Some students agree with the grades they receive at the end of the semester. However, some don’t.

NIU Ombudsman Tim Griffin deals with grade appeals, but said he doesn’t know how many grade disagreements there are each year. He figures there are about 50 to 60 because problems often are settled with the instructor or professor.

“I’m going to assume there are many grade appeals happening per year,” he said. “A lot of times [students] will go back to the instructor, and it’ll be resolved.”

According to the Academic Policies and Procedures Manual of NIU, grade appeals only will be examined in cases of “capricious grading, and not the ability of the instructor to assess the quality of a student’s work.”

Capricious grading for undergraduates is the “assignment of a grade to a particular undergraduate student on some basis other than performance in the course, by more exacting or demanding standards than were applied to other undergraduate students in that section and by a substantial departure from the instructor’s criteria distributed in writing during the first fourth of the course.”

Griffin said sometimes grades just can be entered wrong by the instructor. He explained that if about 75,000 grades are entered, even with an “accuracy rate of better than 99 percent,” there still are going to be “hundreds of grades in error.”

“Mistakes do happen,” he said. “Grades do get awarded in error since human beings are doing it.”

Griffin said there are appeal procedures students must go through according to the Academic Policies and Procedures Manual, and they differ according to graduate and undergraduate standing.

Step one of the undergraduate process involves the student conferring with the instructor about the grade disagreement.

Step two is completed after step one. If there still is a grade dispute, it involves conferring with the chair of the department in which the course is offered.

If steps one and two do not resolve the problem, the third step can be taken. In this step, the student may submit a written petition to the Grade Review Board in the department in which the course in question was offered.

After the steps are completed, the Grade Review Board decides if “the grade was not assigned capriciously and shall stand as assigned” or “that the grade may have been assigned capriciously and merits further consideration.”

Griffin said students must get to step three in the appeal procedures no later than Feb. 7.

“[Students] can’t wait until Feb. 7 to start the process,” he said. “But students certainly have plenty of time.”

Griffin also said not to worry about a grade during winter break because it can be resolved when students return.

“It’s usually in everyone’s best interest to be patient, and pursue their question as soon as they get back in the spring semester,” he said.

Graduate law student Steve Greeley said he would appeal a grade if he thought it was unfair but never has had a problem with a grade he’s received in the past.

“I’d have to have a pretty good chance of succeeding if I was going to go through the whole appeal process,” he said.

For information on grade appeals for undergraduate and graduate students, visit the Office of the Ombudsman Web site at www.niu.edu/depts/ombud/, or call 753-1414.