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Current Students
Academic Grievances
Purpose and Scope
This College of Education procedure is intended to provide guidelines for a timely and equitable resolution of academic problems or complaints initiated by students enrolled in the College. Pertinent issues shall include, but are not limited to, faculty, graduate school, college or departmental policies affecting individual student academic prerogatives, procedural irregularities in stated grading practices (but not complaints restricted to individual grade changes), fair treatment and similar issues.
Part II of this procedure shall not be available to determine grievances, though academic in nature, which allege discrimination based on race, sex, religion, color, national origin, age and/or physical disability. The University Complaint Investigation and Resolution Office (Operations manual, D.46.3) exists to address allegations of discrimination.
PART 1: Informal Conciliation & Initiation of Complaint
Step 1. Students are encouraged first to attempt, in good faith, to resolve any grievance with the member or members of the faculty or academic staff most directly concerned. Students must initiate either an informal request for conciliation or file a formal complaint within three months o the complained of incident. The Area Chairperson or an appropriate designee of the Area may also be asked to hear and conciliate any grievances that originate within the Area. All parties concerned are urged to make a sincere effort to resolve the issue at this level.
The Office of the Ombudsman of the University of Washington has been established to assist in the protection of the rights of all members of the University community. In order to facilitate early and informal resolution of grievances, the Ombudsman will be available, at the request of any party concerned, to act as an impartial conciliator. The Office of the Ombudsman may be called upon to intervene in the grievance procedure at any stage, but would seem to be most appropriate at the earliest stage.
Step 2. If negotiations at Step 1 are not successful in resolving the issue, the problem may be referred to the Associate Dean for Academic Programs. This step represents the effort of a third party to examine the situation with some degree of objectivity and attempt to resolve the issue in an informal way. If this attempt proves to be unproductive, the process should move to Step 3.
Step 3. The Associate Dean, at his/her own initiative, or upon petition by any of the parties involved, may appoint a three-person ad hoc committee to hear and review the matter. This committee shall then advise the Associate Dean, who shall then notify all relevant parties of his/her recommendation, including the outcome of the committee review and other grounds on which the recommendation was based. The Associate Dean's recommendation must be completed within 10 school days of the conclusion of the committee review.
Step 4. If steps 1-3 do not resolve the grievance, the student may request the Graduate School to assist in an informal resolution.
Step 5. If all efforts at informal resolution of the problem prove to be unsuccessful, the next step involves the filing of a formal written grievance complaint with the appropriate dean. For graduate students, the appropriate dean is the Dean of the Graduate School and the procedures to be followed are those that are presented in Graduate School Memorandum #33. This document is available in the Graduate School, in the Office of Admissions and Academic Support (OSS) in the College of Education, and on-line at: http://www.grad.washington.edu/policies/memoranda/memo33.shtml.For non-graduate students , the appropriate dean is the Dean of the College of Education and the appropriate procedures to be followed are described in Part II of this document.
PART II: Formal Student Academic Grievance Procedure College of Education
A. Graduate students: follow procedures outlined in Graduate School Memorandum #33.
B. Non-graduate students proceed as follows:
1. Upon receipt of the written complaint from the student (see Part 1, Step 4), the Dean of the College of Education shall refer the matter to an ad hoc committee appointed by the Dean which shall consist of three tenured faculty members and two students. The chairperson of the committee shall be a faculty member appointed by the Dean. It shall be the responsibility of the committee to provide the student a fair and impartial hearing on the grievance filed.
2. The Dean of the College of Education shall notify all persons directly involved and provide each with a copy of the written complaint. The chairperson shall establish a time and place of the hearing to be held within 15 school days after the receipt of the formal grievance by the Dean.
3 . All parties may individually and personally present evidence and testimony necessary either to establish or to refute the alleged grievance. Only evidence presented at such a hearing shall be considered in determining the validity of the complaint.
4. All hearings must be conducted in closed session. However, by mutual agreement of the student and the concerned faculty or staff, the hearing may be opened to the public to the extent mutual agreed.
5. All documentation of the proceedings shall be kept on record. Such a summary shall be maintained for a period of five years in order to ensure adequate review, if requested.
6. Within 10 school days after the adjournment of the hearing, the committee shall present to the Dean, with copies to all parties involved, a report of the committee, including findings of fact, conclusions, and recommendations. The committee shall reach its findings and recommendations by a majority vote of the members of the committee. Dissenting opinions may be presented with the majority report, if desired.
7. Within 10 school days after receipt of the committee report, the Dean shall issue a decision on the grievance. Such a decision and the reasons therefore, together with an enumeration of the actions to be taken, if any, shall be transmitted to all parties.
8. The decision of the Dean shall become final at the close of twenty one days after issuance, except that the student who originally filed the grievance or any individual filed against, may before that time file a written statement requesting reconsideration of the findings by the University Disciplinary Committee and stating grounds for the request. In the event that such a request is so filed, the decision of the Dean shall be stayed.
Academic Grievances
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