Student Grievance Procedures

ECPI University is committed at all times to providing an educational experience which is conducive to the personal and professional growth of each student in a comfortable, student-oriented environment. As part of that commitment, the University has developed procedures designed to ensure that its students have a meaningful and fair opportunity to pursue any grievance they may have, whether the grievance relates to an academic matter, a non-academic matter or any other facet of their University experience. These procedures are as follows:

Students are encouraged to make every possible effort to resolve a grievance on an informal basis through discussion(s) with the faculty or staff member whom the student believes will be most knowledgeable about the matter at hand. If for any reason the student is not comfortable pursuing those discussions with such faculty or staff member, the student may choose to discuss the issue with another faculty or staff member chosen by the student or recommended to the student by his or her Program Director, the Campus Director of Academic Affairs or the Campus President. All University faculty and staff members are required to treat each student grievance in a professional manner and to endeavor to resolve all grievances fairly and swiftly.

Students at all times have available to them on a 24/7 and unlimited basis access to the MyECPI resource. MyECPI is a third-party anonymous and confidential incident reporting service available to all University students. A student may contact MyECPI by telephone at 800-716-9007 or online at MyECPI. More information on MyECPI may be found in the Student Services section of the Catalog.

If following the pursuit and conclusion of the procedures described in the immediately preceding paragraphs the grievance remains unresolved to the reasonable satisfaction of the student, the student is invited to submit a written request (formal grievance) for further review. Any such written request must be submitted by the student no later than fifteen days following the conclusion of the informal procedure described above and must be directed, at the student’s option, either (a) to the student’s Campus Director of Academic Affairs or to the Campus President or (b) to the University President. ECPI University will strive to keep all grievances confidential but cannot guarantee confidentiality. Under some circumstances, a release in respect of confidentiality may be needed in order for a grievance to be properly investigated and resolved in a timely manner. Unless submitted through the MyECPI system, anonymous grievances will not be acted upon.

Contact information for the University President is as follows:

The following minimum details should be included in any such written request:

• A description of the issue, including all relevant details such as dates and identities of other individuals involved
• A description of the student’s efforts to resolve the subject dispute prior to the written submission, such as details including dates of, locations of and other individuals attending meetings conducted in the course of the informal procedure described above
• Reason(s) why the result of the informal procedure described above is unsatisfactory to the student
• The student’s name and contact information

The individual to whom such submission is directed will be required to ensure that any such submission be reviewed and that a decision with respect to such submission be rendered as promptly as practical and made available to the student in question. The student will be required to cooperate with all reasonable requests of such individual should additional information or meetings with the student or other appropriate individuals become necessary in the course of this review.

If after the taking of all of the above steps the student remains dissatisfied with the resolution of the student’s grievance, the student has available to him/her the resources of the applicable external organizations and agencies to which further pursuit may be addressed. Contact information for all of such entities is available in the Accreditation and Approvals section of the Catalog and varies depending on the specific physical or online campus location of the University attended by the student.

Students are referred to their Enrollment Agreement for information regarding Arbitration through the American Arbitration Association. The complete Arbitration policy also may be found in the University Policies section of the Catalog.

The Virginia State Approving Agency (SAA), is the approving authority of education and training programs for Virginia. Our office investigates complaints of GI Bill^® beneficiaries. While most complaints should initially follow the school grievance policy, if the situation cannot be resolved at the school, the beneficiary should contact our office via email saa@dvs.virginia.gov.