Number: 681

Subject: ACADEMIC APPEAL OF UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATORS

When an Amberton University administrator with the title of Vice President or higher teaches, unusual pressure can be placed on both the student who takes the course and any hearing committee that would be formed should a student seek redress of a grievance. The student under such circumstances might feel that because of the administrative position of the professor an appeal committee would be intimidated. To prevent such concerns, the following unique procedure (which is an exception to the normal appeal process) will be employed for academic appeals when the instructor holds an administrative position of Vice President or higher. While grievances relative to legally defined discrimination or harassment should be filed whenever such incident occurs, grievances relative to grading must be confined to the final grade issued for the session. Individual grades for exercises or examinations are considered a part of the learning process and can only be judged in the totality of the learning and evaluation process.

APPEAL PROCESS

1. To begin the appeal process, the complaint must be in writing.

2. The appeal will immediately be forwarded to a non-involved Vice President for handling.

3. The Vice President for Strategic Services will inform the class professor of the complaint and the professor will/may reply to the complaint in writing.

4. The Vice President will select an appeal committee of no fewer than three faculty and forward both the student's complaint and the professor's response to the faculty committee for review.

5. The committee will review the appeal and render a confidential judgment (committee members who voted, how they voted, will be kept confidential).

 6. The conclusion of the committee will be forwarded to the student. The committee's findings will be final.

NOTE:

This appeal process shall be made available to all students who enroll in a class taught by a professor who holds the administrative rank of Vice President or higher with the University. The student should review this appeal process and if it does not meet with his/her approval, the student should not enroll in the class.