Membership in the Fort Hays State University learning community imposes upon the student a variety of commitments, obligations and responsibilities (i.e., preparation for class, attendance, completion of reading assignments, participation in the governance of student affairs, etc.). One of these responsibilities includes the appropriate and prescribed use of the academic appeals process. The academic appeals process is available to students for resolution of disputes over grades.

Students are first expected to avail themselves of the University's established tradition of informal appeals which may involve one or more consultations with the instructor(s) involved. The reciprocal obligations which bind the members to the FHSU learning community to one another require that all disputes must be initially addressed and discussed at this level. Failure to recognize this obligation to the instructor(s) on the part of the student must bring into question the appellant's commitment to the learning community and seriously prejudice further petitions for a resolution of the problem. If a dispute is not informally resolved at this level through consultation with the instructor, the department chair or the college dean, the student is obliged to consult next with the appropriate department chair who will inform the student in writing of formal departmental appeal procedures and the student's entitlement to formal university-level appeals procedures and options. Procedures for making a formal academic appeal may be learned by contacting the Provost's Office, Sheridan Hall, Room 302.