Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Friday November 19th, 2021

Dr. Jill Atkinson, Acting Associate Dean (Academic)

Faculty of Arts and Science

Dear Dean Atkinson,

Hello, my name is Sabrina Merks. I am completing my Bachelor of Music Theatre through the DAN School Of Drama and Music. I am appealing to have a course (Dram247 - Drama Practicum) added to the fall semester past the add/drop deadline. The reason for this appeal is related to an unusual bureaucratic error and my ability to finance my education for the current year, my final year of studies.

In late August after I had initially registered for all my courses, I managed to arrange for an internship with a theatre company. This would allow me to take a course called MUTH395/3.0 - Internship as part of my program. The internship is taking place in both fall and winter semesters; however, because final approval of the internship could not be processed until after the fall deadline to add classes, I was advised that the department would simply add it as a Winter course and evaluate it then. Adding the internship meant that I would be enrolled in more credits than I actually needed to graduate. Because I have been informed that the internship would be approved (once the paperwork was processed) I decided to drop a course (DRAM211) from the fall semester. This was the best course to drop given my course plan.

What I did not realize is that this lowered my fall semester course load to 8.25 units (which I learned later is 0.75 units below full time status). On October 23rd, I received a message from OSAP regarding my funding being recalculated. Now, OSAP is asking for repayment. Based on the updated funding recalculations, I will not be able to pay for the Winter semester and will have to withdraw, even though it is my last semester. Originally, I was registered in enough credits to be a regular full time student in both semesters. I was granted the equivalent amount of OSAP. Dropping Dram211 meant that I was no longer a full time student in the fall, even though I am taking the same overall number of credits for the whole year as originally planned. For my entire academic career, I have financed my own education, relying solely on

employment income and loans to pay for my education. This has included OSAP and a student line of credit (that is now fully used).

I dropped below 9.0 units on SOLUS, but I am actually carrying the workload of a full-time student this semester. This whole mess has been caused by a combination of unexpected administrative issues related to scheduling and timetabling. The first is related to the internship. Final documents from my internship supervisor were not submitted to the department until after the add-drop deadline, so even though I have been working on the internship since October, it was decided that the course would be added to the winter term and graded at that point. The second is related to two practicum courses that we have to take as BMT students: DRAM246/1.5 (Technical Practicum) and DRAM247/1.5 (Drama Practicum). The department enrolls us in these courses. I was told that because the department cannot predict when students will find projects to work on during the year, the practice has been to enroll students in DRAM246 for fall/winter (resulting in the 1.5 units being spread across two semesters) and DRAM247 in the winter only. This is regardless of whether students complete practicum projects in the fall, the winter, or both. For instance, I will complete all the requirements for my DRAM247 practicum this fall, but will not receive credits for this until the Winter. The third issue is related to timetabling. I was told that because the DAN School could not predict how Covid rules might affect our studio-based courses, most of those courses were timetabled in the Winter to buy more time for vaccinations to increase. The result is an unusual number of the courses I need for my program are clustered in the Winter Semester. That is why the only course I could drop (to make space for the internship) was in the fall semester.

All of these factors resulted in my fall semester credit total dropping from 11.25 credits to 8.25 ( 0.75 shy of a full-time position). In the end, I am still taking a full time load spread across the academic year, and I am still doing the work of a full time student in each semester. The issue is SOLUS shows that I am a part time student for the fall, which has resulted in the issues with OSAP funding. I am submitting this appeal to help with this situation.

I have spoken with an advisor (Grahame Renyk) and he suggested a solution. We could add DRAM247 to my fall semester. That would put me back into full time status with my credit total. This is an easy solution because I will have completed all the course requirements by December. DRAM247 is a practicum, so I have not missed any in-class sessions. The only course requirement is the practicum hours and I am already working on those. For this course, students complete 48 hours of production work on a project of their choosing, subject to the

approval of the department. We submit a practicum proposal to the department and they enroll us in the course. I submitted my proposal in September and received approval. I have been working on the project for several weeks and I will complete all my practicum hours for this course by December 1st, 2021. The only reason I am registered in it for the Winter semester is because of administrative policies. In terms of actual workload, this really is a fall course for me. I am just asking if we could make that official on SOLUS.

I am submitting this appeal more than 21 days after the add/drop deadline because I did not hear from OSAP about the funding issue until October 23rd, and then I had some follow up meetings with financial services and an advisor in the DAN School to see if there were any other solutions. This is the earliest I could have submitted it. My advisor and I think this is the best solution since I will have already completed all the course requirements for DRAM247 by the end of this semester. Basically, I am trapped in an administrative loophole and this would help me solve it.

Thank you so much for your consideration. In support of my appeal, I have included some additional documents demonstrating the work I am doing on my DRAM247 practicum as well as a supporting letters from Grahame Renyk (BMT Faculty Liaison and DRAM247 project supervisor) and Colleen Renihan (Chair of Undergraduate Studies).

Sincerely,

Sabrina Merks