The submission of a petition to the Committee on Honors and Academic Standing (CHAS) by a Yale College student or a Yale instructor requires no form and need not follow any prescribed format. CHAS is one of the standing committees in Yale College and functions with strict confidentiality. More information about CHAS, and the other standing committees in Yale College, can be found on the Committees  page.

The petition—effectively a letter addressed to the Committee but submitted, in the case of student petitioners, via the office of the residential college dean—should state clearly what accommodation or action the petitioner is seeking; what the specific context is for the request; and why the petitioner thinks it is equitable for the request to be granted in this instance. No petitioner, neither student nor faculty, appears before the Committee in person. 

The petitioner may include additional materials that provide context to, or support for, their request. For instance, materials may come from an instructor, a DUS, or other cognizant Yale administrator, from persons outside of Yale who, in the view of the petitioner, have important information or context to offer. While committee members welcome such additional documentation, they are by no means required, and students who do include them can be assured that these materials are held in the strictest confidence.

Student petitioners are strongly advised to consult closely with their residential college dean in advance of submitting a petition to CHAS. The dean can provide valuable perspective on the regulations and possible exceptions, and can offer guidance to students in framing their requests. Typically, the dean provides the Committee with a covering letter for the petition when forwarding it to the chair. 

The chair of the Committee is empowered to approve petitions on behalf of the members; when this occurs, the action is official and final. By contrast, when the chair denies or declines to approve a petition, the petitioner has the right to ask that the petition—as originally submitted, without revision or augmentation—be forwarded to the full Committee for the members’ consideration. When this occurs, the chair does not have a vote in the matter and the action decided upon by the members is official and final. 

The action of the Committee is communicated to the petitioner by a letter from the chair on behalf of all the members. The chair, as relevant, also notifies parties with an educational reason to know the outcome of the matter; these can include, for example, the residential college dean, the University Registrar, or an instructor.

CHAS is an executive committee in the sense that it “executes” its actions, it does not make referrals or recommendations to other bodies. Accordingly, there is no appeal of a full Committee CHAS decision. In cases in which it is subsequently discovered that relevant information has come to light that was not available at the time the matter was first reviewed, the chair can direct that the members revisit the petition.