Appeals

• Departmental Graduate Examination Committee Decisions
• Graduate School Approved Examination Committee Decisions

Departmental Graduate Examination Committee Decisions

Decisions by departmental graduate examination committees whose appointment does not require approval by the dean of the Graduate School (including various departmental examining committees such as those for qualifying examinations) must be appealed within the relevant departments, rather than through the grade appeals system or to the Graduate Council.  The initial appeal must be filed with the department head charged with supervising the relevant graduate program.  The appeal must be in writing, must specify the grounds for the appeal, and must be filed within 30 days after the issuance of the disputed decision.  Upon receipt of such appeal, the department head shall appoint a committee to hear the appeal and to make a determination.  Unless the student appeals further to the department head, the appeal committee's decision shall be final.  In the event a student chooses to appeal to the department head, such appeal must be in writing and must be delivered to the department head within 10 days of the issuance of the appeal committee's determination.  For those matters so appealed to the department head, the decision of the department head shall be final.
(Graduate School Policy, IX, 2, b)

Graduate School Approved Examination Committee Decisions

Appeals of decisions by graduate examination committees whose composition has been authorized by the dean of the Graduate School shall be handled by the following procedures.

1. The initial appeal must be filed with the department head charged with supervising the relevant graduate program.  The appeal must be in writing, must specify the grounds of the appeal, and must be filed within 30 days of the issuance of the decision of the examining committee.  The department head shall forward the appeal to the departmental graduate committee with instructions to consider the case and provide the head with a written recommendation.  Upon receipt of such recommendation, the head shall make a determination and, in writing, so inform the student
   
2. If the student chooses not to accept the decision of the department head, he or she may request, in writing, within 10 days of the issuance of the determination of the departmental appeal, that the dean of the Graduate School appoint a review board.  Such a board shall be composed of five persons chosen at random from among current voting members of the Graduate Council.  Council members serving on the advisory or examining committee of the student, Council members serving on the student's departmental graduate committee, and Council members otherwise judged by the dean of the Graduate School to be interested parties shall be ineligible to serve on the review board.  The review board shall consider the case and report its recommendation to the dean of the Graduate School, whose decision shall be final.

The procedure outlined above means that a master's student who fails a final examination, or a doctoral student whose graduate study is terminated for failing either the preliminary examination or the final examination, after having exhausted departmental appeals, may appeal to a specially constituted panel of the Graduate Council.
(Graduate School Policy, IX, 2, c)