About the University of Phoenix 

Founded in 1976, UOPX is a private, independent university headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. 

The mission of University of Phoenix is to provide access to higher education opportunities that enable students to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to achieve their professional goals, improve the productivity of their organizations, and provide leadership and service to their communities.

UOPX offers more than 100 degree programs from the associate through doctoral levels in a variety of fields. Students can choose to attend classes online, on campus, or via a blended option called “FlexNet®” which combines online and campus classroom attendance. The University of Phoenix is the largest private university in North America, with over 200 campuses and learning centers as well as Internet delivery in many countries around the world. Since 1978, UOPX has been regionally accredited by The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.

The Challenges 

Until 2002, student grievances and appeals at UOPX were handled in many different ways, both by individual campuses and by different departments and administrators in Central Administration. In 2002, the University’s administrators considered various options for centralizing grievances and appeals, e.g., routing them through an ombudsman, the General Counsel, the deans, or the Provost. However, none of these alternatives fit the immediate need considering the varied nature of the issues. As an institution with a customer service focus, UOPX wanted an office that could: 1) balance campus management’s responsibility for its students with centralized compliance monitoring, risk management, and trend analysis; 2) remove administrators and lawyers from daily involvement with mundane student issues; 3) apply contemporary dispute management theory and system design concepts in a large, distributed student environment; and 4) create an office with a focus on managing and solving a wide variety of student problems rather than merely eliciting them and sending them elsewhere for resolution.

Office of Dispute Management Responsibilities

The Office of Dispute Management (ODM) was created in December 2002 with an initial staff of three and was housed in University Services with other student service functions. In August 2008, ODM moved into the UOPX Office of the President where it gained increased visibility and credibility. The ODM team has now grown to a staff of 14 who support the following mission: 

To manage the resolution of student and faculty-related grievances and appeals at the lowest possible organizational level with minimal impact to the University in time, energy, and expense.

ODM’s daily responsibilities cover academic and operational issues. Although students were its only constituency for the first five years, the success and reputation of ODM led to its being assigned faculty grievances and appeals in October 2007. On a daily basis ODM handles:

1. Escalated Student Issues (ESIs) – These are operational grievances and appeals that come to ODM in letters, emails, and telephone calls. The majority of ESIs are finance-related. ODM fields live telephone calls from students received either directly or forwarded by deans, administrators, lawyers, and a central call center. All ESIs are documented in the Grievance Management System and tracked. Once an issue is closed, ODM reviews the resolution to ensure all aspects of the issue were addressed effectively. 
2. Attorney Demand Letters – Although ODM does not “practice law,” it’s Executive Director and two other team members are attorneys and respond, as needed, to attorneys who represent students and faculty. ODM maintains a close working relationship with the University’s lawyers and collaborates as necessary on issues with a legal element. 
3. Support for Apollo Legal Department(ALD) – ODM does the research on student records for ALD and outside counsel on the infrequent occasions when lawsuits are filed against UOPX. These are, in most instances, small claims cases relating to collection issues. 
4. Regulatory Complaints – ODM responds to student complaints filed with a variety of regulators, such as the U.S. Department of Education Ombudsman, the Higher Learning Commission, state private post-secondary boards, and Attorney General Consumer Complaints, among others. 
5. Managing The Student Appeals Center (SAC) – Students submit academic appeals to SAC through their Academic Advisors. These appeals include denied transfer credits, denied course waivers, requests for re-entry to an old version of a degree program, graduation deadline extensions, course prerequisite waivers, and re-entry from academic disqualification, among other issues. 
6. Advising Campuses on Student Discipline – When students violate the Student Code of Conduct, ODM is available to advise campus management on investigating the allegations, editing the “charging letter” before it is sent to a student, and providing resources and guidance for convening a Campus Committee to review the allegations and determine if sanctions are warranted. 
7. Advising Campuses on Faculty Counseling and Discipline – When a faculty member fails to meet contractual obligations or violates the Faculty Code of Conduct, ODM is available to advise campus management regarding the processing of these matters.
8. Financial Grievance Committee (FGC) – ODM convenes and facilitates this committee for the review of student financial grievances in which the student challenges the final position of campus management. 
9. Student Discipline Review Committee (SDRC) and Senior Management Review Committee (SMRC) – ODM convenes and facilitates meetings of SDRC to review student appeals of campus sanctions under the Student Code of Conduct. This includes automatic review of any expulsion recommendation by SDRC with final appeal to SMRC. 
10. Central Administration Appeals Committee (CAAC) – ODM convenes and facilitates meetings of the CAAC as needed to review faculty appeals of campus decisions and student appeals of campus decisions in cases relating to discrimination and academic withdrawal from Education, Nursing, and Counseling programs.
11. Risk Management – ODM has a unique vantage point in UOPX: It can manage risk by investigating and resolving troublesome issues before they result in agency review or costly litigation.
12. Crisis Management – ODM is occasionally called upon to coordinate efforts by campus management, Apollo LegalDepartment, Apollo Corporate Security, and other offices to manage crisis situations occurring on campuses.
13. Internet Response Initiative – ODM identifies all current references to UOPX made on various Internet websites and, where possible, joins the conversations to offer a direct point of contact at the University. Identifiable individuals are offered the opportunity to work with ODM to resolve their concerns.
14. Trending and Training – ODM prepares a monthly analysis of issues coming into the department in order to identify and analyze trends for review by University Administration. This analysis is then used to plan training targeted at addressing those trends where improved service to students and faculty will be the expected outcome.
15. Policy Development and Review – ODM looks for ways to improve UOPX policies and procedures and regularly takes the initiative to propose new or revised policies and procedures. Members of the ODM management team routinely participate in UOPX committees and taskforces where they can contribute their insights to policy discussions. 

