UCLA | UCLA's Standards & Procedures for Graduate Study

UCLA's Standards & Procedures for Graduate Study

UCLA's booklet, Standards & Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA, provides necessary background to this case.

( http://www.gdnet.ucla.edu/gasaa/library/spfgs.pdf )

Two parts in the booklet are central to the university's decision to terminate me from UCLA:

Standard of Scholarship: "UCLA requires at least a 'B' (3.0) average in all courses taken in graduate status at the University, and in all courses applied toward advanced degrees." (pg. 18)

Academic Disqualification and Appeal of Disqualification: "The record for any student who is subject to disqualification for reasons other than failure to maintain a grade-point average greater than 3.0 will be reviewed by the Graduate Division, in consultation with the student's graduate adviser." (pg. 19)

An Unethical Catch-22

The above UCLA statement on Academic Disqualification means that the UCLA Graduate Division does not allow a student to appeal the university's termination decision when this decision is based on a grade-point average below 3.0. But does this statement also mean that there are no facts or circumstances that would compel a review of this type of termination by the Graduate Division? To put this question another way: Can the UCLA Graduate Division reject an appeal of a student termination any time it terminates a student for having a GPA below 3.0? Let us suppose, for example, facts showing that course grades were not entered onto a student's academic record by the Graduate Division itself, causing an incorrect (and insufficient) GPA to appear on the student's record and thereby resulting in this student's termination. Does the university nonetheless reject these facts by citing its policy that there is no review of this termination decision because this decision is based on an insufficient GPA? If it does so, the university is employing an obvious—and obviously unethical—catch-22: Students terminated for an insufficient GPA cannot appeal their expulsions with facts showing that administrative errors caused the insufficient GPA because this policy holds that there is no appeal for students terminated for an insufficient GPA.

Does UCLA, currently advertising itself as "the most popular campus in the nation," use this obvious—and obviously unethical—catch-22 to terminate students?

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