You know you were found responsible for (guilty of) a disciplinary misconduct offense at the University of Rhode Island. And you know you’ve been assigned a sanction—if you’ve found your way to this page, it means that sanction is likely suspension or dismissal. You know these things. Schools sometimes forget to mention, though, that these sanctions will also appear on your transcript.

Why does that matter? It means you can’t just transfer your way out of the problem. Other colleges and universities are going to admit you with a serious offense on your record. You can return from a suspension and finish your degree, but you’ll probably have to do it without a financial aid package. And even then, you’ll have to explain your offense at job interviews.

You cannot afford these outcomes. Luckily, URI offers an appeals process that can allow you to salvage your academic career.

The appeals process isn’t easy, of course, and you’re going to need all the help you can get. The LLF National Law Firm’s Student Defense Team was founded to protect student rights. We know what you’re facing. We also know how best to handle it. We’re familiar with all of URI’s disciplinary procedures, including what’s involved in filing an appeal. And you can count on us to use every resource at our disposal to get you the best possible outcome in your case.

It’s important you contact us quickly, though. URI provides you just three business days 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.

Filing an Appeal at URI

From an overview perspective, the process of filing an appeal at URI seems pretty simple.

  • You write your appeal, offering your strongest possible arguments and supporting them with the best evidence you have.

  • You submit your appeal to the Dean of Students. Again, this must happen within three days of receiving your hearing outcome notification letter.

  • The Dean of Students makes sure your appeal meets a basic set of criteria (see below) and then forwards it to the university’s Appeals Board on Student Conduct.

  • The Appeals Board considers the appeal in a closed-door session and renders a final decision in the case.

Mostly, your job is just to sit and wait. However, you do have to write the appeal, and that can sometimes be a tall order.

Writing Your Appeal

To begin with, there’s no room for error in your writing, not just because so much is on the line, but because you won’t have a chance to clarify your arguments or explain your reasoning in person. The Board does sometimes ask respondents and complainants to appear before it, but only to answer specific questions. This means your document must be impeccable.

Making it impeccable is made even more difficult by the fact that you must change your entire approach to your case. Appeals aren’t about guilt and innocence. That issue has already been decided, and if you go on arguing for your innocence at this point, the Dean won’t even bother to forward your appeal to the Board.

This time around, you’re arguing about how the process unfolded. If you were given a fair and reasonable opportunity to present your defense, your case is over. You can gain a new hearing, though, if you can show one of the following:

  • The university denied you your rights in some way during the investigation and adjudication processes.

  • The university failed to follow its own procedures in your case, and thus, you were denied a fair opportunity to present your defense.

  • Some new evidence has arisen that, had it been available at the time of the hearing, might have altered the outcome.

  • Or information was unfairly manipulated during the course of the hearing, and that manipulation altered the outcome.

All of these arguments represent allegations against the university. That is, where before you were the respondent (the accused), this time around you’re the complainant (the accuser). As the respondent, you had the presumption of innocence on your side. You may have presented evidence of your innocence, but you didn’t have to. All you had to do was sew doubt about the university’s evidence. This time around, you have the burden of supplying the evidence, and that’s always a higher bar to pass.

In addition, you’re limited in the kinds of evidence you can use. Unless you have new evidence to present, all of your arguments must be supported by the record of the original hearing.

The bottom line is that you are at a disadvantage when you’re filing an appeal. You’ve used up most of your rights, and you’re presumed to be “guilty.” Even so, you can win your case. The appeals process exists to correct mistakes, and universities make a lot of mistakes when it comes to issues of justice. Faculty and students run these cases, and they receive only minimal training. One mistake—just one—means you deserve a second chance to present your defense at a hearing.

The Office of General Counsel

There is one more option you can try if the Board decides to reject your appeal: direct negotiation with the university administration. This can be even trickier, though, than filing an appeal.

You need to know that university presidents don’t like to negotiate. Doing so gives the impression that they don’t trust the university’s disciplinary system to render a fair verdict. So they’ll resist most overtures.

However, the LLF National Law Firm has a secret weapon. We have connections with Offices of General Counsel (OGC) around the country. We rely on these relationships to inform our approach to investigations, hearings, and appeals. We can also sometimes rely on them to convince a university administrator to reconsider a client’s case.

In the past, we’ve managed to get sanctions reduced, transcripts expunged, and cases thrown out altogether. Only we can offer this service, though, because only we work so extensively in the field of student defense.

How Can We Help?

Whether you’re entirely innocent or simply looking to get fair treatment from the University of Rhode Island, 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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