Grievance Procedure

To protect students' rights and to insure a fair way to resolve disputes between students and faculty or between a student and the Graduate School, both the department and the Graduate School have developed grievance procedures. Experience has shown that most grievances can be resolved easily through voluntary conciliation on the part of both parties. When these fail, two alternatives are available:

When the grievance concerns a matter of a faculty member's academic judgment of a student's work, the student may discuss this matter with the GPD and/or the departmental chair, who will seek to resolve the matter through conciliation. When these fail, the student should seek the services of the University Ombudsperson.

When the grievance concerns other matters (except the substance of University, campus, or Graduate School policies and regulations), the student may avail herself/himself of grievance procedures developed by the Graduate Council, which call for efforts similar to those cited in the preceding paragraph. A copy of the Grievance Procedures for Graduate Students is available from the GPD, the graduate secretary, and also from the Graduate Dean's office.