Academic Appeals at the U of C

[Gainsbarre]

I was just wondering if anybody has (or knows of anybody who has) ever made a formal appeal of a final grade at the U of C and how it went. It looks as if I'm going to have to present a greviance of mine before the Faculty Appeals Committee and I'm not sure what to expect.

[5hift]

I have had a friend who had to go through this, and pretty much unless you have something very clear and obvious done by the prof, they almost always take the prof side over yours.

[Weapon_R]

Expect to voice your grievances to a group of people who will debate whether or not your grade is worth changing. Expect to be unsuccessful as there really is only 1 person there that is on your side, whoever they delegate to be there from the students union. Have a damn good reason as to why you believe the grades should be changed.

[Gainsbarre]

Thanks for the prompt replies. May I ask what were the bases of those appeals? I'd state mine, but I fear that others might be watching, and the hearing has yet to take place.

[5hift]

Originally posted by Gainsbarre
Thanks for the prompt replies. May I ask what were the bases of those appeals? I'd state mine, but I fear that others might be watching, and the hearing has yet to take place.

Well i doubt that any one on that board will be a beyonder, but basicly my friends appeal was based on the fact that she had been sick for a while and had made several attempts to reach the prof (emails , msgs left with his secretary, voicemails) the prof did not reach her throughout the week despite her attempts to reach him. The day she returned he was handing out our midterm and would not grant her an extension. She wrote the midterm, obviously doing not so great and had to take it from there.

Unless you have a really good reason where the prof is clearly in the wrong, its a waste of time as they rarely take student sides.

[Weapon_R]

The one I wrote about was a guy who was received a failing grade because of a refused deferral, and it was still denied despite paper evidence that showed he did have a prescription, doctors note and receipt for proof of purchase of the description.

[5hift]

yeah hopefully Gainsbarre you have a good reason because your going into a meeting of board/faculty members who are all looking to prove you wrong.

[Gainsbarre]

The basis for my appeal is I feel that the final assignment for the course wasn't even looked at...everybody received the same average grade on it and I had to go through the dean just to get my hands on it and when I looked at it, there were no markings whatsoever on the paper. This after the first couple of assignments were all graded on a curve and I earned the top grade in the class each time.

Another basis is the fact that he pulled the vanishing professor routine on all of us...cancelled the last week of class on virtually no notice, promised to hold office hours to make up for it (something that he never honoured), not returning any emails or voicemails, just pretty much left us high and dry for the three weeks leading up to the final exam that was worth 50% of the course grade. And he did all this immediately after the course evals, probably thinking that there wasn't a damn thing we could do about it...

I might be going a bit overboard here...I've written an extremely detailed 12 page (single spaced) letter to the dean and the chair of the faculty appeals committiee over this.

[Celica TVS3]

I'm going to apeal one of my grades from last semester too. I've been trying to get ahold of the prof since the mark was posted but he isn't responding.

My grade is .01% from the next letter grade ( A-) according to the courses marking scale. And there was one ambigous qestion on an assignment that I tried to get changed earlier in the semester but didn't persue it further because i didn't think it would make a difference.

GOSH!!!

[5hift]

Originally posted by Gainsbarre
The basis for my appeal is I feel that the final assignment for the course wasn't even looked at...everybody received the same average grade on it and I had to go through the dean just to get my hands on it and when I looked at it, there were no markings whatsoever on the paper. This after the first couple of assignments were all graded on a curve and I earned the top grade in the class each time.

Another basis is the fact that he pulled the vanishing professor routine on all of us...cancelled the last week of class on virtually no notice, promised to hold office hours to make up for it (something that he never honoured), not returning any emails or voicemails, just pretty much left us high and dry for the three weeks leading up to the final exam that was worth 50% of the course grade. And he did all this immediately after the course evals, probably thinking that there wasn't a damn thing we could do about it...

I might be going a bit overboard here...I've written an extremely detailed 12 page (single spaced) letter to the dean and the chair of the faculty appeals committiee over this.


It looks like you might have a good case here. The best thing you can do in this situation though, is not writing reports about it but finding as many students in that class who will go along with or support your claim. If you can get a few students to support your claim it will be a lot more credible (get some signed statements from students to bring with you to present to the board).

