Students are entitled to have a process whereby they can grieve a decision made about a grade or a faculty member or departmental decision that they believe negatively impacts their progress toward their degree. To provide a fair hearing to a student grievance the following steps should be followed.
- The student should seek to determine if the issue could be resolved with the faculty member involved.
- If unresolved with the faculty member, the formal steps of the grievance procedure are as follows:
- The student must inform either the Graduate Chair or the Department Chair of their wish to appeal a decision.
- The appeal should be done in writing and orally. Then the Department or Graduate Chair will form a committee of three departmental faculty members to gather information about the grievance and make a report and recommendation to the full graduate committee.
- The graduate committee will consider the recommendation and make a judgment about the merit of the student’s appeal.
- Unless there are unusual circumstances, the graduate committee will make a decision about the grievance within four weeks of receiving the recommendation.
Specific Procedures and Policies for the Appeals Processes for the list below can be found in the Graduate Bulletin ( https://catalog.unl.edu/graduate-professional/policies/academic-program-requirements/#probationandtermination ).
- Grounds for Probation and Termination of UNL Graduate Students,
- General Appeal Procedures for Academic Matters Concerning Graduate Students, and
- Appeal of Grades in Graduate-level Courses.