The Academic Policy Committee voted at last Friday?s meeting to send the Faculty Senate Executive Committee recommended changes in the selection of faculty and student members to the panel which acts on grade appeals.

The APC has recommended that the list of 100 randomly-selected students considered for appointment be sent directly from Admissions and Records to the department where the grade is appealed, rather than the current system of sending the list first to Associated Students, Inc., for member selection.

Bill Dillon, a professor of Government, said that this is a matter of efficiency, and is not an attempt to create a power struggle with ASI.

Shaun Lumachi, chair of the Board of Directors at ASI, attended the meeting to discuss the future role of ASI in the grade appeals process.

“The only thing that we do ask is to remain a part of the process,” Lumachi said.

Lumachi said that ASI should serve an advisory role for the student panel member as well as for the student registering the appeal. He says the intimidation factor for a student who may be unfamiliar with the appeals process necessitates such services.

Dillon believes that ASI should be able serve as counsel to the appealing student but should not be able to approach the student panel members.

“I think it is important to understand that this panel serves a judicial function,” Dillon said.

Dillon said that any advice given to the student panel member should be given to all the panel members in open court with the litigants present, and likens the situation to a jury in a court of law.

Lumachi said that ASI would only advise the student panel members of their roles in the process and not on the details of the hearing.

In response to one of ASI?s concerns, a recommendation was made that one faculty member be selected from the department of the appealed grade and the other from the college, as opposed to the current system of two professors from the same department. Dillon expressed concern that the faculty panel member from the college be qualified to hear the subject matter of the appeal.