Faculty members have mixed emotions about a Student Senate proposal that would allow students to serve as voting members on grade appeals committees.

The draft resolution was created by Ronnie Deedrick, student vice president for academic affairs, after he voted on a departmental grade appeals committee for a complaint from a biology student. Deedrick said the current process can be intimidating for a student.

The Internal Governing Policies state the bases for an appeal of a suspected error in grading are an obvious calculation error, an assignment of a grade by application of more demanding standards, an assignment of a grade not based on a student’s performance and an assignment of a grade which departs from an instructor’s previously announced standards.

Undergraduate and graduate students must appeal a grade within the first four weeks of the next semester, and they must appeal to the instructor who assigned the grade first.

If the student and faculty member cannot reach a solution, the student must confer with the department chair, and if this fails, the student submits a written appeal to the Department Grade Appeals Committee. The size and membership of this committee depends on the department which assigned the grade.

At this level, the Internal Governing Policies state the student vice president for academic affairs or the chairperson of the graduate student advisory council, depending on the year of the student who is appealing, gets involved.

Both the student and the faculty member confer with the Student Senate representative, and the representative acts as a legal counsel for the student, Deedrick said. The senate representative also serves as a non-voting member of the grade appeals committee.

Usually, an appeal doesn’t make it to the committee level, Deedrick said, but he drafted the resolution because he wants to see at least one voting student on each department’s committee.

Kipp Kruse, chair of the biological sciences department, was part of the committee Deedrick served on as a voting member. Kruse said the biological sciences department has always had students serve on grade appeals committees.

The biological sciences department committee is small, Kruse said, and in eight years, he has seen only two or three grade appeals.

“I support the proposal given the structure of the committee we have,” Kruse said. “We want to make sure students are represented.”

Deedrick discussed the resolution with the Faculty Senate Tuesday, and senate members voiced their opinions on the issue.

Steve Scher, a psychology professor, said the last university he taught at had a similar policy, and he supported Deedrick’s resolution. He said the policy makes sense, and faculty reservations about students serving on grade appeals committees are not necessary.

Other senate members, such as David Carwell, a professor of political science, were not so supportive.

“I know there will be some people in my department who are uneasy with giving a student a vote on another student’s grade,” Carwell said.

David Carpenter, professor of English, agreed with Carwell, but said the Faculty Senate is in an awkward position until the Student Senate passes the resolution.

The Faculty Senate will revisit the grade appeals issue at a later date.