Grade Appeal Hearing Procedure

Hearings are restricted to those Elon faculty or staff directly involved in the appeal. The student and the faculty member(s) may both bring an advisor from the Elon University community (currently enrolled student, faculty, or staff member) to the hearing. The advisor may only counsel the student or the faculty member(s) and may not actively participate in or make any statement during the hearing. Recognizing that the grade appeal hearing is an in-house procedure, attorneys, other legal counsel, and any other people outside the University community are not permitted in the hearing. Recognizing that appearances by multiple faculty members in the case of a team-taught course may be perceived as either advantaging or disadvantaging the student making the appeal, depending on the circumstances, the chair of the grade appeal hearing committee will determine whether to include one or more than one faculty member from a co-taught course. If a member of the grade appeal hearing committee has a conflict of interest involving a particular case, they will recuse themselves from serving on the committee for that case. When recusals occur, the Chair of Academic Council's Committee on Committees, in consultation with the chair of the grade appeals hearing committee will determine if a temporary replacement is needed. If needed, a temporary replacement will be appointed by Academic Council.

The hearing committee will review all of the documentation received from the dean and then ask the student, faculty member(s) (or representing department chair/program head), and their advisor, if present, to come into the room (or, if unable to be on campus, to join the meeting electronically by audiovisual means). The student and faculty member(s) (or representing department chair/program head) may appear at the same time or separately, at the discretion of the chair of the grade appeal committee, who will consider the circumstances of the case in making this determination. The student and the faculty member(s) will each be allowed to make statements, and the committee members may ask questions of both parties. The student, faculty member(s), and advisors will then be asked to leave the meeting, and the final discussion and simple-majority (three-fifths) vote by the committee will be in closed session.

The decision of the committee is final. The Chair of the Grade Appeals Hearing Committee will send written verification of the committee’s decision to the faculty member(s), the student, the department chair, and the dean of the school or college consisting of the appeal record written by the chair of the Grade Appeal Hearing Committee, as specified in Section X29A Elements of a Grade Appeal Hearing Record.

In the case of a grade change, the dean of the school or college, or a designee, will request that the University Registrar make the change.