Grievances

Grievances

Student Complaint Procedure

The following describes the BGSU forensic science program procedure for handling student complaints. The procedure describes the mechanisms by which students are informed of their right to file a complaint; identify the institutional processes for filing such a complaint; as well as program requirements for the maintenance of records pursuant to complaints and resolutions.

Student Rights Notification

Forensic science program students are notified of their right to lodge a complaint via provision of this document and detailed discussion in a new cohort welcoming event.

Complaint Process

If a student wishes to lodge a formal complaint against a member of the faculty or staff of the BGSU forensic science programs, the following procedure applies:

1. As circumstances permit, students should meet directly with the instructor or staff member to discuss the issue and seek resolution.
2. If direct meeting is not advisable or does not resolve the issue, the student should make an appointment with the Program Director for a confidential discussion of the complaint. The Program Director will seek to resolve the issue.
3. If there is no resolution at Step 2, the student will be referred to institutional student complaint procedures as specified by the Division of Student Affairs in the BGSU Student Handbook (https://www.bgsu.edu/student-handbook.html) or other applicable process as might be defined by the department, college or university.
4. If the complaint is against the Program Director and Step 1 of this procedure is unadvised, the student should move directly to the procedure described in the BGSU Student Handbook.
5. If the complaint is not resolved through the process specified above, students have the further right to contact the Forensic Science Education Programs Accreditation Commission (FEPAC).
6. Students are advised to consult the FEPAC Policy and Procedures Manual (Section 4.2) for procedural details. The FEPAC Policy and Procedures Manual and associated contact information may be found at https://www.aafs.org/FEPAC

Complaint Record

Record of student complaints lodged against the program are maintained under authority of the Program Director in accordance with FEPAC retention requirements. Individual complaint records include, at minimum:

• Submitted written complaint or summation of the student issue
• Decisions at each step of the complaint process
• Complaint resolution or active status information

Grading Policy 

The BSFS degree program follows grading policies specified by the university in the BGSU Catalog.   

Academic Honesty

The rules of academic honesty set forth by Bowling Green State University in the BGSU Academic Honesty Policy and will be strictly enforced. Dishonesty in any form will not be tolerated. Please be aware that academic dishonesty includes (but is not limited to) cheating, plagiarism, and collusion. Plagiarism is defined as representing as one’s own in any academic exercise the words or ideas of another, including but not limited to, quoting or paraphrasing without proper citation. For a first offense, the course professor is normally allowed to establish the punishment for cheating or plagiarizing in a course. For a second offense, jurisdiction lies with the College office, but dismissal is encouraged. Cheating or plagiarizing in the scientific research arena will result in dismissal from our graduate program. Clearly, unethical academic or scientific behaviors will have a negative impact on a developing career. Formal letters detailing the cheating, or plagiarism are kept in the student’s file and are available to potential employers, as well as journal editors.

BGSU is a community of scholars. As members of this community, we each have the individual and collective responsibility to conduct our personal lives in the context of mutual regard for the rights, property and privileges of others.

In addition, to the above policies, the Student Code of Academic Conduct and the Student Code of Conduct can both be found on the BGSU Catalog (2025-26) and the Dean of Student's website. These Codes create a set of expectations for student conduct, ensure a fair process for determining responsibility when student behavior may have deviated from those expectations and provide appropriate sanctions when a student and/or student organization has violated the Code(s).