Appeals of Academic Standing

Appeals (no incomplete grades involved)

Academic standing statuses are not meant to be punitive, but rather to provide structure to assist students in regaining the academic performance required for graduation.  The College believes that students will benefit from the enhanced oversight, assistance, and (in some cases) restriction of co-curricular participation, and thus does not typically overturn an academic standing designation.

However, the College understands that students may be affected by unexpected events.  Therefore, the Academic Standing Committee will review an appeal of academic standing when the student has experienced an extenuating circumstance that has negatively impacted otherwise satisfactory academic performance.  Examples of extenuating circumstance may include a medical issue, serious illness or death in the family, significant personal emergency, or other situation outside of the student’s control.

If you believe you meet the criteria for exception to the policy, you may file an appeal by submitting the following documents. 

• Letter of appeal addressed to the Academic Standing Committee.  The letter should include:
  • the reason you believe the standing category is inappropriate.
  • an explanation of the extenuating circumstance that prevented you from successfully completing the semester’s coursework.
  • a detailed plan that documents your strategy to improve your academic performance.  If this is an acute personal circumstance that has no future impact, you should explain that to the Committee.  However, many students are facing longer term issues for which they may need to change strategy and/or find support.  In particular, the Committee will want very specific details of the plan such as how you might address any reoccurrence of the initial issue that led to your standing status or progress category, and how often you intend to meet with your advisor or other faculty /staff who can be your resources.  Explain to the Committee how the resources you have in place will help you succeed.
• Appropriate documentation relevant to the situation.  The student should obtain necessary documentation and submit it with the completed appeal. If you have non-medical documentation to submit, please send it directly to the Registrar at finchj@lclark.edu. In her absence, you can send the documentation to the Associate Registrar at hbentley@lclark.edu. If you have medical documentation that you do not wish to share directly with the committee, you may send that documentation to the Office of Student Accessibility or other appropriate campus health office. That office will substantiate for the committee that appropriate documentation has been received by the college. 
• A completed four-year academic plan – forms are available on the College Advising Center’s website.This plan must be approved and signed by your advisor.
• Support from faculty/advisor(s)/staff that know you well, and can indicate why the standing level or progress category is not appropriate, and how they plan to support you in your next semester at LC. 
  • In particular, if you’ve listed in your plan that you will meet with your advisor once a week, your advisor should include a letter of support informing the committee that s/he has agreed to that plan and believes you will succeed at LC.  It is advisable to also include other more general letters of support letting the committee know that there are multiple faculty and/or staff who believe you are ready to succeed in the subsequent semester and have committed to being a resource for you. 
• You may also include support from outside professionals or other individuals who may speak to the extenuating circumstance. 

Those providing letters of support may find Support Letter instructions on the Faculty resource page of the Registrar’s Website.  Letters can be submitted with your appeal or sent directly to Judy Finch (finchj@lclark.edu).

For those considering an appeal of warning status, please know that because the status does not impact your financial aid and does not appear on your transcript, the Committee sets an extremely high bar to reverse it.

Appeals Involving Incomplete Grades

A student who was awarded one or more incomplete grades may appeal standing (including Dean’s List) only after all incomplete grades have been resolved.  The appeal must be submitted within two weeks of the expiration date of the incomplete grade(s).  (Use the latest expiration date if there are multiple incomplete grades.) Please note that standing is not recalculated unless the student successfully appeals.

If grades have been successfully completed, you may use the simplified Appeal after resolution of Incomplete Grade form instead of submitting a full appeal.