Formal Letter Template for Administrative and Complaint Contexts

version 1: sent directly to a faculty or staff member to meet with them

Note: the bold, bracketed parts are for you to fill in. Once you’ve done so, you can/should delete

the brackets and bolding.

[Insert Date: if you copy and paste this into an e-mail, the date will already be included in

the time stamp of the e-mail.]

Dear [Professor or Staff Name],

On [date of incident] at [time of incident] in [location of incident], I feel I experienced

inequitable treatment, inappropriate behavior, and/or a substantive injustice according to university

I felt I experienced inequitable treatment from you.” If you choose to be more detailed, we

recommend describing the series of events as clearly as possible. If possible, avoid either a

direct accusation or guessing how another person felt, including the faculty or staff. As

FYPP faculty and staff, we want to hear you, and at this stage, your aim is to begin a

dialogue with the faculty or staff member, that hopefully ends in resolution or reconciliation.

Again, if you have questions on this, please contact the FYPP Academic Advising team.]

I would like to meet with you in-person to discuss this situation. Can we please work toward

scheduling a time soon? [Feel free to add your availability.]

Per FYPP Grievance policy, you and/or I are able to request another person to be present during

the conversation. [please choose one: a. “I have elected to bring someone.” or b. “I am

*You’re allowed to bring anyone with you for this conversation, please know that you’re

protected by the Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act (FERPA), and so you may have

to sign a waiver or document that it’s ok for a faculty or staff member to discuss the incident

with someone else present.

Formal Letter Template for Administrative and Complaint Contexts

version 2: sent directly to Associate Vice Chancellor of FYPP

to request a meeting with faculty/staff

Note: the bold, bracketed parts are for you to fill in. Once you’ve done so, you can/should delete

the brackets and bolding.

[Insert Date: if you copy and paste this into an e-mail, the date will already be included in

the time stamp of the e-mail.]

Dear Associate Vice Chancellor of First Year and Pre-major Programs,

On [date of incident] at [time of incident] in [location of incident], I feel I experienced

policy from an interaction with [insert name of faculty or staff].

Vice Chancellor, that’s acceptable.]

[An example of minimal explanation might be something like “During a discission on film,

I felt I experienced inequitable treatment from… .” If you choose to be more detailed, we

recommend describing the series of events as clearly as possible. If possible, avoid either a

direct accusation or guessing how another person felt, including the faculty or staff. As

FYPP faculty and staff, we want to hear you. Again, if you have questions on this, please

contact the FYPP Academic Advising team and/or add your questions to your e-mail for the

I would like to meet with you and the faculty/staff member at everyone’s earliest convenience to

Additionally, please know [this is optional to add, yet if you either need accessibility

Formal Letter Template for Administrative and Complaint Contexts

version 3: sent directly to Associate Vice Chancellor of FYPP

to request Formal Grievance

Note: the bold, bracketed parts are for you to fill in. Once you’ve done so, you can/should delete

the brackets and bolding.

[Insert Date: if you copy and paste this into an e-mail, the date will already be included in

the time stamp of the e-mail.]

Dear Associate Vice Chancellor of First Year and Pre-major Programs,

As you’re aware from the meeting we had on [insert date of meeting with Associate Vice

[time of incident] in [location of incident], in regards to an incident where I felt I experienced

I’m filing a Formal Grievance in accordance with the FYPP Grievance Policy, to be heard by a

I’ve attached to this e-mail and/or am including below the details of the incident.

[You should provide as much detail as possible about what happened either in the body of

the e-mail or in a separate document that you attach to the e-mail.]

you take into consideration common guidelines for Incident Report writing, since they can

not only help provide as much detail as possible, but also minimizes or eliminates items that

follows:]

then moved past me, pushing me using his right hand, touching my left shoulder. I didn’t feel any

physical pain, but felt scared, anxious, and disrespected.]

[Notice a couple of items in this example:

● You can and should only describe what you felt when it comes to emotions. Yet, also

make sure you use the term “I felt”. We know it can feel odd to write something like

this so clinically; yet we still want to know how you felt, but you’ll want to avoid

guessing how others felt.

● Similarly, be careful of direct accusations. While the grievance process is meant to

resolve such accusations, that will be up to the committee to decide. In the example,

the author doesn’t say “Professor Smith was drunk” but does say “I could smell

alcohol on his breath”. It’s important to include the detail of his breath, but you want

to avoid referring to him as either drunk or an alcoholic.

● For anything specifically that was said, please include that in quotes, like the phrase

Associate Vice Chancellor, and the faculty/staff member you’re filing the report

about, but also may be read by others in this situation or later.]

Additionally, please know [this is optional to add, yet if you either need accessibility

accommodations and/or would like to express how you’re feeling, please do so.]

Thank you for your time and assistance here. I look forward to hearing back from you and the

committee.

Sincerely,

[your first and last name]