Student Complaint Procedure

A Guide for Students

As a student at Midwestern State University (MSU), you have the right to file a complaint about the University. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) and the Texas Administrative Code (19 TAC §§ 1.110-1.120) require MSU—like all Texas universities—to provide a complaint procedure that meets the U.S. Department of Education’s “Program Integrity” regulations. Having this procedure is part of how MSU stays eligible to offer you Title IV federal financial aid. You can review the THECB’s complaint process here: Student Complaints – Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

Step 1: Use MSU's Complaint Process First

Before you file a formal complaint with the THECB, you must first file your complaint through MSU’s complaint process. You can submit your complaint through the MSU General Student Complaint Process. If your concern is still unresolved after you have exhausted MSU’s complaint processes, you may then file a formal complaint with the THECB.

Deadlines You Need to Know

Please keep these time limits in mind:

  • The THECB will not handle, investigate, or resolve a complaint about something that happened more than two years before you file your student complaint form with the THECB—unless the delay was caused by your completing MSU’s grievance procedures.
  • If you are a former student, you must file your student complaint form with the THECB no later than one year after your last date of attendance at MSU, or within six months of discovering the grounds for your complaint—unless the delay was caused by your completing MSU’s grievance procedures.

How to File Your Complaint with the THECB

When you file a complaint with the THECB, you can submit your required forms and supporting documents in one of three ways:

Please do not send original documents. The THECB cannot return anything you submit.

Forms You Must Include

Every complaint you submit to the THECB must include these three completed, signed forms:

  • a student complaint form;
  • a Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) Consent and Release form; and
  • a THECB Consent and Agreement form.

If your complaint concerns a student with a disability, you must also include a signed Authorization to Disclose Medical Record Information form.

You May Also Contact MSU’s Accreditor

In addition to the THECB, you may direct a complaint to MSU’s institutional accreditor. If you would like the contact information for MSU’s accreditor, or for any other state agency that would appropriately handle your complaint, MSU will provide it to you on request. Please contact: Dr. Jeremy Duff, Associate Vice President, Academic Accreditation and Planning, at jeremy.duff@msutexas.edu or (940) 397-4747.

Where to Find This Information

MSU is required to post its complaint procedures on its website, where you can:

  • find contact information for filing a complaint with the THECB, a description of the complaint procedure in the TAC rules, and a link to those rules on the Texas Secretary of State’s website;
  • reach it from the MSU home page using no more than three links;
  • search for it by keywords and phrases; and
  • access it freely, without registering or using a username, password, or other login.

MSU updates this information as soon as practicable whenever it changes. MSU will also give you written information about this complaint procedure at the beginning of each academic year—for example, in the University catalog. That information will include, at a minimum, contact information for filing a complaint with the THECB and a description of the complaint procedure in the TAC rules.