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Student Academic Grievance Resolution Procedures

Student Academic Grievance Resolution Procedures


The Academic Grievance policy protects student freedom of expression in the classroom and protects each student from improper, arbitrary, or capricious academic evaluation as evidenced by the student’s final course grade.


Conditions

A student filing an academic grievance:

  1. Cannot grieve any disciplinary action or proceeding.
  2. Cannot grieve federal and state laws, rules, and regulations, in addition to policies, regulations, and procedures adopted by the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges.
  3. Shall use Policy 235 Non-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment for grievances pertaining to any discrimination, including sexual discrimination or discrimination based upon disability.

Academic Grievance Defined

An academic grievance shall refer to a claim by a student that an instructor:

  1. Assigned a specific grade that is the result of an arbitrary application of otherwise valid standards of academic evaluation, or
  2. Employed arbitrary standards in evaluating the academic progress of the student, or
  3. Took an improper action or made a decision which adversely affects the student’s academic standing in an arbitrary or capricious manner, or
  4. Reached a clearly erroneous decision or took a clearly erroneous action that adversely affects the student’s academic standing.

Summary

A student with an academic complaint shall follow the procedures and timelines listed below and document the informal academic resolution steps taken on the Student Academic Grievance Petition form which is available in the office of the Vice President of Student Services or online at forms.lowercolumbia.edu/forms/student-academic-grievance-petition. The full text of the Student Academic Grievance Procedure follows below.

If the informal academic grievance resolution process is unsuccessful, the formal resolution process must be initiated no later than fifteen (15) academic calendar days from the start of the subsequent academic quarter, excluding summer quarter.

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