Student Complaint Process Regarding Distance Education Programs
New York School of Interior Design distance education students based outside of New York State who have a consumer-protection-based complaint regarding a distance education program should first seek to resolve such a complaint within NYSID.
Note that complaints regarding grades and general student conduct issues are not governed by this distance education complaint process. This grievance procedure applies solely where procedures to address or challenge the action or issue are not otherwise already provided by applicable grievance policies of the college.
DISTANCE EDUCATION GRIEVANCE PROCEDURE
Consumer-protection-based complaints should be made during the semester of occurrence but must be made no later than the last day of the following academic semester. NYSID will acknowledge receipt of the complaint within fifteen (15) days.
Complaints may be filed to the Dean of Students at deanofstudents@nysid.edu. Complaints should include a detailed, written description of the alleged issue. Complaints should be filed within 15 working days of the incident that precipitated the Complaint.
Please note that anonymous complaints will not be addressed through this process.
Informal Resolution
Upon receipt of the Complaint, the Dean of Students will conduct a preliminary review to determine the appropriate college department/department head for Informal Resolution. The Dean of Students will refer the matter to the appropriate office for informal resolution within that department, under the specified department’s policies and procedures. The school reserves the right to determine which department policy and procedures apply.
Appeal
This process is only for students who have already attempted to resolve their complaints through Informal Resolution.
If the student’s attempt at resolution within NYSID’s Informal Resolution Process is unsuccessful, the student may appeal the decision regarding the student’s complaint to the Appeal Officer, NYSID Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean at ellen.fisher@nysid.edu within fifteen (15) days of being informed of the decision.
The request for appeal must include the reason the Informal Resolution process decision should be re-evaluated and state the policy that allegedly has been violated, describe the facts and evidence supporting the alleged violation, indicate what redress the grievant seeks, and provide a brief history of the attempts to informally resolve the grievance.
Only appeal requests that articulate an argument based on one or both factors listed below will be considered. Mere disagreement with the decision is not acceptable grounds for appeal. The Appeal Officer may dismiss the complaint without further proceedings if it determines that there was no violation of College policy.
There is new information now available that was not available at the time of the informal resolution attempt.
There were errors that materially impacted the outcome of the decision.
The Appeal Officer may meet with the complainant and with such other persons as they deem appropriate for the purpose of ascertaining the facts and attempting to resolve the complaint.
If the appeal is approved for re-evaluation, the Appeal Officer will review the appeal and do one of the following:
Propose a remedy where applicable
Affirm the decision based on the Informal Resolution process
A decision on the appeal will be issued in writing to the complainant within sixty (60) days with any proposed remedy, where applicable. No further appeal will be granted.
Please note that anonymous complaints will not be addressed through this process.