But one issue with your appeal is the board will ask you what you are trying to achieve by appealing. Since the issue is more than just something not being fairly marked, it is hard to evaluate. Its hard for them to look at how he was unavailible and transfer that into the mark you would have gotten had he been more availible throughout the year.

One thing I dont get is you said you were always among the highest marks for the assignments. Usually, from what I've seen that translates to among the highest test marks as well. If this is an issue of you getting a B+/A- when you think you deserved a little bit better, this whole thing may not be worth the time/effort you will be putting into it.

[Gainsbarre]

Originally posted by Khali



It looks like you might have a good case here. The best thing you can do in this situation though, is not writing reports about it but finding as many students in that class who will go along with or support your claim. If you can get a few students to support your claim it will be a lot more credible (get some signed statements from students to bring with you to present to the board).

But one issue with your appeal is the board will ask you what you are trying to achieve by appealing. Since the issue is more than just something not being fairly marked, it is hard to evaluate. Its hard for them to look at how he was unavailible and transfer that into the mark you would have gotten had he been more availible throughout the year.

One thing I dont get is you said you were always among the highest marks for the assignments. Usually, from what I've seen that translates to among the highest test marks as well. If this is an issue of you getting a B+/A- when you think you deserved a little bit better, this whole thing may not be worth the time/effort you will be putting into it.

I know it would be good to get support from my classmates on this, but that's much easier said than done...people are on vacation, people don't care, people don't have the time. I've been there and done all of that. It's just that at this point of my university career I'm not going to take any more of these injustices lying down.

I'm appealing for my A- to be changed to an A. I know, it sounds trivial, but I'm also looking at making others aware of what went on so that it won't happen again. None of us know how we did on the final exam (the ONLY exam in the course) as we were never provided with a breakdown of our marks -- I had to go all the way to the dean just to view mine. The professor withheld SEVENTY percent of our final grade (third assignment = 20%, final = 50%)…we only knew how we did on the first two assignments, each worth 15% of our final grade. I know how most of the class did on these first two assignments based upon what the instructor said in class and discussions with my classmates.

Yes, this might be difficult to quantify with regards to how his absence affected my final grade, but I plan on presenting all of the inconsistencies between the textbook and what was presented in class (among other things) to support my claim that him not making himself available for questions negatively impacted my final grade. He has yet to explain why he was absent for the three weeks leading up to the final exam, and the evasive and belligerent manner by which he's addressing my concerns leads me to believe that he doesn't have a legitimate excuse to explain his absence (he's yet to even ACKNOWLEDGE it). To me, the most valuable resource when it comes to learning is not the textbook or your lecture notes, but the professor.

[5hift]

Its a good cause your trying for but this has been said and done before. I doubt ur mark will be raised but at least you can bring some heat on the proffessor where he might start doing his job.

[5hift]

Whats the profs name btw? Chances are he probably already has a reputation

[Gainsbarre]

Originally posted by Khali
Whats the profs name btw? Chances are he probably already has a reputation

Check your PM...I'd rather not reveal his name to everybody (at least not until after the hearing). But based upon some comments that I've heard from his colleagues, you're right about him already having a reputation.

[Weapon_R]

Gainbarre, unfortunately I do not think that your excuse is going to fly. Under university policy, a professor only needs to disclose 10% of the final grade to a student prior to a final. Also, I don't really understand why it matters that there were no comments in your final paper, as he had marked them with the intentions of not returning them back to you. I've never had a prof mark comments on a paper that wasn't going to be handed back to me. In fact, i've had profs give 1 or 2 day extensions on the paper with the agreement that there would be no comments as it can be marked more quickly that way.

Either way, good luck - from what i've seen, you are a stand up guy and don't pull shit out of your ass, so hopefully the appeals board will see your way.

[BebeAphrodite]

Originally posted by Weapon_R
The one I wrote about was a guy who was received a failing grade because of a refused deferral, and it was still denied despite paper evidence that showed he did have a prescription, doctors note and receipt for proof of purchase of the description.

A bit off topic, sorry for jacking the thread Gainsbarre but...

