Academic Compliance, Appeals

Name: Shanna Milonas
Email: [email protected]
Department: Academic Compliance
Type of request: New technology request
Please rank your request on how critical this project is: 10
Please explain why you ranked your request as you have in terms of criticality: Very needed
Technology requested: See below
Please indicate the date the project must be completed by: June 30, 2024

Current process for appeals

  1. The starting action is that a Judgment/Decision/Ruling is made against a student.
  2. That person then reaches out to an SSC and communicates the want to challenge or appeal the decision.
  3. The SSC sends (email) a pdf to the student. The student fills out pdf and sends it back to the SSC along with any other accompanying documents or items to plead their case.
  4. SSC are acting as a 1st line screening process; they can counsel a student on if the action is appealable based on what they have submitted but can’t deny the process the appeal.
  5. If post counseling the student wants to continue with the appeal, The SSC submits a ticket in SRS and uploads/attaches the pdf and accompanying documentation received from the student.
  6. The Appeals team has to routinely check SRS for tickets. When a ticket is present in SRS the appeals team must capture the ticket information and downloads the document out of SRS
  7. All files downloaded are moved to a share drive (temp storage) while the appeal is being reviewed.
  8. Utilizing the information on the PDF and information from CRM, the Appeals team then manual creates a record in the Appeals CRM interface.
  9. Any investigative inputs from faculty and staff are manually copied a pasted into this record, mostly done through email communication.
    1. Each appeals review process is assigned to a review project owner (Case Manager)
  10. An official letter is typed created (Manual, not automation) and is sent electronically and physical printed and mailed. (Estimated document size is 1-2 pages)
  11. Once the review is completed a closeout package is manually developed, it includes the Appeals CRM record, gather documentations from the student and communication items from the reviewer, the official letter and any other required items are put together in a package and submitted into File Bound.
    1. Packages can have dozens of documents.

University Impact items

  • 8000-9000 appeals a year is what is passed on to the Appeals team post SSC counseling.
  • Currently 500+ are in the backlog of appeal tickets that have not been reviewed and are sitting in SRS.
  • GCU is not responding in the required window (15day/3week) to appeals due to the back log.
  • Pete Martinizes team highlighting the 192, is specific to potential reentries or new students trying to apply specifically to the COE program and are seeking approval or acceptance into student teaching. The university ruled that the potential student does not meet the requirements for student teaching, and they are appealing that decision.
    • New appeals workload or increase could be from COE increasing efforts to enforce policy, was a bit loose before. It’s a catch 22 around the fact that GCU COE have a different standard for students’ eligibility for student teaching versus what a state requires that the potential student lives in. Fact check me on this

Appeals Team Requests

  • Better intake process, avoid the SRS process.
    • I’m not sure if this is achievable without impacting the SSC operations and having them be the 1st line screeners is critical.
    • Investigate automation from SRS?
  • Appeals CRM interface is lacking some of the drop-down functionality that the COC CRM interface has, asking to mirror functionality but with different category items in the drop down.
    • Can this be achieved before the CRM migration is complete?
  • Automating the closeout package and final official letter as much as possible.
    • Can the closeout items be automated from CRM to File Bound?
    • Can we automate the official letter? All items needed for the letter are in CRM or can be in the CRM record.
  • Automation of communication with counselors, COC/Appeals team, relevant faculty, and staff. All communications from relevant parties are all manual and has to referenced in outlook, copied and pasted.