Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, is among the nation's oldest and largest historically black health science centers. Its School of Dentistry combines a rigorous academic and clinical program with a commitment to providing quality dental care for the underprivileged. Meharry School of Dentistry graduates serve in private practice, the military, and the dental school academy across the country, often providing critical dental care and education to the underserved. You should be proud of your enrollment at Meharry Medical College's School of Dentistry.
You should also protect your Meharry School of Dentistry enrollment against the threat of dismissal due to academic, professional, or behavioral dental student issues. Meharry dental students are often fighters and overachievers. But Meharry dental students are not immune to professional misconduct charges, behavioral misconduct charges, or low grades and incomplete coursework that can challenge and plague dental students anywhere. Illness, injury, pregnancy, childbearing, loss of a loved one, and other life events can intervene to threaten your dental education. If you face Meharry Medical College School of Dentistry dismissal, retain the Lento Law Firm Education Law Team for the help you need to preserve your Nashville, Tennessee dental education.
Common Reasons for Meharry School of Dentistry Dismissal
Failure to Academically Progress
Meharry School of Dentistry students are prone to the same dismissal causes as dental students elsewhere. Those dismissal causes begin with academic problems. Meharry School of Dentistry maintains satisfactory academic progress (SAP) standards, as regulations require for federal funding. Those standards generally require dental students to maintain at least a C average, 2.00 / 4.00 GPA, by the end of their second year. Dental students must also generally complete their education within six years. Students who fail to meet those standards face dismissal unless successful with an SAP appeal. SAP appeals must show both extenuating circumstances causing the deficiency and an achievable remediation plan.
Professional and Behavioral Issues
Meharry Medical College also maintains a handbook of Policies and Procedures for School of Dentistry students. Those policies require dental students to meet the school's professionalism standards addressing things like drug or alcohol abuse, cheating on exams, substandard patient care, and professional dress and demeanor, among many other issues. As in the case of the School of Dentistry's SAP standards, students who fail to meet the school's professional and behavioral standards can face dismissal.
Meharry School of Dentistry Sanctions
Dismissal isn't the only sanction that Meharry School of Dentistry students face when failing to meet the school's academic, professional, or behavioral standards. Meharry Medical College's handbook of Policies and Procedures for dental students warns, “Student discipline may take a variety of forms, including, but not limited to, counseling, oral or written reprimand, probation, restitution, suspension, and expulsion (with or without the possibility of readmission).” Dismissal or expulsion without the possibility of readmission is obviously the worst of possible sanctions, especially insofar as it may mean the student's inability to transfer or gain admission elsewhere and the end of a dental education and career. Other sanctions like suspension can also have dire effects on education, jobs, and career. But the prospect for lesser sanctions can also work in an accused student's favor as a potentially acceptable outcome.
Meharry School of Dentistry Adjudication Process
Meharry Medical College's handbook of Policies and Procedures for dental students provides that professionalism charges go before the College's Disciplinary Committee. An investigator submits a report to the Committee's chair, who notifies the student in writing of the charges and a proposed resolution. If the student rejects the charges and proposed resolution, then the Disciplinary Committee conducts a formal hearing on the charges. The hearing gives the student and accompanying attorney the opportunity to present defense evidence and arguments. The Disciplinary Committee must decide the case within twenty-four hours in writing sent to the accused student. Academic charges go before a Student Evaluation and Promotion Committee following similar procedures.
Meharry School of Dentistry Appeal Process
Meharry Medical College's handbook of Policies and Procedures for dental students offers a student who suffers dismissal or other serious sanction for misconduct the right to appeal the adverse decision. The student must appeal within seventy-two hours to the College president. The College president reviews the entire record of the hearing before issuing a decision. The decision may affirm, reverse, or modify the committee decision. Academic appeals go before an Academic Appeals Committee rather than to the College president. The handbook is unclear on the grounds for an appeal, meaning that your retained attorney advisor will need to research and discern those grounds.
Meharry School of Dentistry Defense Attorney Services
Effective dental school appeals and other formal and informal academic administrative procedures require the strategic and refined skills of an experienced student defense attorney. Academic administrative procedures aren't like civil and criminal court procedures. Dental school disciplinary procedures follow their own academic customs, norms, and expectations. Your retained student defense attorney will need to know how to evaluate school charges, invoke school procedures, communicate diplomatically with school officials, negotiate sensitively toward a favorable outcome, and, if necessary, make a comprehensive presentation at a formal hearing or in an appeal. Don't expect local criminal defense counsel to have those skills. Instead, retain the premier Lento Law Firm Education Law Team.
Meharry School of Dentistry Alternative Relief
Too many dental students and students in other programs at all levels attempt at first to handle dismissal proceedings on their own, with the worst possible results. Don't give up hope if that's your situation, that you have already exhausted all Meharry Medical College procedures, including appeals. National student defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento and the Lento Law Firm Team have earned the national reputation and relationships to reach and negotiate with school oversight officials. An office of general counsel, ombuds office, or outside retained counsel often has the authority to offer reinstatement as alternative special relief to avoid litigation and regulatory risks. Attorney advisor Lento can help you explore that alternative special relief, even if you still face dismissal after all prior hearings and appeals.
Meharry School of Dentistry Student Defense Representation
The Lento Law Firm Education Law Team and student defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento have helped hundreds of students nationwide avoid dismissal. Call 888.535.3686 or go online now for student defense representation at Meharry Medical College School of Dentistry in Nashville, Tennessee.
