Hillsborough Community College has adequate procedures for addressing written student complaints and is responsible for demonstrating that it follows those procedures when resolving student complaints. Students are entitled to an accessible procedure for expressing dissatisfaction and communication with the administration to reconcile any College-related problems. HCC students have two formal avenues available to seek redress to problems: 1) the Student Grievance Procedure (Non-Academic) and 2) the Student Academic Grievance Procedure. Both procedures provide specific guidelines for resolving problems, timelines for responses as well as levels of appeals to which all members of the college community are expected to comply. In addition to the formal grievance procedures, any written complaint, whether submitted as an email or in some other written form, will be accepted and acted upon as long as it contains the student’s name, contact information and a general description of the grievance.
Both the Academic and Non-Academic Grievance procedures are published and advertised to the College community through the HCC Student Handbook and Academic Planner (pp. 60-67), which is listed on the HCC Student Services website (see left hand side of website). The HCC Administrative Rule on Student Grievance, 6HX-10-5.16; the administrative procedure on Student Academic Grievance, 5.17; and the Student Operations Procedure on Student Grievance are also available on the college’s intranet for easy access by staff members.
In keeping with the policy guidelines of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, HCC has also adopted a procedure to receive and review complaints submitted by members of the local community the College serves. The Public Comment form and procedure may be printed from HCC's website and submitted to the Executive Director for Marketing and Public Relations, who forwards the complaint to the appropriate office for resolution.
Reports of all written student complaints are reviewed biannually by the HCC's Director of Student Services and the Vice President for Education and Student Development to ensure that complaints are being addressed in accordance with existing procedures and established timelines. (Review of Student Complaints Procedure). From July 1, 2005 to December 31, 2005, 135 student complaints and two academic grievances were addressed in accordance with existing procedures.
|
