Faculty Grievance FAQs

• Seek to resolve the dispute by discussing it informally with the person(s) who made the disputed decision or took the disputed action, or actively participated in it, or who has the authority within the relevant unit or units to provide redress.
• Contact your Unit Ombuds to help determine if the issue can be grieved. Or
• Contact the Faculty Ombuds.

• Grievances typically cover decisions or actions concerning a faculty member’s conditions of employment at the Ann Arbor campus that may violate University policy or which may otherwise be manifestly unfair.

• Instructional faculty who are tenured or tenure-track; clinical faculty; and research faculty, including those who are research scientists or research professors.

• Decisions made by academic units (schools, colleges, centers, institutes, and programs) acting through deans, directors, department chairs, and other authorized persons.
• A decision or action concerning a specific individual or specific individuals, including those adversely affected by the application of policy or standard operating procedure, written or unwritten.

• Decisions regarding employment, including tenure or promotion decisions, merit pay determinations, and decisions regarding clinical competence/patient safety, are based solely and exclusively on judgments about professional performance.
• Disputes that have been addressed in another formal hearing procedure of the University or a University unit.

The first step is to complete the Faculty Grievance Submission Form, which will be sent to the Director of Academic Human Resources (DAHR) and the Faculty Senate Office. The DAHR shall transmit a copy of the FGM to the named respondent(s), with copies to the Dean or Director. Please print the confirmation page for your own records.

Generally, a faculty member shall file a grievance within 90 days of the action that gave rise to the grievance. Please view your School or College Faculty Grievance Procedures to identify your unit’s procedures.

• You will be contacted by Academic Human Resources.
• A Faculty Grievance Monitor will be appointed to you by the Faculty Senate Office.
• A Grievance Hearing Board will be formed from your school or college.