Columbia Southern University Lawsuit

Columbia Southern University (CSU), a for-profit law school in Orlando, Florida was sued by the Federal Trade Commission in December 2016 for fraudulent and deceptive conduct. The FTC alleged that CSU misled students about how long it would take to complete the program, how much graduates could expect to earn, employment statistics for graduates and more. Since 2009, CSU has enrolled more than 8,000 students with the majority of them reporting that they have obtained non-profit positions with starting salaries at $27,000 per year or less.

Columbia Southern University Lawsuit

Columbia Southern University (CSU) is a private for-profit online university, established in 1993 by Robert G. Mayes. It is headquartered in Orange Beach, Alabama.

The University was established to provide distance education to provide the best in class online degree programs to those individuals who have trouble traveling campus due to several issues.Columbia Southern University is a private university located in Orange Beach, AL. The foundation of Columbia Southern University was laid down in the year 1993. Columbia Southern University believes in imparting education and contributing to society by focusing on innovation, research, education, and commitment. The motto of the university is Flexible. Affordable. Online and its official colors are navy blue and gold. Out of total 21,442 students enrolled at CSU, 14,364 belong to undergraduate courses while 5,670 are postgraduate students. The school has a total of 522 academic staff. These faculty teach different courses to the students. At Columbia Southern University, around 92% of the students are 25 and over. And, when it comes to gender distribution at the varsity, around 37% of the students are females and 63% are males. Finally, at CSU around 49% are white, 28% belong to an unknown race or ethnicity, and 14% are Black or African American. The college has produced several achievers in its 27 years of existence. For any university, alumni play a significant role. Similarly, several notable personalities owe their success to CSU. The school believes in the all-round growth of the students and therefore, encourages students to take part in several sporting activities, conducted inside the campus. Further, it boasts of a decent sports infrastructure. At CSU, 108 undergraduate and graduate-level programs, including both residential and online, are offered to the students. The university also has a long list of accreditations. It has been accredited by Distance Education Accrediting Commission.

Misconduct Policies at Columbia Southern University
Academic misconduct within higher education comes in many different forms and with a long history. Read more here for additional context about college academic misconduct. Student misconduct is a substantial and legitimate concern throughout higher education, including at for-profit institutions like Columbia Southern University, even if institutions often do not follow their own policies. Columbia Southern University’s student handbook contains the policies that the university commits to following when regulating student conduct, including academic-integrity, academic-progress, and Title IX policies, and a student-conduct code. Consider here what each policy prohibits and defines as sanctionable misconduct.

Academic Integrity. Columbia Southern University’s academic-integrity policy in its student handbook broadly prohibits cheating, plagiarism, and self-plagiarism. The handbook defines cheating as using or attempting to use unauthorized materials … to fulfill scholastic requirements with the intent to defraud, giving as examples contract cheating, submission of another student’s work, purchasing assignments, collusion, or submitting an assignment with the intent to defraud. The handbook defines plagiarism as representing the words, ideas, or works of an author without giving proper attribution to source. And the handbook defines self-plagiarism as submitting previously submitted course work without prior professor approval. Possible sanctions for violating the academic-integrity policy include point deduction, assignment failure, course failure, probation, university dismissal, or degree revocation.

Academic Progress. Columbia Southern University’s student handbook includes a separate academic-progress policy that requires students to remain in good standing with at least a 2.0 grade-point average in undergraduate programs and 3.0 grade-point average in graduate programs. The school places on probation students whose grade point falls below the minimum. If the student does not raise the grade point to the minimum within the next twelve course credits, then the school suspends the student for progressively longer periods before each reinstatement that does not result in the student earning the grade-point minimum. Columbia Southern reserves the right to dismiss a student based on demonstrated academic performance failing to show satisfactory progress.

Student Conduct Code. Columbia Southern University’s student handbook includes a separate student code of conduct that prohibits students from the following actions, sanctions for which can include warning, probation, loss of academic credit, suspension, or conduct dismissal:

disrespect of university personnel;
inappropriate communication such as harassment, prejudice, stalking, offensive language, threats, abuse, insults, or humiliation made within the university environment;
demeaning comments including but not limited to those regarding an individual’s religion, race, age, sexual orientation, or making unwanted sexual advances or intimidations;
breaches of privacy, hacking passwords or systems, distribution or replication of copyrighted materials, unauthorized distribution of instructional materials, or use of illegal or unlicensed software;
intentional breach of university policy or procedures;
reproduction of university materials to include course content, assessments, or other materials deemed to be the property of the university;
using or purchasing work that is not the student’s own;
disruptive behavior that hinders or interferes with the educational process;
harassment or intimidation that has the effect of creating an offensive educational environment for any student, faculty, or staff member;
conduct that is disorderly, lewd, lascivious, indecent or otherwise inappropriate;
violation of any local, state, or federal law; or
displaying harmful or threatening behavior towards students, faculty, or other university personnel.
Title IX Violations. Any college or university receiving federal funding must comply with federal Title IX, including its new regulations effective August 14, 2020. Read more here about those recent Title IX interpretive changes. The current federal interpretation limits Title IX’s reach to only these three forms of sexual misconduct, each of which Columbia Southern University’s Title IX policy also prohibits:

sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence, or stalking;
quid-pro-quo harassment (attempting to trade favors for sex); or
unwelcome conduct so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive as to deny equal access to education based on sex.
Columbia Southern University’s Title IX policy prohibits other forms of misconduct beyond the above strict definitions. Those prohibited acts include threats of physical harm, extreme emotional abuse, other conduct endangering health, intimidation, bullying, and sexual exploitation, including sexual voyeurism, invasion of sexual privacy, recording of sexual activity without consent, prostituting another person, sexual intimacy without disclosing a sexually transmitted disease, incapacitating another person for sex, misappropriation of identity, sexual blackmail, soliciting of minors, sex trafficking, and child pornography.

