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PETITION REVIEW
CAP meets to review petitions within three
business days of each deadline. Students do not appear in person before CAP but are represented by their written statements. The
Committee reads each petition individually, giving significant attention to your request and statements from your advisor, instructor, and others. Voting members discuss your request in the context of Faculty policy and Committee precedent. They may ask questions of the ex-officio members and resource staff present. Discussions and votes are not recorded, and members observe strict confidentiality.
The Committee then chooses to approve, deny, or table your petition. If you submitted more than one petition, CAP will act on each separately; they may choose to approve one while denying another.
Committee decisions are reported first by email, then by printed letter. You and your advisor receive both the email and a printed letter; your home department administrator is copied on the email.
Approved Petitions
When a petition is approved, the CAP Staff Associate notifies the Academic
Records Office to make the requested change. Copies of this letter go to other offices and staff when relevant—International Students Office, Student Financial Services, degree audit.
Some petitions are approved with a notation of administrative neglect. This is done when the student failed to meet the
Institute deadline because of inattention or procrastination. Once administrative
neglect has been noted by the Committee, further petitions of
this sort are likely to be denied unless there is clear evidence that missing a future deadline was caused by circumstances beyond the student's control.
Denied Petitions
CAP strives to apply Faculty policies and maintain equitable treatment across all departments and undergraduates. Occasionally this means denying a petition that if approved would give a student an unfair advantage over classmates. Another guiding principle is that the transcript should reflect all work that a student did, in the term in which the work was done.
Petition decisions are final: the Committee will not consider
an appeal unless the
student and advisor can provide substantial and relevant new academic information.
This must be information unavailable to the Committee
when it made its initial decision.
Students who wish to appeal must submit a new petition that explains
their situation and the new information now available. New signatures
and statements that address the student's revised statement must
be gathered. The CAP Chair will decide whether to accept the new petition for review by the full Committee. If accepted, appeal petitions are reviewed in the same way as initial petitions.
Tabled Petitions
Occasionally CAP will table a petition in order to gather more information before making a decision. The CAP Staff Associate will contact the student and advisor via email, and specifically define the information sought by the Committee. Once the additional information is received, the Committee will
review the petition at its next meeting.
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