S.91-26
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
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MEMORANDUM
TO: Senate ?
FROM: ?
Senate Committee on
Agenda & Rules
SUBJECT: Senate Appeals Board ?
DATE: ?
26 March 1991
- Terms of Reference
The Senate Committee on Agenda and Rules, upon recommendation from the Senate
Appeals Board, recommends the following motion: ?
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MOTION: ?
"that Senate approve that the terms of reference of the Senate
Appeals Board be amended as follows:
Procedure:
In cases where a student's request with respect to admission, re-
admission, standing or credit transfer is denied by the Registrar,
the student will be informed, in Writing, of the right to appeal the
application of a particular policy in her/his case. If the student
wishes to appeal, she/he will be informed in writing of the date of
the next meeting of the Senate Appeals Board.
In cases of admission and re-admission, only written appeals will
be considered. In cases other than admission and re-admission, a
student who submits a written appeal may choose to appear
before the Board in person, and/or to delegate a representative to
appear before the Board. In all cases, the decision of the Board is
final."
S
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SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
Memorandum
From: Nick Heath,
Director, Admissions & Liaison, Office of the Registrar
To: Ron Heath, Secretary, Senate
Date:
1991 03 20
I
Subject: Senate Appeals Board Terms of Reference
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At its meeting of 14 March, the Senate Undergraduate Admissions
Board unanimously approved the following motion:
Motion:
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That SUAB approve and recommend -to the Senate Committee on
Agenda and Rules and to the Senate for consideration and approval
that the terms of reference of Senate Appeals Board be amended as
follows:
"Procedure:
In cases where a student's request with respect to admission, re-
admission, standing or credit transfer is denied by the Registrar, the
studentwill be informed, in writing, of the right to appeal the application
of a particular policy in her/his case. If the student wishes to appeal,
she/he will be informed in writing of the date of the next meeting of the
Senate Appeals Board.
In cases of admission and re-admission, only written appeals will be
• considered. In cases other than admission and re-admission, a student
who submits a written appeal may choose to appear before the Board in
person, and/or to delegate a representative to appear before the Board. In
all cases, the decision of the Board is final."
A rationale is contained in SUAB 215 (Revised) which is attached.
Please submit this for consideration at SCAR, in its capacity as the
'committee on committees,' and forward it to Senate for action as
appropriate.
nh Mar 9l
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SU4 A. J5 0? IS'
EVi5EI'
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
Memorandum
From: Nick Heath,
Director, Admissions & Liaison, Office of the Registrar
To: Senate Appeals Board, Senate Undergraduate Admissions Board
Date:
1991 03 12
Subject:
Appeals for Re-admission - Senate Appeals Board
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The Senate Appeals Board has requested, by unanimous vote, that its
terms of reference be changed to reflect the current situation concerning
appeals for admission and re-admission. If approved, this proposal will
result in appeals being considered on the basis of written information
alone and appellants will no longer have the option of requesting in-
person hearings.
Background
The terms of reference, approved and amended by Senate on 8 December
1969, 6 July 1970 and 5 June 1978 state:
Purpose:
. To consider cases wherein an individual feels aggrieved by the decision of the
Registrar to apply a particular admission, re-"admission, standing or credit
transfer in his specific case.
Procedure:
In cases where a student request with respect to admission, re-admission,
standing or credit transfer is denied by the Registrar, the student will be
informed, in writing, of his right to appeal the application of a particular policy
in his case. If he wished to appeal, he will be informed of the date of the next
meeting of the committee in writing
and of his right to appear before the
committee in person, via a representative, or both.
The decision of the
committee is final.
Prior to the introduction of enrollment limits in 1988, the large majority
of re-admission appeals were handled by the Director of Admissions. A
few cases were referred to SAB for decision, including all re-admissions
for a second time, i.e. Permanent Withdrawals. Any student whose appeal
came before SAB was able to present her/his case in person or through a
representative.
Since 88-3, the Senate Appeals Board (SAB) has reviewed each appeal for
re-admission submitted by former students who had been previously
Required to Withdraw from the University for academic reasons. SAB was
directed to apply strict limits on re-admissions to 88-3 and 89-1, but
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later these limits were removed.
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Each semester since 88-2, SAB has received approx. 100 appeals for re-
admission. Because of the large volume of appeals, SAB has found it
necessary to suspend its rules by permitting only written appeals for re-
admission. An in-person hearing for each appellant who requested one
would have created an impossible workload for the SAB, requiring up to 5
complete days of hearings in mid-semester, every semester. Since the
SAB members are students and faculty with courses to attend or to teach
and other important duties to attend to, this potential workload was not
acceptable.
Of at least equal importance is the need for students who have submitted
appeals to receive timely decisions. The likelihood of SAB holding
sufficient quorate meetings to deal with all re-admission cases in a
timely fashion would be severely reduced if in-person appeals were not
suspended.
The members of SAB have focussed attention on the student's recent
academic performance for deciding re-admission and admission appeals.
Consequently, these appeals are more suited to evaluation from written
material than are appeals for withdrawal, which often require
supplementary information to be presented by the student.
This problem was brought to Senate's attention in the SAB's annual
reports of 1988 and 1989 (Senate Papers S.89-19 and S.90-29
respectively).
Motion: (Winne/Bukovac)
That SUAB approve and recommend to the Senate Committee on Agenda
and Rules and to the Senate for consideration and approval that the terms
of reference of Senate Appeals Board be amended as follows:
"Procedure:
In cases where a student's request with respect to admission, re-admission,
standing or credit transfer is denied by the Registrar, the student will be
informed, in writing, of the right to appeal the application of a particular policy
in her/his case. If the student wishes to appeal, she/he will be informed in
writing of the date of the next meeting of the Senate Appeals Board.
In cases of admission and re-admission, only written appeals will be considered.
In cases other than admission and re-admission, a student who submits a written
appeal may choose to appear before the Board in person, and/or to delegate a
representative to appear before the Board. In all cases, the decision of the Board
is final."
nh Mar 91
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