Misconduct Procedures at Columbia Southern University
The procedures that a college or university employs can markedly influence a disciplinary proceeding’s outcome when determining the truth of disputed allegations. Consider the following outline of Columbia Southern University’s student-misconduct procedures as to academic integrity, academic progress, the student conduct code, and Title IX violations.

Academic Integrity. Columbia Southern University’s student handbook does not clearly state or list any procedures for determining alleged violations of its academic-integrity policy. Its only clear implication is that the involved instructor makes the determination.

Academic Progress. Columbia Southern University’s student handbook does not state or list procedures for determining alleged violations of its academic-progress policy. The handbook does state that reinstatement requests after suspension for failure to show satisfactory academic progress go to the registrar and that a Reinstatement Committee decides requests. The handbook does not indicate Committee procedures, nor does it indicate who decides on a student’s dismissal for failure to show satisfactory progress. The handbook does state that appeals from dismissal go to an Appeals Board through the Office of the Registrar.

Student Conduct Code. Columbia Southern University’s student handbook lists these procedures for determining alleged violations of its student code of conduct. The school’s director of student resolution conducts an investigation for evidence supporting any misconduct complaint. That director notifies the accused student of any charge, to which the student must respond at risk of a non-response violation. The director appoints a three-member panel of university employees to review the evidence and student response and decide the allegations. The school places a copy of the decision with supporting fact-finding in the student’s file. The student handbook does not describe any hearing, advisor rights, rights to question witnesses, or other procedural protections.

Title IX Procedures. Colleges and universities receiving complaints about Title IX sexual misconduct must follow federal Title IX regulations when determining whether misconduct occurred. Changes to those federal Title IX procedures in 2020 guarantee the accused a hearing at which the accused has the right to attend and cross-examine the accuser and other witnesses to expose false allegations. Columbia Southern University’s student handbook mentions only limited Title IX procedures, directing complaints to its Title IX coordinator. Columbia Southern University’s Title IX procedures instead appear in another Title IX policy.

Columbia Southern University’s Title IX procedures include the Title IX coordinator’s initial assessment of the complaint. The accused student may retain an attorney advisor to help the student through the proceeding but not to present or question at any meeting other than the formal hearing, when the advisor may cross-examine witnesses. If the matter proceeds to the university’s Formal Grievance Process, then the coordinator appoints an investigator to gather evidence following elaborate procedures and a single Decision-maker. Witnesses must testify at the hearing, or the Decision-maker may not consider their information. The Decision-maker decides applying a preponderance-of-the-evidence standard. An aggrieved student may appeal the decision.

An Attorney-Advisor’s Role
Students have a lot on the line when a misconduct charge threatens their enrollment. Not only do students generally lack the skill to navigate complex procedures, but disciplinary proceedings also often frighten, distract, and depress students.

Don’t let Columbia Southern University intimidate you with false or exaggerated misconduct charges. Attorney Joseph D. Lento of the Lento Law Firm is a national academic-misconduct advisor with the skill and experience to successfully defend against misconduct charges. Columbia Southern University’s procedures provide protections that enable Joseph D. Lento to assess allegations, identify evidence to present, identify how to challenge the complainant’s evidence, cross-examine witnesses in a Title IX proceeding, and analyze and appeal adverse findings, to defeat false or exaggerated charges.

Don’t underestimate the value of an experienced attorney-advisor or the impact of misconduct charges that can affect your reputation, education, and career. Thousands of college and university students nationwide have retained Joseph D. Lento at the Lento Law Firm to defend and defeat misconduct allegations. Joseph D. Lento has the expertise to help you navigate and defeat a misconduct charge at Columbia Southern University and to address all school-related issues and concerns. Call 888-535-3686 to schedule a consultation, or use the online service.

columbia southern university ranking

The rankings provided by Forbes and US News are trusted everywhere, as long as US universities are concerned. Usually, the rankings of colleges/universities by Forbes and US News are considered trustworthy by applicants and experts. However, Columbia Southern University doesn’t feature in the list of top colleges, according to the latest rankings of these two publications. Generally, the ranking of a university is a great way to gauge its performance on several factors like research excellence, the performance of its students after graduation, student experience, and academic success.

columbia southern university acceptance rate

Admissions

Application Deadline 

FALSE

Acceptance Rate 

100%

SAT Range

N/A

ACT Range

N/A

Application Fee

FALSE$

SAT/ACT

Neither required nor recommended

High School GPA

Recommended

Accept Common App

No

Admission to the university is fairly easy and the students are recommeded to make the most out of it. A non-refundable fee, along with the application form, is required to be deposited by the students, in order to complete the process. It can be concluded that scoring high on a standardised test like SAT or ACT is not an important criterion for Columbia Southern University, as the average SAT or ACT score of students is not available publicly. The application process can be completed online. However, if needed, one can also visit the office at All programs offered completely via Distance education, or call (251) 981-3771 x1278.

Annual Cost to Attend

Net Price 

$10,547

Average Annual Cost

$5,400

Books And Supplies

$688

Other Fees

$135

Room And Board 

$6,642

Budget For Other Expenses

$135

Total One Year Cost

$16,503

Tuition fees and the cost of living during the course tenure are the next two things that a student should keep in mind before applying to CSU. The annual full-time cost of attendance comes out to be approximately $17,283. The average annual tuition cost ($5,655), books and supplies ($704), and budget for other expenses ($4,080) are all included in this cost. Students can also explore numerous financial aid options offered by the university.