Students have option to fight tickets, grades

With the semester coming to a close, it is more important than ever for University of South Dakota students to know the options available to them when they don’t agree with a decision made by university representatives.

As students go about wrapping up the semester and tying up any loose ends when it comes to classes, dorm issues, parking tickets and life at USD in general, they can consider using the university’s system of appeals.

Students can appeal a wide range of issues including, but not limited to, academic decisions, such as plagiarism labels and other grades, parking tickets, dorm assignments and meal plans.

“A student can appeal any sanction given by the Office of Rights and Responsibilities(for violations of the Student Code of Conduct) to the Dean of Students,” said Dean of Students Kimberly Grieve.

The Office of Rights and Responsibilities, according to the “Student Conduct Proceedings” section of the MyU Portal, deals with any infraction that violates state, federal or university rules. Or, also from the portal, “Student behavior that is deemed detrimental to our living and learning communities.”

Appeals for certain grades and other academic matters have to be handled by the instructor of the course in question. Grieve also asserted that if the instructor doesn’t resolve the issue to a student’s satisfaction, the student can appeal for academics.

The Office of the Registrar has a form available on the Portal to start academic appeals. According to the form, the process of appealing an academic decision (past an instructor’s original judgment) has to be started within 30 days of the final decision by the instructor, so students shouldn’t wait for the end of the semester to submit an appeal.

Parking tickets can be appealed online to the University Police Department. Simply go to the “Campus Life” section of University website, and click the University Police link. This takes students to the UPD home page. Parking is one of the links on the left-hand side of the window. Parking appeals have to be submitted within 15 days of the ticket being issued. After that, they have to be paid no matter what.

Appeals can be useful in many circumstances, and students should make full use of them, but they have time limits. Students shouldn’t leave appeals for the last-minute.First-year student Dyllynn Wasserburger said she went in person to appeal her parking fine.

“I went to Slagle to where you’re supposed to pay (for tickets), and they told me to go to Public Safety,” Wasserburger said. “When I talked (to public safety) they appealed it for me. The whole process was pretty easy.”