Graduate, Professional & Interdisciplinary Studies

Grade Appeals

Basis for Graduate Student Grade Appeals

  1. The student may not base a grade appeal on disagreement with the grading policy as established and published by the course instructor.
  2. Only the final grade submitted by the course instructor at the conclusion of the course can be appealed. Grades on individual course assignments cannot be appealed separately in this process although demonstration of instructor’s error on the grades for individual assignments may serve as the primary evidence for a successful appeal of the final course grade. 
  3. The student may base a grade appeal on the instructors’ (a) failure to follow a published grading policy in calculating grades for the course as a whole or in calculating the grade for the complainant and/or (b) erroneous or unfair application of the published grading policy or standards in determining the complainant’s grade in the course. 

Informal Efforts at Resolution

In many situations, an academic issue may be resolved through informal efforts and no appeal will be necessary.  Thus, parties must first attempt to resolve an academic issue informally.   

For Grade Appeals, this means that the Student must try to informally resolve the Grade concern directly with the Instructor before appealing to the Program Coordinator. Informal efforts at resolution include emails, phone calls, office visits, and/or any other digital or in person communications related to a Grade dispute.

Guidance Regarding Documentation

The burden of proof in the grade appeal is always on the student. Therefore, the student must substantiate the grievance. Retention of all documentation from a course, including but not limited to the syllabus, tests, papers, and any other graded evaluations is strongly recommended.

Formal Grade Appeal Procedure

Before you begin your appeal, make sure you have:

  1. Documented proof of meeting with the instructor who gave you the grade you are appealing.
  2. Written appeal request explicating the reason(s) why the academic decision should be reconsidered.
  3. Any supporting or additional documentation may be compiled into a single pdf.

Information about your Program that can be found in the catalog here: Graduate Programs < State University of New York at New Paltz.

Contact gradappeals@newpaltz.edu with questions about the process.

Click on each of the steps below for information about the process.

Confidentiality

All individuals involved with an academic appeal are required to maintain the confidentiality of the proceedings and of all materials presented.