Manage Appeals
Petition Type: New
ID: 9195
Submitted: May 19, 2022 at 10:06:06 PM
First Name: Alex
Last Name: Nygren
Student Number: 20099001
Email: alexcnygren@gmail.com
Degree Program: BAH
Plan: POLS
Level of Study: 4
Petition Categories
Petition Categories: Drop a course after the academic deadline
Code: ASTR 101
Term: Fall
Year: 2021
Petition Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline
Petition Letter
Petition Letter: Alex Nygren
20099001
Academic Appeal: ASTR101
Dear Dr. Atkinson,
I am writing to you to formally submit an academic appeal to request the removal of Astronomy 101 from my transcript. I am an upper-year Political Science student and took this course in the fall semester of 2021.
I am submitting an appeal request to drop this course as the final grade that I received in the course was drastically impacted by an unforeseen extenuating circumstance in my personal life that resulted in my failure of the final examination. Through the duration of course I maintained around a B+ grade and was prepared to perform to my standard ability on the final examination prior to what happened in my personal life.
I am not entirely comfortable writing in great detail about the situation, but I will do my best to paint the clearest picture. In the latter half of first semester this past academic year, I began to experience severe difficulties with my mental health due to a personal circumstance that arose at the start of the school year. Outside of my academic work, this completely took my life over, eventually to the point of impacting my studies. Through Queen's Mental Services I was able to be connected with a counsellor to help support me with this. The troubles that I was dealing with increased as the semester was nearing a close and began to really take a toll on my studies. I was finding it extremely difficult to allocate enough time to all of my courses while dealing with this ongoing issue, specifically ASTR101. As this course was my one elective that I was taking this semester, it quickly become the lowest of my academic priorities. Up until final exams came around, I thought I would be able to manage enough to get by. I was quite wrong, my mental health continued to get worse as I dealt with the matter. My ASTR101 exam was scheduled to be taken in person on December 18th, and then moved to an online format amidst the COVID outbreak. I was unlucky and impacted by the COVID outbreak, so my exam was deferred to the New Year. Yet, in a way I was relieved because I thought that this would potentially provide me with the time to get away from the issues I was dealing with outside of school. However, by the time I was able to take my exam in January of 2022, my personal problems did not subside and were very much becoming worse. With the start of five new courses for the winter semester as well, I was not nearly as prepared as I would have been had I been in a healthy mental and physical state at the time of my examination. I tried to do the best that I could manage on the exam but did not perform as well as I could have. I ended up receiving a grade of just 40.8% on the exam. With my existing grade in the course, normally I would have still been able to pass the course despite my failure of the final exam, but this course required a 50% score on the exam to pass the course. Had I have been able to take the examination under normal conditions, I am absolutely certain that my grade would be dramatically different and accurately reflect my academic abilities.
As this semester has come to an end, fortunately I see light on the horizon in moving away from my personal matter. I have been seeing a counsellor on a weekly basis which is helping me get better. With this in mind, I am hopeful to finish this semester in a stronger standing than I did last semester and return to Queen's next fall with a healthy path forward. Should this appeal to have ASTR101 removed from my transcript be granted, I will fill the missing credit by taking a course this summer or adding an additional course next fall.
Thank you very much for taking the time to read my letter and consider my request. As previously mentioned, if you would like to speak in further detail about this matter, I would be comfortable to do so in person or over Zoom. Attached to this appeal is a letter of confirmation from my counsellor, Nikki Venere Brenner.
I would also like to apologize for the immense delay in submitting this appeal. I first engaged with my Academic Advisor in April regarding this matter, as I was not aware at the time this was a viable path.
Sincerely,
Alex Nygren
647-740-8200
17acn2@queensu.ca
20099001
Academic Appeal: ASTR101
Dear Dr. Atkinson,
I am writing to you to formally submit an academic appeal to request the removal of Astronomy 101 from my transcript. I am an upper-year Political Science student and took this course in the fall semester of 2021.
I am submitting an appeal request to drop this course as the final grade that I received in the course was drastically impacted by an unforeseen extenuating circumstance in my personal life that resulted in my failure of the final examination. Through the duration of course I maintained around a B+ grade and was prepared to perform to my standard ability on the final examination prior to what happened in my personal life.
