SUBJECT: GRADE APPEALS PROCEDURE  

APPLICABILITY: STUDENTS

1. Any student who believes that a grade has been inequitably awarded should first contact the instructor who awarded the grade to discuss the issue and attempt to resolve the differences. Any instructor no longer associated with NT at the time of the appeal will be represented in these proceedings by the chair of the department in question. A student not in residence the semester following the awarding of the grade or a resident student who is unable to resolve the differences with the instructor has 30 days following the first class day of the succeeding semester to file a written appeal with the chair of the instructor's department, or of the equivalent administrative unit.

2. The chair may follow any of the four procedures below, or a combination of them:

a. The chair may confer with the instructor; or

b. The chair may request that the instructor submit a written reply to the student's complaint;

c. The chair may conduct a meeting of the two parties; or

d. The chair may refer the case directly to the appropriate departmental committee, as outlined below.

In following either procedure a, b or c above, the chair should make a judgment on the merits of the case and recommend a specific action in regard to the disputed grade. Either the student or the instructor may appeal the recommendations of the chair.

3. The appropriate departmental committee to hear cases sent directly to it by the chair or appealed to it by either the student or the instructor shall be constituted as follows and shall perform the following duties.

a. It shall be an ad hoc committee consisting of two faculty members from the department in which the grade is being questioned, one of those members to be chosen by the student and one to be chosen by the instructor. If either party to the dispute declines to choose a member of the committee, the department chair will select that member. The third faculty member of the committee, who shall serve as chair, will be chosen either from within or without the department by agreement of the student and the instructor. If they cannot agree upon this third member, the member is chosen by the chair of the department, with the proviso that the student and the instructor may agree to stipulate that the third member of the committee be chosen from a related department rather than the department in question.

b. This ad hoc committee should require written statements from each participant in the dispute. Judgments may be rendered upon the basis of these statements, upon other evidence submitted in support of the statements and upon the basis of an oral hearing, if such a hearing seems necessary.

c. The committee must make a recommendation for disposition of the case within 30 days of its appointment.

d. All records in the case will be filed with the department chair of the department in which the grade was originally awarded.

4. Either party to the dispute has 15 days following the rendering of the ad hoc committee recommendation to appeal that recommendation to the dean of the respective college, if the appeal is based solely upon alleged violations of established procedures. Substantive matters, up to and including the refusal of the instructor to act in accordance with the ad hoc committee's recommendation or the student's refusal to accept the verdict, may not be appealed to the dean.

5. The dean of the college in question, after a review of the submitted written materials (and oral hearings if desired), shall make within 15 days a ruling about procedural questions. Said ruling may be appealed by either the student or the instructor to an ad hoc committee composed of three faculty members appointed by the dean and representing departments other than the one in which the disputed grade was awarded and three students appointed by the Committee on Committees of the Student Association.

a. This ad hoc committee will have 30 days from the date of its appointment to complete its work.

b. This committee shall operate within the guidelines set out for departmental ad hoc committees in 3b above.

c. All rulings made by this committee regarding procedural questions shall be final.

d. All documents related to the case shall be returned to the chair of the originating department for departmental files.

*Reviewed with no change.