Welfare Note #6
Another offering in a series of "Welfare Notes" that has been created by the Welfare Committee which are intended to ensure that all members of the Faculty Association are educated, informed, or updated in terms of welfare-related concerns and their rights contained within the Contractual Agreement.
Student Complaints
As Appendix E of our Negotiated Agreement indicates, student complaints about a faculty member's teaching quality and in-class behaviors must be verified before an administrator may take disciplinary action against the faculty member including a warning. Appendix E is entitled PROCEDURES FOR VERIFICATION OF STUDENT COMPLAINTS. It details what we, as faculty, have agreed to as procedures for responding to reasonable complaints by students. As always, a faculty member can ask for advice and representation from the Welfare and Grievance Committees.
Here are just a few important elements of the procedures:
- The administrator is required to make a determination as to whether or not the student complaint is spurious. Random House College Dictionary defines spurious as "not genuine, authentic, or true." Making this determination is an essential first step in the process;
- Non-spurious complaints, any warnings, and disciplinary actions against faculty members are to be initiated within thirty (30) days of the end of the quarter in which the complaint was registered;
- Upon request of the faculty member, a Faculty/Administration Review Board (F.A.R.B) committee may be called upon to rule on the validity of the allegations;
- Student complaints resulting in disciplinary action due to a faculty member's quality of teaching and in-class behaviors must have been reduced to writing and signed by the student making the complaint;
- Disciplinary warnings must include a suggestion(s) for remediation;
- Verbal discussion of verbal or anonymous complaints and concerns may occur between faculty and administration however, no records of verbal or anonymous complaints may be made to the personnel file.
These and other important elements of the PROCEDURES FOR VERIFICATION OF STUDENT COMPLAINTS may be found in appendix E of our Negotiated Agreement. Read more about it!