How in the world can they deny a deferral if the guy was genuinely sick?? That doesn't even remotely seem fair.

[Weapon_R]

I am not quite sure. Perhaps his history or something. I didn't really know him too well so I didn't go too much further.

[Gondi Stylez]

This process is garbage! Well atleast when it happend to me. Although, you have a good case IMHO and I wish you the best of luck on your grade appeal. My only advise would be to keep a cool head and not get heated about your prof... unlike me... that REALLY hurt my case!

Oh well, it was a learning experience and an anger management session all in one!

[Gainsbarre]

Thanks for the advice and support everybody. I really appreciate it.


Originally posted by Gondi Stylez
This process is garbage! Well atleast when it happend to me. Although, you have a good case IMHO and I wish you the best of luck on your grade appeal. My only advise would be to keep a cool head and not get heated about your prof... unlike me... that REALLY hurt my case!

Oh well, it was a learning experience and an anger management session all in one!

Did your appeal go before the Faculty Appeals Committee?

[Gondi Stylez]

Originally posted by Gainsbarre
Did your appeal go before the Faculty Appeals Committee?

yeah it did! 5 members that you have to plead your case too. I think i would have been calmer if i could have appealed during the winter semester. Although, at MRC you only have 2 school weeks and for me that was x-mas break!:thumbsdow

[Gondi Stylez]

How did it go?

[Gainsbarre]

I haven't had a hearing yet but I'll post an update on what happens as soon as I hear back from them. It's the middle of the summer so there needs to be a quorum first and that'll probably take a few weeks.

[AcuraTl]

:werd:

i'd like to know also

[Official Hoser]

Originally posted by Gainsbarre
everybody received the same average grade on it


Can you show that everybody received the same average grade on the assignment? You'll probably want to have some evidence of this before saying it to the committee, as I'm not sure if they could (or would be willing to) access everyone's assigment grades. Did you compare your grade with a couple of other students, or is there a list of grades posted?

Good luck, and keep us posted. Perhaps if the Univ gets complaints about this guy from an A student like you, they'll be more likely to listen. I'm sure most people who complain are probably slackers who just want a decent grade after a semester of slacking off. However, like some of the posts above, I doubt the Univ will do much.

When I was in my second year, a prof used the same exam he had used in a previous year. He tried not to release the exam to any student clubs or the student exam bank, but it still leaked out. So, part of the class had access to it, part of the class (including myself) didn't. People appealed, but nothing happened and he's still a hotshot in his department.

[Gainsbarre]

Originally posted by Official Hoser


Can you show that everybody received the same average grade on the assignment?

That's no problem at all. I had access to the grade breakdown on the third assignment and everybody received the same grade. The professor confessed to this but tried to defend it by saying everyone benefited, even though those who did poorly received a greater benefit than the rest of us who had earned a higher grade on the assignment (e.g. everybody gets 80% on the assignment regardless of whether or not you had 55% or 80% before the grade revision).

btw, you've got a great username, eh?

[Official Hoser]

Thanks, eh. Great avatar.

Man, I can't believe what a lazy fuck that guy is. Do you know if he at least does decent research to make it worthwhile for the U to keep him around?

[Gainsbarre]

Decent research? Not very likely. According to his bio posted on the university webpages, he hasn't published anything since he was hired by the U of C many years ago.

I can think of one reason why the U keeps him around, but it's a very touchy subject so I'd rather not say....

But not to worry, once this appeal is over, I'll reveal the prof's identity so you can avoid him in the future. You can then come up with your own conclusions as to why he's still around.

[Gainsbarre]

Quick update...the case will be heard by the faculty appeals committee, but that probably won't happen until late August / early September as everybody's on vacation and what not during this time of the year. I'll keep you posted.

Apparently the prof DID hold office hours in the weeks leading up to the exam, but he only informed a select group of students of these hours instead of making an announcement on Blackboard or sending out an email to the entire class. He was able to make announcements on Blackboard to inform us that the last couple of classes were cancelled, so it’s not like he didn’t know how to use the technology. Talk about an unfair advantage for those who did get to see him during those alleged office hours.