to the case of your appeal.

• The other party then has fifteen days in which to issue a response to your appeal.

• Finally, the president has an additional fifteen days to render their final decision in the case.

As this outline suggests, the bulk of your responsibility is in writing the appeal. Let’s turn to that part of the process next.

Drafting Your Appeal

Very few students actually understand the purpose of an appeal. It is not an opportunity to re-argue your case. While you may disagree with the outcome of your hearing, the issue of your responsibility (guilt or innocence) has been decided. In fact, even if you win your appeal, it won’t mean the end of your case. The president cannot overturn the hearing outcome. The best you can hope for is that they will order a new hearing, a new chance to present your defense under fair conditions.

That’s the issue of an appeal: fairness. The question isn’t whether or not you are guilty. The question is whether you had a fair opportunity to present your defense. If you did, your case is over. If you didn’t, you deserve a new hearing.

All of this means you can’t go on arguing your innocence and presenting evidence to that effect. You need brand-new arguments, and at NYCCT, you have just three options.

• The college made some kind of procedural error in your case. Maybe the Faculty-Student Disciplinary Committee refused to hear some vital piece of evidence. Maybe the university allowed someone with a clear bias against you to serve on the committee. As a result, you didn’t have a reasonable chance to make your case.

• Some new piece of evidence has come to light since the end of the hearing. Had you known about it at the time of the hearing, it might have altered your defense and the outcome of the case.

• The college has imposed a penalty that is clearly disproportionate to the nature of your offense. In such cases, the president can reduce your sanction, but you do not get the chance to re-argue your innocence.

You also need to understand that the burden in the case now rests on you. As the accused, you were entitled to a presumption of innocence. In fact, you didn’t actually have to present evidence of your innocence, since that was a given. It was up to the school to prove your responsibility. Now the situation is reversed. You’re accusing the college of making a mistake. The college has the presumption of innocence. In order to win your appeal, you must come up with evidence compelling enough to overturn that presumption.

The fact is, an appeal is a difficult process. Not filing it, but overcoming the weight of the system, which is now entirely against you. That doesn’t mean you should give up. Like all colleges and universities, NYCCT is prone to mistakes when it comes to disciplinary misconduct. That’s what happens when you ask students and faculty to make weighty judicial decisions. One mistake entitles you to a new hearing.

Keep in mind as well that you have a new weapon in your arsenal this time around: the LLF National Law Firm. We know what to expect from the process, and we can show you how to use your rights to your very best advantage.

Another Option

Should you lose your appeal, your case is over, at least in the context of the NYCCT disciplinary misconduct decision. However, you can still try negotiating with the college’s administration.

The problem with this route is that most officials don’t want to overturn a disciplinary misconduct system decision. Doing so sets a bad precedent. In order to even get a meeting with a high-ranking administrator, you need some type of leverage.

The LLF National Law Firm can provide that leverage. We maintain relationships with OGC around the country. OGC, or Offices of General Counsel, provides schools with legal advice on a wide range of subjects. If an OGC recommends NYCCT reconsider your case, you can be sure the college will do so. 

In the past, we have managed to convince schools to reduce sanctions. We’ve helped students expunge their transcripts so they can transfer to new schools. In a few cases, we’ve managed to get responsible outcomes thrown out entirely. We can do this because we work so extensively in the field of student defense. It’s not a service you should expect from other attorneys.

How Can We Help?

Whether you’re entirely innocent or simply looking to get fair treatment from NYCCT, 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.