Grievance Management System (GMS)

The Grievance Management System (GMS) is a web-based system with workflow capability that allows for assigning, monitoring, tracking, and trending ESIs. Every ESI entered in GMS is categorized by the types of issues in the student grievance. ESIs may be entered by ODM staff, an authorized campus representative, or the student directly. 

The University’s philosophy is that a student should first try to resolve their grievance with their assigned advisors. Every active student has both an Academic Advisor and a Finance Advisor. If those advisors cannot resolve a student’s grievance, the student is expected to go up the hierarchy at their campus before they “call Phoenix.” ODM has the ability to push a live web link to a student on their individual student web page that takes them to a Formal Grievance Form. This form requires a student to document that he or she followed the campus hierarchy. When a Formal Grievance Form is submitted to ODM, the grievance is generally assigned to the campus contact to attempt to resolve the issue directly with the student. 

GMS creates a workflow with accountability. A copy of the Formal Grievance Form is automatically sent to a Campus Complaint Officer who must address the issue within 48 hours, including a direct contact with the student. Issues must be closed by the campus within 14 days. ODM monitors how long an issue has been open and what steps have been taken towards resolution. Certainly, this does not mean that the student gets what he or she wants – it means that the campus management has done whatever it can to address the student’s concern. ODM administers several appeal processes for students who are not satisfied with the resolution of their cases. 

ODM intervenes in ESIs to try and mediate a resolution in instances where it becomes obvious that the local campus has lost credibility with the student. ODM may also intervene where it identifies a policy issue that it can expedite, such as urging campus management to adjust the cost of a course when circumstances warrant. 

GMS gives ODM the ability to produce customized reports by issue type, campus, region, time period, and so on. This functionality allows ODM to identify trends where training is needed or where a UOPX policy may need to be revised. GMS also provides ODM with the data needed to counsel campus management or University administrators when the data indicates that improvements to campus or University practices would be prudent.

eXp Documentum (eXp)

UOPX uses an imaging technology known as “eXp Documentum” for the paperless storage of all student records from the time a student is admitted to the University. ODM uses the workflow capability of eXp to process student academic appeals. The Student Appeals Center (SAC) processes thousands of academic appeals each year. Many of these are routine, but some require a dean to review them and make a decision based on their unique circumstances. 

Filing an appeal through SAC requires an Academic Advisor to submit an eXp web form stating the basis for the appeal. Simultaneously, the Academic Advisor prepares a “SAC Package” containing relevant documentation and the student’s appeal letter. The SAC Package is faxed into eXp and placed in the student’s digital file. An ODM Student Appeals Specialist then directs the web form and the SAC Package to the decision maker. Routine appeals are handled directly by the SAC Manager following established precedent, while atypical appeals are sent to a dean for review and decision. The appeal decisions are sent electronically by ODM to both the Academic Advisor and the student after being noted in the student’s official record. 

Future Challenges

The greatest challenges ODM will face in the future are: 1) improving the scalability of its systems to keep pace with an expanding student and faculty population; 2) continuing to innovate in managing grievances and appeals; and 3) adapting customer service methods to be responsive to an ever-changing, diverse student and faculty population. ODM has already developed many web resources for campus management and staff to assist them in addressing student and faculty grievances and appeals. The use of web resources and other technology tools will be the key to meeting the future needs of all ODM stakeholders. 

Summary

UOPX is a non-traditional institution and it often needs to invent its own unique processes, as there are few existing resources that serve the requirements of such a large, distributed student environment. The Office of Dispute Management at UOPX has innovative systems and services that meet the needs of its stakeholders. It is our hope that other organizations can benefit from ODM’s experience and build on the success of our “outside-the-box” approach.

For further information about ODM, contact Camie C. Pratt, Executive Director, by telephone (602.557.3391) or by email.

This article constitutes a general description of the University’s dispute resolution process.  Specific policies and procedures are contained in University policies and are controlling.