Under the provisions of the federal law known as the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA), eligible students, or where applicable, the parents of the students, are afforded certain rights pertaining to university records and personally identifiable information on file with the institution. An eligible student is defined as any person who is currently enrolled or has been enrolled in the institution’s programs. It is the policy of the institution to treat all student information, both personal and academic, as strictly confidential. Student information will only be released after appropriate written permission has been obtained.
Student records are maintained and viewed only by authorized NationsUniversity personnel. Under no circumstance is student information divulged to the general public without the student’s consent. Students are not permitted to view other student’s personal information. Student data are maintained electronically and/or in hard copy and protected from unauthorized access.
NationsUniversity further protects students from the possibility of arrest and harassment when they live in a country inclined to take action against citizens who engage in unauthorized religious study. In such countries, postal contact is limited or curtailed. Persons assigned to communicate with these students are trained to deal with the delicate situation. NationsUniversity is in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679.
Students can request to have their names withheld from public view in the online list of graduates. Student names, personal testimonies, and pictures are published only with a student’s written (e-mail or post) consent.
The University encourages all who have complaints to resolve them informally. The complainant shall identify the person responsible for the area of concern, e.g., a professor for grades; the registrar for admissions; the Director of Fiscal Affairs regarding finances. If that person is not responsive within two weeks, the complainant may contact the next level. e.g., grades disputes are directed to the Director of Academic Affairs; dissatisfaction with the Advisor are addressed to the Director of Student Services. If there is no response at the second level, the student may register his complaint with the CEO.
Policy
The University encourages all student or employee complaints to be resolved through informal, interpersonal communications between the parties impacted. Many complaints can be quickly resolved through effective communication and cooperation. However, there may be situations that require a more formal process. Therefore, the University has adopted an informal complaint procedure and a formal grievance procedure in which the student, volunteer, administrator, employee, or any other person can seek assistance from the university to resolve an issue or concern. The complaint and grievance policy shall be included in the university’s annual academic catalog and be published on the university website. The compliance officer will also make the policy available upon request to any aggrieved party.
Definitions:
1. Complaint—A complaint is the initial effort by students, employees, volunteers, or others to request assistance from the university to resolve a conflict arising from routine operations. Examples of complaints include but are not limited to a student dissatisfied with a professor’s application of a grading rubric, an employee who feels a supervisor does not provide sufficient guidance for successful job completion, or a volunteer who is repeatedly left out of critical communications.
2. Grievance—A grievance is the formal process initiated by students, employees, volunteers, or others to seek assistance from the university to resolve a conflict that (a) was not resolved at the informal level or that (b) is a result of the university or one of its representatives violating institutional guidelines, including but not limited to university policy and procedures, federal or state laws, or accreditation standards.
Complaint Procedure:
1. A student may choose any form of written communication to inform the appropriate university representative of his or her complaint. In most cases, the complaint should be filed with one of the following administrators.
a. Faculty issues: Dean of Faculty
b. Advising issues: Director of Advising
c. Student Services issues: Director of Student Services
d. Admission or records: Registrar
e. Financial or business issues: Chief Financial Officer
f. Prisons Student issues: Director of Student Services
g. In the event the complaint is against one of these university personnel, the complaint should be filed with the Compliance Officer.
2. The person filing the grievance must provide the following information.
a. Name and ID number,
b. Name of person or department against whom the complaint is filed,
c. Date of and reason for Complaint,
d. Efforts made to resolve problem, and
e. Desired resolution by complainant.
3. The identified supervisor will contact the person or department head against whom the complaint is filed to discuss possible resolutions.
4. The identified supervisor will then contact complainant to work out resolution to the issue.
5. If a resolution is found, the informal complaint process ends.
6. If a resolution is not found, the complainant will be referred to the compliance officer who will provide instructions on and forms for the grievance procedures.
1. The grievance procedures are in place to assist students, volunteers, administrators, employees, or others in resolving complaints that (a) were not resolved through the informal complaint procedures or that (b) result from the university or its representatives failing to comply with guidelines, including but not limited to university policy and procedures, federal or state laws, or accreditation standards. Examples of such violations include the following.
a.Sexual Harassment,
b.Financial Irresponsibility or Fraud,
c.Failure to provide acceptable accommodations for disabilities,
d.Misrepresentation of the degree, educational services, or expected outcomes, or
e.Failure to meet university obligations as outlined in the Enrollment Agreement,
2. The aggrieved party fills out the NU Grievance Form, which is available for download from NU’s website or acquires a hard copy from its office at 650 Poydras St., Suite 1400, PMB 133, New Orleans, LA 70130. (Tennessee residents may obtain a copy from the NationsUniversity office located at 7003 Chadwick Dr., Suite 351, Brentwood, TN 37027.) The aggrieved party is then required to fax, email, or mail the completed form and all supporting documentation, including previous attempts at resolution, to the University’s compliance officer within 60 days from the incident for which he or she is filing a formal grievance.
3. The Compliance officer, after receiving the completed grievance form, must notify the aggrieved via email or other acceptable method within 3 days that the University has received the completed form and has been assigned a formal grievance process number.
4. Assigning the grievance process number is based on the year, the grievance is received, and a sequential number of the total grievances filed with the University, for that year. For example, a grievance is received by the University on December 20, 2013 and it is the sixth grievance received by the University. The compliance officer would assign the following number 2013-6. Thus for a grievance received on February 3, 2011 and it was the third grievance received during the year the compliance officer would assign the official grievance process number 2011-3.
Stage One (Compliance officer)
Compliance officer contacts all parties involved and attempts to resolve the issue. If the compliance officer finds a solution that is acceptable to the aggrieved, the formal grievance process ends, and all forms and paperwork involved are archived for five years. The compliance officer must photocopy and then return the original grievance form to the aggrieved at which time the aggrieved will send an email to the compliance officer affirming they are now satisfied or wish to appeal.
