Appeals Policy
A graduate student who believes that a course grade, a professional disposition decision, the result of a learning experience (e.g., academic dishonesty allegation or penalty, comprehensive examination, fieldwork, etc.), or an admission decision has been assigned in an arbitrary and capricious manner by the instructor or program may pursue a resolution of the dispute by submitting an appeal. The time limit for filing this appeal shall be within 60 days of the end of the academic semester in which the evaluation occurred or within 60 days of the admission decision. The student should carefully consider their own performance or application prior to submitting an appeal. The process is designed to resolve disputes at the lowest possible level, and attempting to resolve the dispute with the instructor or program is the first necessary step before further action can be initiated.
The Appeals process has not been designed to produce changes which are the result of a reevaluation of an instructor's or program's professional judgment about academic performance, admission criteria, or the substantive content of assignments completed by a student. In other words, the focus of the appeal is procedural due process (e.g., course management, errors in application of the course grading arrangements, review of professional dispositions, admission procedures, etc.), and not about the rightness or wrongness of the faculty member's or admission committee's content expertise, admission criteria, judgments about the relevancy of assigned readings, choice of materials, etc.
When a student feels that an assigned grade, result, or admission decision has been applied with arbitrary or capricious standards or procedures, and when the initial informal student-instructor or program level consultations have failed to resolve the situation, the following steps and procedures will be utilized: