The University of Alabama School of Medicine in Birmingham, Alabama, brings nearly 800 students together on a beautiful campus close to a stimulating urban district. The University of Alabama's Heersink School of Medicine's 1,400 full-time faculty staff more than two dozen academic departments, making UAB Med a comprehensive medical program. UAB's Heersink School of Medicine hosts both a multi-disciplinary clinic and the University Hospital, one of the nation's largest academic hospitals. UAB Med faculty also staff the highly ranked Children's of Alabama hospital. UAB Med leaves no question that it serves its students very well.
But University of Alabama School of Medicine students must still meet all academic program challenges. Educators properly regard medical school as the world's most difficult academic program. UAB Med must challenge its students, requiring that they meet all academic progression and professionalism benchmarks to ensure that they acquire the necessary knowledge and certain skills. Medical student issues can threaten dismissal for the most earnest and disciplined of students, especially considering other life events like illness, disability, dependent care, divorce, childbearing and rearing, or unexpected loss of a loved one. Retain the Lento Law Firm Education Law Team and national student defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento if you face UAB Med disciplinary charges and dismissal. Protect your enormous investment in your medical education.
UAB School of Medicine Common Grounds for Dismissal
UAB Med Academic Progression Issues
The University of Alabama at Birmingham maintains a satisfactory academic progress (SAP) policy that requires all graduate students to maintain at least a 3.00-grade point average, complete at least two-thirds of credits attempted, and graduate within 150% of the program's typical time period. The university's Financial Aid Office applies that SAP policy. UAB Med students, though, face their own Medical Student Academic Progress Review policy and procedure. That policy authorizes a Student Academic Standing Committee to meet monthly to "make decisions about student academic status, remediation, and progression." The Committee ensures that all medical students complete all courses and step exams within reasonable time periods demonstrating their capability to practice medicine competently. The Committee dismisses students who cannot meet those measures.
UAB Med Professionalism Issues
University of Alabama School of Medicine students must also meet professional and personal standards reflecting the norms and expectations of medical doctors. UAB Med's Medical Student Academic Progress Review policy authorizes the same Student Academic Standing Committee both to refer non-academic misconduct to university disciplinary boards and to "consider unethical and/or inappropriate professional behavior by medical students in its deliberations and decisions." UAB Med's Medical Student Code of Conduct requires students to meet all professional expectations, including things like HIPAA regulations, competency standards, and respectful patient and colleague relationships. UAB Med students must also comply with the school's Student Honor Code, prohibiting all forms of academic misconduct, such as exam cheating, data fabrication, and plagiarism. Your UAB Med education is the most regulated environment you may ever face. Significant missteps can lead to your dismissal if you do not take appropriate remedial action.
UAB School of Medicine Adjudication Process
UAB Med's Medical Student Academic Progress Review policy authorizes the Student Academic Standing Committee to conduct its own investigation of a student's academic or non-academic misconduct. The policy permits its members to rely on administrative sources without necessarily interviewing the involved student. The policy warns students that when they receive notice that the Committee is considering action against the student at its next meeting, the student should prepare a defense to the charges. The Committee may decide on adverse action, including dismissal, whether the accused student participates or not. In short, UAB Med gives its Student Academic Standing Committee extraordinary authority over your medical education. Retain skilled and experienced defense counsel to help you make your best case to avoid dismissal.
UAB School of Medicine Appeal Process
UAB Med's Medical Student Academic Progress Review policy tempers the Standing Committee's authority by assuring students suffering adverse action of an appeal to a Faculty Appeals Panel. The policy permits you to present your case to reverse or modify the Standing Committee's dismissal or other sanction to the Faculty Appeals Panel. You may both submit documentation and appear personally before the Panel with your explanation justifying your actions or extenuating circumstances excusing your failure to meet program standards. If the Panel upholds the Committee's sanction, you may appeal a second time to the UAB Med dean. Your appeal to the dean, though, must show procedural error, arbitrary and capricious action, discriminatory bias, or new evidence not previously available.
UAB School of Medicine Sanctions
UAB Med's Medical Student Academic Progress Review policy authorizes the Standing Committee to impose not only dismissal but other sanctions short of dismissal, like suspension or repeating a medical school year. Those sanctions constitute appealable adverse action and go on your school record. The Standing Committee may also impose remedial actions like repeating assignments, coursework, or clinical rotations, academic probation, reprimands, and letters of concern. UAB Med may treat some of those actions as purely remedial rather than punitive so that they do not go on your school record.
UAB School of Medicine Student Defense Representation
When you retain a skilled and experienced student defense attorney advisor, that advisor may both defend the charges and seek remedial rather than punitive action. Staying in medical school may be your primary goal, but protecting your school record should be a subsidiary goal to ensure your future opportunities. Skilled counsel should help you develop other strategic goals and implement clear, diplomatic, sensitive, and effective plans to achieve those goals. Those plans may include not just pursuing formal appeals but also negotiating early voluntary non-disciplinary relief. Don't risk your UAB School of Medicine education. Get the best available defense representation.
UAB School of Medicine Alternative Relief
If UAB Med formal procedures do not keep you in school and obtain your other disciplinary proceeding goals, you may yet have other alternative special relief available to you. The University of Alabama at Birmingham employs oversight officials in its general counsel office and other administrative offices. The Lento Law Firm Education Law Team and national student defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento have the reputation and relationships to reach oversight officials with creative, win-win proposals that reinstate some students in good standing even after their dismissal and exhaustion of all other procedures.
UAB School of Medicine Premier Defense Services
Don't give up your fight for your UAB Med education without retaining the premier services of the Lento Law Firm Education Law Team and national student defense attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento. Call 888.535.3686 or go online now for skilled student defense representation in Birmingham, Alabama.
