Consumer Complaints & Correspondence Directory

Consumer Complaints

Mercy College, as an institution authorized to provide postsecondary education in the State of New York, is committed to full compliance with New York State and federal laws requiring that an institution make available to a student or prospective student contact information for filing complaints with its accreditor and with its state approval or licensing entity and any other relevant State official or agency that would appropriately handle a student’s complaint. As such, the College provides the following information to all current and/or prospective students:

Student Complaint Policy and Procedures

Mercy College has a variety of procedures for dealing with student-related issues, including grade appeals, student discipline, sexual misconduct complaints, disability accommodations, discrimination and retaliation.

In some instances, however, students may wish to make complaints against faculty members, administrators or against the College in situations that are not covered by a particular policy. The purpose of this Policy is to address some of those instances and to provide a process whereby current students can file a complaint with the College in circumstances where they feel that the matter cannot be resolved informally, including but not limited to:

Complaints against faculty in academic settings;

Complaints relating to other employees, contractors or vendors for misconduct or unprofessional behavior; Complaints in connection with student services such as billing, tuition and financial aid; or Complaints relating to other College services such as food services, residential life, athletics and/or health and wellness. In such cases, a complaint can be made pursuant to the Policies and Procedures for Handling Student Complaints. The full Policy can be found in the Student Handbook and on the College webpage here: http://www.mercy.edu/media/student-complaints-policy. A complaint can also be submitted online at: http://www.mercy.edu/student-complaint-form.

If, however, a student believes that these administrative procedures have not adequately addressed their concerns, the following external procedures are available:

A complaint that concerns educational programs or practices of Mercy College should be directed to:

New York Office of College and University Evaluation
New York State Education Department 5 North Mezzanine
Albany, NY 12234
http://www.nysed.gov/college-university-evaluation/filing-complaint-about-college-or-university

Complaints concerning programs in fields leading to professional licensure (e.g., nursing) should be directed to:

Office of the Professions
Professional Education Program Review Education Building, 2 West
Albany, NY 12234
http://www.op.nysed.gov/opd/complain.htm

Complaints of consumer fraud on the part of Mercy should be directed to:

Office of the New York State Attorney General
Justice Building
Empire State Plaza Albany, New York 12223

https://formsnym.ag.ny.gov/OAGOnlineSubmissionForm/faces/OAGCFCHome
 

Complaints about state student financial aid matters should be directed to the Higher Education Services Corporation (HESC) Customer Communications Center at 1-888-NYS-HESC.

Students taking Mercy online distance courses who reside out-of-state, and who wish to file a complaint, should submit their complaint via NYSED’s complaint procedures at www.nysed.gov/college-university-evaluation/filing-complaint-about-college-or-university.  Students may find additional information about the NC-SARA complaint procedures at www.nc-sara.org/student-complaints.

Complaints involving discrimination based on protected classes, including but not limited to: race, color, national origin, age, disability and sex, including sexual harassment, should be filed with the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights:

Office for Civil Rights (OCR) – Enforcement Office
U.S. Department of Education 32 Old Slip, 26th Floor
New York, NY 10005-2500
Telephone: 646-428-3900
Fax: 646-428-3843
TDD: 877-521-2172
Email: OCR.NewYork@ed.gov

Or with the New York State Division of Human Rights: https://dhr.ny.gov/complaint

Correspondence Directory

Mercy College
555 Broadway
Dobbs Ferry, New York 10522
877-MERCY-GO

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