Instruction Student Complaint Process

For students with concerns about how their grade was calculated, or how course policy was applied.

Step 1: Contact your instructor with your concerns. For best results, try to schedule something outside of class – don’t try to resolve the issue in the transition period between classes.

Step 2: If you are unable to resolve the issue with the instructor, contact the instructor’s division chair. Similarly, if the instructor does not respond to your attempts to make contact after a reasonable time (2 to 3 business days), you may contact the division chair.

The division chair will, within 10 business days, call a meeting between the instructor and student to resolve the issue. If a meeting is not practical, the chair may seek other means of resolving the matter such as a phone call or email communication, but you should generally expect to attend a meeting that will include the division chair and your instructor. The division chair’s responsibility is to help find a resolution, not determine who is right or wrong.

If the instructor involved in the complaint is the division chair, then the matter will be referred to another division chair, preferably one under the same dean. Contact the office of the dean over your instructor’s division for a referral.

Step 3: If the complaint cannot be resolved by the previous 2 steps, or if 10 business days have passed from when the division chair was notified of the complaint, the complaint may be referred to the appropriate instructional dean either by you or the division chair. The dean will meet with the faculty member, division chair and student to resolve the complaint within 10 business days of the complaint being referred to their office. The dean may choose to meet with all of you at once or separately.

Step 4: If the previous steps have not come to a resolution, the complaint shall be directed to the Vice President of Instruction for final resolution.