CAMPUS AND AREA
University Daily Kansan. November 16, 1983
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Appeal
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parental committee can review a student's coursework and assign a grade; when a student has pressed charges against a faculty member who has been charged with and found guilty of sexual harassment or academic misconduct; when a clerical error is suspected in a course grade assigned by a faculty member who is not available to discuss the matter; and when a student is found guilty of academic misconduct after the course grade has been assigned by a faculty member who is not available at the time the student is found guilty.
THE PROPOSAL BEING considered by the University Council committee would establish a grade appeals board that would hear grade decisions from the department within the University Craig said.
She said that she did not know when the University Council committee would finish working on the proposal, but that the proposal would provide for a board that would have the power to order grade changes in appropriate cases.
The dean of educational services would make the actual grade changes, she said.
Balfour said that Wichita State University had an appeal boards, called the Court of Student Academic Appeals, that had the power to change students' decisions about a case, first, but eventually approved the board after
they realized the procedure was fair, he said.
CRAG SAID THAT the WSU faculty was concerned that student members of the academic court would always vote in favor of the decision, but members would always vote in favor of faculty.
"But that didn't happen," she said. "There was no faculty-student split."
Craig said that members of the proposed KU grade appeals board would probably serve two-year terms and would hear appeals of KU students. He said he and school committees on grade complaints.
"In the proposal, an appeal would be limited to instances when the student thought the professor had not followed her or her own grading policy," she said. "I guess most of us like to think we are consistent with our grading policy. It's hard to know."
BALFOUR AGREED THAT a grade appeals board should be established.
Sometimes students are not evaluated fairly because the professor does not get along well with them.
"I think there are times when something other than the academic performance is being负罪."
Bafour said that another complaint from students was that professors sometimes did not answer questions correctly.
But he said that the situation had improved over the past 10 years.
"The professors are more aware of what they need to do and hand what they have to do to get a grade," he wrote.
semester of course requirements.
Nevertheless, he said, KU still needs a grade appeals board that would have the power to change a student's grade, even if the board was never used.
ESTABLISHING SUCH A board may not be easy because some professors might oppose it.
"The professors would be madder than hell if it was up," he said.
Pete Rowland, assistant professor of political science and a member of the judicial board, said, "I wouldn't teach at a university where I had to teach a committee secondment my grading."
A professor's rights to determine the content of a class and to establish the grading procedure of the class are important elements of a professor's academic freedom, he said.
Rowland said that most grade disputes could probably be resolved if the students discussed it.
Doug Whitman, chairman of the judicial board, agreed.
"I can never recall meeting any professor who
BALFOUR SAID THAT if a grade appeal board were set up at KU, professors would realize that they were protected by the procedures.
had not been fairly trying to evaluate a student's work, "he said.
"The professors would worry that there would be a huge mob of students screaming to this campus."
He said that when he first took the job of ombudsman, he thought that there would be a lot of people who were not involved.
"But there are only about 45 a year," he said. Balfour has been KU ombudsman for six years.
Houh has been KU umbudsman for six years. He said one reason that students came to him and not to their professors about grade grievances was because the students say, "I'm afraid the professor would hold it against me when it comes to the final grade."
BUT WHEN BALFOUR tells a professor that some student think this way, the professor is unhappy.
*Most professors would be very careful not to let their grading be influenced by a grievance but it can be.*
Lorna Zimmer, director of the student assistance center in Strong Hall, said that students should try to resolve grevences with their school counselor. The authority, because often students and professors
could resolve complaints by discussing them thoroughly.
SHE SAID, HOWEVER, that the assistance center counselled students throughout grievance actions. The students, she said, made the decision to take the complaint to the judicial board.
Balfour said. "The judicial board looks at grade grievances only from a standpoint of procedure. They just try to see if the student was treated the same as another student."
But Zimmer said that the present hearing procedure was effective.
SIE SAID THE present grievance procedure was fair because both professors and students had opportunities to present their sites and the members of the board were objective.
"The University judicial verdicts are pretty powerful," she said. "When the judicial board decides on the part of the student, that exerts a considerable amount of pressure on the faculty member."
Nevertheless, Zimmer said, "I think there does need to be some viable alternative."
James Carothers, chairman of the University Senate Executive Committee, said that the Faculty Senate must vote to amend faculty rules and regulations to establish a grade appeals
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