Grievance Policy

In the spring of 2009, the School of Arts and Sciences approved a new Academic Grievance Policy through which students could resolve grievances with their professors and departments. This new policy detailed the steps students could take to resolve issues such as grading and evaluations, program requirements, examinations, teaching and research responsibilities, dissertation, and time-to-degree.

In the policy below, the first three sections describe the steps students should take to resolve various grievances. In the fourth section, the policy puts in place an Academic Grievance Committee, comprised of faculty and fellow SAS students, that can hear cases if a student does not believe that the issue has been resolved after a discussion with the Associate Dean.

If you have a grievance, the place to start is either by talking with the instructor (in the case of grading or evaluation) or the Graduate Group Chair or Program Director.

If you have questions about the grievance policy or how to approach a problem you are facing, please contact SASgov’s VP for Policy at sasgov-policy@sas.upenn.edu.