Student Grievance

Bellingham Technical College believes in the right of all students to access fair and equitable review process when a complaint arises. Please review the full Procedure for Student Grievances. The student wishing to initiate an informal complaint process must first try to resolve the matter with the appropriate BTC employee. If the informal complaint process with the employee does not reach resolution, the student may initiate a formal grievance process by filing a formal grievance with the appropriate supervisor (usually a dean or director) within 10 business days of the final response from the employee. If the supervisor finds the complaint unsupported or if the student does not accept the resolution, the student may file an appeal of the supervisor's decision to a Vice President within 5 business days of receipt of the supervisor's decision. If the Vice President upholds the decision of the supervisor or if the student does not accept the resolution offered, the student may file an appeal of the Vice President's decision within 5 business days of receipt of the decision and request to move to the Review Committee stage. If the appeal is found to be unsupported by the Review Committee, or the appeal is found to be supported but the recommendation is not acceptable to the student, they may file an appeal of the Review Committee's decision to the President within 10 business days from the date the decision was made by the Review Committee. The decision of the President will be final and no further appeals within the college will be considered.

Academic Appeals

Bellingham Technical College believes in the right of all students to receive a fair and equitable review process when a grade complaint arises. Here is the full Procedure for Academic Appeals. The student initiates the academic appeal process by speaking to the course instructor. If the informal process with the instructor does not reach resolution, the student may initiate a formal appeal process by submitting this completed academic appeal form to the appropriate Dean by the end of the fourth week of the quarter.

Petition for Academic Readmission

Students who do not demonstrate satisfactory academic progress with a quarterly GPA below 2.0 for one quarter will be placed on academic alert. Students will be suspended after three consecutive quarters of unsatisfactory progress. Here is the full Academic Standards and Progress Procedure. Students who have been suspended as a result of unsatisfactory academic progress may petition for academic readmission.

Note: Petitions require an unofficial transcript and an Academic Improvement Plan (AIP). Please have these documents complete and ready to attach before filing a petition.

Page updated June 2024