Final authority for undergraduate academic appeals rests with the Dean of the school or college in which the course was taken. Processes vary by school and college, although all have explicit procedures for handling academic appeals. For graduate students, the Graduate School is the final arbiter of academic appeals.

Policies and procedures relating to graduate student appeals of academic decisions are outlined in the Graduate Student and Faculty Handbook, which is distributed in print form at the start of each academic year. A separate document, the Graduate Student Academic Appeals and Exceptions Handbook, provides a detailed description of the academic appeal process. The Graduate School maintains records of appeals; summary information will be available for viewing by the accreditation site visit team.

Appeals of academic decisions proceed through a three-step procedure beginning in the student’s program or department and ending with the Dean of the Graduate School. A graduate student who chooses to appeal an academic decision (e.g., grades, academic dismissal, outcome of master’s degree capstone requirement, outcome of doctoral preliminary exam) must observe the following sequence:

The student appeals to the faculty member or faculty/staff body responsible for making the initial decision within 30 working days of the action that prompted the appeal. This appeal must be made in writing. The appeal should contain substantiating reasons for the appeal, a request for a specific remedy, and a rationale for the remedy sought. If the decision is negative and the student requests written notification, the faculty member or body must provide the student with a written statement of the reason for the adverse decision.

If the Step 1 decision is not in the student’s favor, the student may, within 10 working days from the date the Step 1 decision is communicated to the student, appeal to the body designated by the graduate faculty of the student’s program to hear appeals. This appeal must be made in writing and should contain substantiating reasons for the appeal, a request for a specific remedy, and a rationale for the remedy sought. In the event that any of the members of the body hearing the Step 2 appeal were involved in rendering the Step 1 decision being appealed, they must be replaced for the purpose of hearing the Step 2 appeal. Substitute members will be chosen by the program using established program appeal procedures. If necessary, the Dean of the school or college in which the program is located may be asked to appoint replacement members of the committee. If the Step 1 decision that is being appealed was handled by the committee for hearing appeals in the program, the Step 2 appeal should be made to the appropriate appeals committee of the school or college. If such a committee does not exist, the Dean of the school or college should appoint an ad hoc committee to handle the appeal. The student will receive written notification of the outcome of the Step 2 appeal.