DeKalb News Service

After months of deliberation, NIU’s undergraduate students’ process of grade appeal has undergone revision.

Shortcomings of the appeals process were first brought to the attention of the University Council in September 1986, by Philip Horowitz, NIU judicial advisory board member, in a letter to the council. Changes in “Procedure for Use in Appealing Allegedly Capricious Semester Grades of Undergraduate Students” were approved by the council Feb. 11.

One approved change in the appeals procedure is the addition of a statement which says “the board shall provide the student with a copy of the instructor’s response” to the student’s petition for grade appeal.

Also approved is a statement saying the board will conduct an inquiry to “ascertain and to consider relevant facts.” It states the inquiry will be based on the student’s petition, the instructor’s response to the petition, and interviews by the chairman of the board with the student and the instructor.

An amendment included in this change states the board will hold a meeting with the student, the instructor or both, if the student should ask for one.

Changes in the introduction to the procedures packet include the specification that petitioning students must be undergraduates. Changes in the composition of the Departmental Grade Review Board specifies that the two students that are selected to a grade appeals panel and the one student selected to the Grade Review Board also must be undergraduates.