WHEREAS, The University of Delaware’s Student Guide to University Policies and its Faculty Handbook include the University’s policies and procedures governing grade grievances brought by students against faculty members and

WHEREAS, the University’s policies and procedures governing grade grievances should be clear and unambiguous and

WHEREAS, the University’s policies and procedures governing grade grievances should give both parties reasonable time to prepare for each stage of the grievance process, but should also encourage “finality” -- allowing the student and the faculty member to return to their careers and teaching and learning and

WHEREAS, the University’s policies and procedures governing grade grievances should establish rules and standards that provide fundamental fairness and due process for all parties involved in a grade dispute and

WHEREAS, the University’s present guidelines for grade grievances fail to answer two procedural due process questions -- which party has the burden of proving his or her case and what standard of proof is to be applied by grade-grievance panelists when deciding a grade-grievance case -- that must be answered to ensure fundamental fairness in adversarial administration proceedings and

WHEREAS, hundreds of years of Anglo-American law make it clear that the burden of proof in adversarial administrative hearings falls upon the complaining party and

WHEREAS, requiring the complaining student to prove “beyond a reasonable doubt” that the defending faculty member was biased against the student or failed to follow established procedures for assigning a grade would be unfair to the complaining student and

WHEREAS, a standard of mere “preponderance of the evidence” or any lesser standard would be unfair to the defending faculty member and

WHEREAS, the standard of proof that a University of Delaware faculty member must meet to prove that a student is guilty of academic dishonesty or any other disciplinary violation is “clear and convincing evidence” and

WHEREAS, the “clear and convincing evidence” standard is commonly used by American universities in adversarial administrative hearings involving students and faculty members, and arguably provides a fair balance between the interests of the complaining student and the defending faculty member, be it therefore

RESOLVED, that the Faculty Senate recommends approval of the attached proposed changes to the University of Delaware Student Guide to University Policies and the Faculty Handbook.