We’ve all been there. Whether it was caused by a miscalculation, a miscommunication, or a misunderstanding, students can find themselves faced with a grade they don’t believe they earned. (Of course, they only point this out when the grade they receive is lower than they expected. I’ve never had a student say “You gave me an A when I should have gotten a B…”) If a student comes to you with this concern, you may wish you knew how to guide them.
Here’s the official process for appealing a grade:
- The student should talk to the professor who issued the grade. This is always the first step. Part of our campus wide learning objectives is to prepare students to self-advocate and this is a great opportunity to start practicing that.
- If the student is unable to resolve the issue with the professor, what next? The student should talk to the department chair of the professor’s department.
- Is the situation still not resolved? Then the student may seek an audience with the Academic Dean associated with the professor’s department’s college.
Be advised though: The department chair and the academic dean may help mediate a resolution with the professor, if merited, but they do not change grades.
[Fun Fact: If the student comes to you about any issue with the professor, not just grade related, this is still the procedure for resolving it: Faculty first, then department chair, then academic dean.]
Perhaps you were the professor in question? If the student has come to you and made a reasonable case (or maybe you just caught an error in your calculations or maybe the student finally submitted the rest of the work for the course they took an Incomplete ini), how do you change the grade? There’s a form for that! Just ask the registrar.
