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Perhaps appeal, contest, or dispute.
Appeal is commonly used in the context of challenging court decisions by taking them to a higher court, but it could be used in an academic setting as well.
Contest essentially means challenge, but doesn't have a specific institutional sense associated with it.
Dispute also means challenge, and is often used in the ...
2
Appeal
a request made to a court of law or to someone in authority to change a previous decision:
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In UK English it is sometimes said that you throw a switch.
You could also say that you flip the switch on then off.
The words jiggle or joggle have also been used to describe rapid on/off switching.
1
Another term is simply conflict-avoidant . I think that 'pushover' has a more negative connotation, so if you were trying to describe this more neutrally I would use
conflict-avoidant
or, similarly, conflict-averse
As in
My co-worker is very conflict-avoidant, so it can be difficult to get his real opinion about the problems we are having on the project.
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