Central Campus

The Grade Appeal Policy

The grade-appeal process was designed to resolve grade disputes between you and your professors.

What kind of appeal can you make using the grade-appeal process?

•  Your final grades in courses.

What kinds of appeals can you NOT make using the grade-appeal process?

•  Grades you receive on assignments (such as essays) or on quizzes or exams.

•  Grades you receive for academic dishonesty. (Grades received because of academic dishonesty can be appealed only through the Academic Standards Sub-committee on Discipline.)

Professors have the right to establish grading policies for their courses; these policies may not be appealed. However, you have a right to know what the policies are; your professors must include them in their course syllabi and make these syllabi available to you at or near the beginning of all courses. Your grade appeal, in order to be successful, must demonstrate (with reasonable evidence) that your professor's grading policy, as stated in the course syllabus , was misapplied to you.

Here are some examples of student complaints that do not fit the guidelines for appealing a final grade:

• “My professor assigns too much work.”
• “My professor grades too strictly.”
• “I have a very good reason for missing more than the maximum number of classes.”

Here are some examples of student complaints that do fit the guidelines for appealing a final grade:

• “According to the grading policy in the course syllabus, my research paper was supposed to count 25% toward the final grade. My professor counted it 50%.”
• “The course syllabus does not mention that being late for class twice counts as one absence. I was actually absent from class only three times.”
• “My professor refused to allow me to make up a test I missed that was given on a holy day in my religion.”