Academic Policies & Procedures
Undergraduate Policies & Procedures
Grade Appeals
Grade Changes
On occasion, students inquire about the possibility of changing a grade. This may be because the student believes there was an error in the calculation or assigning of the grade or the student failed to officially withdraw in a timely fashion.Policy on Consideration of Requests for Change of Grade after Conclusion of the Course
These policies apply to undergraduate students only. Any requests by graduate students for change of grade after the conclusion of a course are subject to the policies of the academic unit.
This policy refers to requests for change of grade, grade discrepancies or grade disputes following the conclusion of the course and not requests for withdrawals after the conclusion of the course.
Undergraduate units will not consider petitions for change of grade from concluded courses older than 1 year. Academic units may choose to use a shorter time period than the campus limit. Academic units may make an exception only if an extremely serious and documented circumstance (e.g., coma, unmanageable schizophrenia, etc.) literally prevents the student from filing the petition within the 1-year period.
Other options, such as grade forgiveness, grade replacement and probationary readmission are possible alternate methods that students can use to continue their education.
For the situation where a student believes there was an error in the calculation or assigning of a course grade it is the responsibility of the student to contact the course instructor to discuss the grade and make his or her case to have the grade changed. If the course instructor declines to support the student's request for a change of grade or in situations where the instructor cannot be contacted, the student may appeal the course grade following the procedures established by the awarding academic unit.
Requests for change of grade after the conclusion of a course will be honored only to correct a mistake or error in calculating or assigning the course grade. To facilitate this process, the Office of the Registrar shall maintain a Change of Grade Petition document, available through the website.
The Change of Grade Petition shall require course information, a provision for the student to make a personal statement explaining why they believe the grade should be changed and a provision to include supporting documentation.
Decisions on grade changes are made within the schools. If the request is supported, the school will notify the Office of the Registrar of the new grade and the student will be mailed a notification of the grade change, including a new cumulative GPA. For this reason it is important that students keep their addresses current. If the request is denied, students will be so notified by the school.
Approved by IU Columbus Faculty Council May 3, 2002
Process
- The student may appeal a grade following the process established by each school. All requests should begin with the instructor of record. If the student is unable to resolve the issue during the corrected grades period, a grade appeal should be submitted.
- The Change of Grade Petition should be returned to the Office of the Registrar. The Office of the Registrar facilitates the distribution of the form(s) to the appropriate academic unit(s) for review and final action.
- The Change of Grade Petition requires course information (course title, semester taken) as well as provides the student the chance to make a personal statement explaining why they believe the grade should be changed. Note that individual schools may impose a deadline beyond which they will not consider requests for changes of grade for a particular semester.
- Supporting documentation is required for all grade change appeals. Only persons with a need to know will see any confidential materials submitted by the student.
- Decisions on grade changes are made within the schools. Please allow three to four weeks for the review process and somewhat longer in the summer and during semester breaks. The academic unit will notify the student in writing with the decision.
- If approved, the instructor of record should initiate the change of grade through the eGrade Change workflow. Academic deans may grant administrative user ability to initiate grade change requests on behalf of the faculty member of record and in alignment with any school policy.
- The academic unit is responsible for ensuring that all supporting documentation is retained in alignment with the Campus Records Retention Schedule.
