With a current change done to the Student Right and Grievance policy, a minor, but important revise will affect the grievance process.

The new change to the grievance policy has changed the meaning of ‘day’ because in the old policy, last reviewed on June 9, 2010 according to the VCCCD Administrate Procedure Manual, “day” was referred to as a calender day not an academic day. This would be a problem if the grievance process started close to long vacations, like spring break, said Ewins.

“All of a sudden we need to meet with faculty and the student within 15 calendar days,” said Ewins. “Well everybody is gone.”

For example, the grievant had 90 calendar days to submit a preliminary written statement about the grievance to the grievance officer, according to VCCCD Administrate Procedure Manual, but now he or she will have 20 academic days meaning that holidays, breaks, and weekends will no longer be counted as days.

The people involved in the grievance process are the grievant, a current or former student, the respondent, accused by the grievant, the Hearing Committee, and the grievance officer, who ensures the process is fair and informs everyone involved in the process when their assignments are due, according to VCCCD Administrate Procedure Manual.

Dean of Student Learning and College Grievance Officer Patricia Ewins said the grievance process is when a grievant and the respondent have a disagreement on an issue, and can’t resolve it on their own.

Administrative Assistant Felicia Torres said that a student should also send an email to the instructor’s dean, so he or she is aware of the issue.

When the grievant and the respondent can’t resolve the issue the dean in-charge of the respondent is then involved, but if the issue still can’t be resolve it then goes to the Grievance Hearing Committee. The process always has to follow this chain of command, said Ewins.

Torres recommends students always look through the college catalog because the catalog will have the information that the student needs if he or she wants to start the grievance process.

“It is really a chance for both sides to be heard and to have a decision be made by uninvolved third party”, said Ewins.