Reporting and Support

This page gathers resource links and information for issues that may arise during your time at CU.

Campus-wide resources

Check out the Don’t Ignore It website for a comprehensive list of on-campus resources. Their own website description says it best:

There are options for seeking confidential support, reporting concerns, and learning skills for helping others. Don’t ignore mental health concerns, harassment, discriminatory actions, unwanted sexual behavior, abuse in a relationship, stalking, and other abusive behavior.

Graduate School Grievance Process and Procedure

If you are interested in details of the grievance policy, the Graduate School’s full grievance procedure document is available online. It is a bit long, so we’ve pulled out some highlights in sections below.

If you think you want to make a complaint, we recommend talking to your Graduate Advisor. They are fully familiar and trained in this grievance process and will help you navigate it.

Jurisdiction Flowchart

  1. Is this an academic issue?
    • Is the issue a grade appeal or other purely academic decision?
    • Is the issue related to arbitrary, inconsistent, or capricious actions taken against a grad student? Such as deviations from stated grading/exam policies; failure to provide reason for dismissal; unfairness in application or requirements; actions that hinder student’s ability to make progress?
  2. Are there allegations of sexual misconduct, protected class discrimination, or harassment?
  3. Are there allegations of research misconduct?
  4. Is there potential unprofessional conduct of teaching or research faculty?
  5. Is there a student conduct issue?

Timelines

Program Level Grievance Procedure

  1. The grievance process starts with a Graduate Student Grievance form submitted to the Director of Graduate Studies or the Chair of the Department.
  2. Once the grievance is officially accepted, the program will strive to complete the grievance process within 60 days.
  3. A faculty committee is formed to address the grievance.
  4. The grievance materials are distributed to the faculty member named in the grievance. They have 10 days to respond. A copy of the response is shared with the student who initiated the grievance.
  5. A hearing will be scheduled as soon as possible. The Student and Faculty members identified have separate opportunities to be heard and may be accompanied by one individual (attorney, advisor, friend, etc).
  6. The committee will discuss and suggest recommendations. They will prepare a report which will be distributed to the student and faculty member named within 10 days of the hearing.
  7. If this does not satisfactorily resolve the issue, the student may appeal to the graduate school within 20 days.

Graduate School Grievance Procedure

  1. After the grievance appeal is officially accepted, the graduate school will strive to complete the grievance process within 90 days.
  2. A new committee schedules a second hearing with the same procedure as steps 5-6 above. They will prepare a report which will be distributed to the student and faculty member named within 20 days of the hearing.

Department Resources

The Computer Science Graduate Committee also maintains an information sheet that includes some of the situations that can arise and where to go for assistance in each case.

We also realize that there are situations that may not fit into any of these categories. In that case, you can fill in the following form anonymously describing the situation. The Graduate Committee will determine how best to respond to your concerns and update the information sheet accordingly if appropriate.

Again, for many of these issues, the first point of contact is your Graduate Advisor.

Information Sheet