Sample Grievances

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SAMPLE #1

Date

Dr. William Donohue

Faculty Grievance Official

W38 Owen Graduate Center

Campus

 

Dr. Donohue:

I hereby file a grievance against ___________, Chairperson of the Department of _______________.  I am an Assistant Professor with_______________________.

On Tuesday, May _________ I was verbally informed by the Chairperson that he was not going to reappoint me in my position as ______________________, which I had good reason to believe would be renewed on _____________________.  I allege that Dr. ____________’s actions violate several University policies and established promotion practices.

I first assumed a fixed-term Assistant Professor position in August ______ and worked with______________________________.

The Chairperson was clearly in violation of several University policies outlined in the Faculty Handbook, as well as in violation of established college and department promotion practices (see Faculty Handbook:  Faculty Rights & Responsibilities and department and college bylaws attached).  Specifically, I note his violation of MSU policy in that he did not recognized the importance of both my teaching and research, the creativity of my efforts and its impact on students.  The Chairperson also violated established college and department bylaws and practices to provide an objective appraisal of my professional performance (see department bylaws attached). 

As redress for this grievance, I seek determination from the Provost that I am entitled to be reappointed as of ________ ____.

Sincerely,

 

 

 

 

 

 

SAMPLE #2

Date

Dr. William Donohue

Faculty Grievance Official

W38 Owen Graduate Center

Campus

 

Dr. Donohue:

I hereby exercise my right as a tenure-stream faculty member to file a grievance against ____________, Dean of the College of ________________________.

The basis of my grievance is that Dean ______ made his decision that I be denied promotion and tenure to associate professor in direct violation of University regulations in the Faculty Handbook under the Granting Tenure and the Appointment, Reappointment and Tenure sections in that he disregarded the mandated internal and external peer review and he failed to provide the professional guidance required of all MSU deans.

Dean ________’s letter of  ____ states his refusal to recommend me for tenure and promotion stems from my performance in my department.  He claims to have based that decision on the reports of my department, of external reviewers and of my college Reappointment, Promotion, and Tenure (RPT) committee.  In fact, the most obvious reading of those documents demonstrates that they supported me and not the dean’s reading of them.  My department unanimously recommended me for tenure and promotion.  The external letters were very positive.  The College RPT was almost unanimous in favor of my promotion.  No individual or administrative entity in the peer review system spoke against my tenure and promotion except for the Dean.

Let me briefly review my accomplishments and the conclusions regarding it by my colleagues in the Department, my chair,  and my external reviewers.   I have an impressive record of external research grants.  I recently obtained a $________ grant and I currently have two proposals under review with _____________.   I have conducted _____ outreach conferences in Michigan and throughout the U.S.  I have authored a text book and have 12 refereed and 9 non-refereed published research papers.  I am a committed chair of two professional societies and was the editor and technical chair of the _____________.   I am a member of several department and MSU committees ________________.   I was assigned to teach _______ and _________.  Both of these courses are large classes.  Sample syllabi for these courses are presented in Appendix 3.  These documents clearly list the objectives of the course and method of assessment of students.  Due to my efforts, the quality of students has improved in both courses.  I modified course contents ______________, spent many long hours with students, and my SIRS results have improved. 

I request that the hearing panel find that the Dean’s recommendation was arbitrary and contrary to University and college bylaws and recommend to the Provost to find for me for promotion to associate professor with tenure, under the terms of the original recommendation of my faculty peers.

Sincerely,

 

 

 

 

 

SAMPLE #3

 

Date

Dr. William Donohue

Faculty Grievance Official

W38 Owen Graduate Center

Campus

 

Dr. Donohue:

I hereby file a grievance against Dr. __________, Chairperson of the Department of ________.

In his letter of October _______ (attached),   Dr. ________ summarizes my annual evaluation of performance for ________________ and  he states ‘it is of concern that your grant activity and research funding are lower than appropriate’.  This statement comes as a complete surprise to me. 

Dr. __________’s evaluations are unfair and arbitrary and clearly in violation of MSU policies which indicate that “each faculty shall be informed of all factors used for evaluation of their performance and the relationship between their performance and the decisions on merit salary adjustments.. faculty are entitled to have all their assigned duties given weight in the evaluation.” and  “Whenever appropriate such evaluations shall contain constructive and explicit recommendation and clarify expectations of what is needed to make additional scholar progress..” 

Section ________ of the college bylaws sets out the criteria for evaluating research, teaching and service.  I submitted all the materials listed in _______.  These show that students consistently praised my teaching,  As far as publications and research go, I had three items appear in print during _________.  I gave two invited lectures in _________ during ________.  I also spoke at __________ seminar held at the University of _____________.  As far as service goes,  ____________.

As noted above, I obviously have done well in research, teaching, service, and grants this past year and have been most productive.  Dr. ________’s evaluation of my performance and my average merit increase is unfair and arbitrary and violates MSU and college policy and practices.

As redress for this grievance, I seek that 1) the annual review letter for ______ be revised to accurately reflect my accomplishments and 2) my salary/merit increase be adjusted retroactively to accurately reflect my efforts. 

Sincerely,

 

 

 

SAMPLE #4

Date

Dr. William Donohue

Faculty Grievance Official

W38 Owen Graduate Center

Campus

 

Dr. Donohue:

On January ________ , I was informed that the Dean of the College of ___________ had denied my request for a one year sabbatical leave of absence at half pay.  I believe this denial is not in accordance with University sabbatical policy (attachment #1) nor with recent college and department practices.  I am accordingly filing a grievance against the Dean _______________.  A summary of the sequence of events related to the denial of my proposal and my grounds for grievance follow:  _____________________________________________.

For the reasons stated above I ask for my sabbatical request to be approved as submitted, commencing in __________ semester, ________.

Sincerely,

 

 

SAMPLE #5

 

Date

Dr. William Donohue

Faculty Grievance Official

W38 Owen Graduate Center

Campus

 

Dr. Donohue:

I hereby file a grievance against Dr. _________, Chairperson of the Department of _______ where  I am a professor.

In an e-mail received from Chairperson _______ on February _______ (Attachment 1), I was informed that I must move my laboratory from _________ to  ________.  The proposed space is, however,  inappropriate, inadequate and unsafe for the type of research that I do, and in fact would prevent me from doing most aspects of this research. 

I allege that the Chairperson  is therefore in violation of my rights of academic freedom as a faculty member and as are outlined in the MSU Faculty Handbook Section IV with regard to performance of research.  That section clearly states:  _________________________________.

I further allege that the Chairperson is applying the college’s established standard practices of allocating space in an unfair, unreasonable, and arbitrary manner and is therefore in violation of university and college established practices. 

The redress that I request is to be allowed to remain in ________ until ____________. 

Sincerely,