Stage Two (CEO)
If the compliance officer is unsuccessful in resolving or otherwise correcting the problem, the compliance officer will forward the complete file to the University’s Chief Executive Officer who, in collaboration with the compliance officer and one other NU staff member, will address the grievance. At this time, the CEO can:
1. Reject the grievance as being frivolous, untrue, unfounded, or it is an issue that cannot be grieved.
2. Determine whether the issue is beyond the scope of the University’s grievance procedure process, i.e., criminal act, professional malpractice, and civil litigation.
3. Partially accommodate the aggrieved.
4. Fully accommodate the aggrieved.
Stage Three (Board Regents)
Within 10 days of receiving the grievance file, the CEO and Compliance officer will notify the aggrieved in writing of the determination. If the determination is 1, 2, or 3, the aggrieved can appeal and request that two University Regents and one neutral party reconsider the grievance. (It is at the discretion of the Board of Regents how, where and when this will be conducted, i.e. telephone, in-person or by videoconferencing. (Tennessee residents may request an in-person meeting at the office located in Brentwood, TN, per state ordinance.) The Board chooses the neutral party or can decide to let the aggrieved put forth their own neutral party. Under no circumstances is the University obligated to pay for the aggrieved to have a neutral party present at the conference, whether by videoconference, in-person, or telephone.
If the aggrieved is not satisfied with the Board of Regent’s conference determination, they may seek whatever action they feel necessary from an outside source. Additional means of grievance are provided below and shall be provided to the student along with any decision made by the Board of Regents committee. The University will deem the issue beyond the scope of further University grievance process. After which time, the University will archive and store all documents and notes pertaining to this particular grievance for ten years.
Note: Under no circumstances will NU use any staff that is named in the grievance as decision makers in the grievance process.
At any time before, during or after any complaint or grievance process, the aggrieved can contact any counsel, regulatory body, enforcement, judiciary or state department of education concerning his/her issue as they deem necessary.
For complaints related to educational offerings, licensure, and state authorization:
Board of Regents
P.O. Box 3677
Baton Rouge, LA 70821-3677
For residents of Tennessee, complaints associated with the Brentwood location of NationsUniversity may be filed with the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, 312 Rosa Parks Ave., 9th Floor, Nashville, TN 37243. Any person claiming damage or loss as a result of any act or practice by this institution that may be a violation of the Title 49, Chapter 7, Part 20 or Rule Chapter 1520-01-02 may file a complaint with the Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC), Division of Postsecondary State Authorization. THEC only investigates complaints that have exhausted an institution’s policy and that have not been resolved at the institution level. DPSA’s address is Tennessee Tower, 9th Floor, 312 Rosa L. Parks Ave., Nashville, TN 37243-1102. If you have any questions regarding the complaint process, you may contact Marcie Mills at Marcie.Mills@tn.gov or (615) 253-7458.
For complaints related to accreditation:
Distance Education Accrediting Commission
1101 17th Street NW, Suite 808
Washington, D.C. 20036
telephone (202) 234-5100, fax (202) 332-1386,
website at www.deac.org.
For complaints related to NU’s 501(c)3 status:
Internal Revenue Service District Director
P.O. Box 2508,
Cincinnati, OH 45201.
a. Complaints against an institution operating under SARA policies go first through the institution’s own procedures for resolution of grievances. Allegations of criminal offenses or alleged violations of a state’s general-purpose laws may be made directly to the relevant state agencies.
b. Complaints regarding student grades or student conduct violations are governed entirely by institutional policy and the laws of the SARA institution’s home state.
c. If a person bringing a complaint is not satisfied with the outcome of the institutional process for handling complaints, the complaint (except for complaints about grades or student conduct violations) may be appealed within two years of the incident about which the complaint is made, to the SARA Portal Entity in the home state of the institution against which the complaint has been lodged. That SARA State Portal Entity shall notify the SARA State Portal Entity for the state in which the student is located of receipt of that appealed complaint. The resolution of the complaint by the institution’s home state SARA State Portal Entity, through its SARA complaint resolution process, will be final, except for complaints that fall under the provision “g” below.
d. While the final resolution of the complaint rests with the SARA State Portal Entity in the home state of the institution against which the complaint has been lodged, the SARA State Portal Entity in the complainant’s location state may assist as needed. The final disposition of a complaint resolved by the home state shall be communicated to the SARA State Portal Entity in the state where the student lived at the time of the incident leading to the complaint, if known.
e. While final resolution of complaints (for purposes of adjudication of the complaint and enforcement of any resultant remedies or redress) resides in certain cases with institutions (complaints about grades or student conduct violations), or more generally with the relevant institution’s home state SARA State Portal Entity (all other complaints), the regional compact(s) administering SARA may consider a disputed complaint as a “case file” if concerns are raised against a SARA member state with regard to whether that state is abiding by SARA policies, as promulgated in the SARA Policy Manual. The regional compact may review such institutional concerns in determining whether a state under its SARA purview is abiding by SARA policies. Similarly, a complaint “case file” may also be reviewed by NC-SARA in considering whether a regional compact is ensuring that its SARA member states are abiding by the SARA policies required for their membership in SARA.
f. SARA State Portal Entities shall report quarterly to NC-SARA the number and disposition of appealed complaints that are not resolved at the institutional level. NC-SARA shall make that information publicly available on its website. Such data will create transparency and can be used in determining whether a regional compact is ensuring that its SARA member states and those states’ institutions are abiding by the policies required for state membership and institutional participation in SARA.
g. Nothing in the SARA Policy Manual precludes a state from using its laws of general application to pursue action against an institution that violates those laws.
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