I am not entirely comfortable writing in great detail about the situation, but I will do my best to paint the clearest picture. In the latter half of first semester this past academic year, I began to experience severe difficulties with my mental health due to a personal circumstance that arose at the start of the school year. Outside of my academic work, this completely took my life over, eventually to the point of impacting my studies. Through Queen's Mental Services I was able to be connected with a counsellor to help support me with this. The troubles that I was dealing with increased as the semester was nearing a close and began to really take a toll on my studies. I was finding it extremely difficult to allocate enough time to all of my courses while dealing with this ongoing issue, specifically ASTR101. As this course was my one elective that I was taking this semester, it quickly become the lowest of my academic priorities. Up until final exams came around, I thought I would be able to manage enough to get by. I was quite wrong, my mental health continued to get worse as I dealt with the matter. My ASTR101 exam was scheduled to be taken in person on December 18th, and then moved to an online format amidst the COVID outbreak. I was unlucky and impacted by the COVID outbreak, so my exam was deferred to the New Year. Yet, in a way I was relieved because I thought that this would potentially provide me with the time to get away from the issues I was dealing with outside of school. However, by the time I was able to take my exam in January of 2022, my personal problems did not subside and were very much becoming worse. With the start of five new courses for the winter semester as well, I was not nearly as prepared as I would have been had I been in a healthy mental and physical state at the time of my examination. I tried to do the best that I could manage on the exam but did not perform as well as I could have. I ended up receiving a grade of just 40.8% on the exam. With my existing grade in the course, normally I would have still been able to pass the course despite my failure of the final exam, but this course required a 50% score on the exam to pass the course. Had I have been able to take the examination under normal conditions, I am absolutely certain that my grade would be dramatically different and accurately reflect my academic abilities.
As this semester has come to an end, fortunately I see light on the horizon in moving away from my personal matter. I have been seeing a counsellor on a weekly basis which is helping me get better. With this in mind, I am hopeful to finish this semester in a stronger standing than I did last semester and return to Queen's next fall with a healthy path forward. Should this appeal to have ASTR101 removed from my transcript be granted, I will fill the missing credit by taking a course this summer or adding an additional course next fall.
Thank you very much for taking the time to read my letter and consider my request. As previously mentioned, if you would like to speak in further detail about this matter, I would be comfortable to do so in person or over Zoom. Attached to this appeal is a letter of confirmation from my counsellor, Nikki Venere Brenner.
I would also like to apologize for the immense delay in submitting this appeal. I first engaged with my Academic Advisor in April regarding this matter, as I was not aware at the time this was a viable path.
Sincerely,
Alex Nygren
647-740-8200
17acn2@queensu.ca
Documentation
Professional Letter: NVB Letter.pdf
Document: 20099001 letter.pdf
Decision Letters
Level 1 Status
Status: DeniedLevel 2
Appeal Type: Level 2
ID: 82
Submitted: July 17, 2022 at 10:44:00 PM
Relevant Petition: 9195
Decision(s) Being Appealed: Drop a course after the academic deadline: ASTR 101, Fall 2021
Appeal Letter
Appeal Letter: Dear Members of the Board of Studies,
I am writing to you today in appeal of the decision that was made by Associate Dean, Jenn Stephenson, regarding my request to drop ASTR101.
I believe that the grounds in which the decision was reached are based on a case of misinformation and poor representation on my part of the actual timeline of my extenuating circumstance.
As noted in both my personal appeal letter as well as supporting documentation provided by my psychotherapist, I did begin to experience issues with my mental health in June of 2021 and reached out through Queen's for professional support, prior to beginning ASTR101. Although where I believe the confusion lies is how that was presented in my supporting documentation letter. It was not made clear that despite addressing external mental health issues with a psychotherapist months prior to taking ASTR101, the then present issues had zero impact on my ability to perform at my normal academic level. I utilized this support from time to time over the following months, but it was not until the end of the Fall 2021 semester, after the drop deadline, that my struggles were dramatically heightened by other problems. Near the end of December 2021 was when I first became seriously burdened by the extenuating circumstances in my life. I found myself in deep states of depression, experiencing self-destructive and self-harming feelings and had no ability to focus on all my academics. The events going on in my life took a drastic hold on my mental health and completely encapsulated me, leaving my academics at the time to suffer. This intensified over the winter holiday and carried through into January 2022. In my supporting documentation letter, the statement: Mr. Nygren reported his emotional distress impacted his ability to effectively complete his schoolwork., failed to specify when it was impacting my academic abilities. My academics were not impacted throughout the majority of the Fall semester, and I did not have justified reasoning to drop this course at that time. My academic abilities were only seriously jeopardized in January 2022 when I wrote the deferred ASTR101 exam. I should note that the reason for taking the deferred option was not due to the matter in question but rather a COVID exposure. The burden of my condition on my academics only came in January 2022 when I took the deferred ASTR101 exam. As shown on my strong grades throughout the course, if it were not for the mandatory 50% on the final exam to pass the course, I would have still finished the course in fine standing despite scoring a 40.8% on the final exam. Yet the mental and emotional state that I was in at the time lent me next to no ability to perform on that exam as I normally would have been able to.
Through the aid of my psychotherapist and the continuing treatment that I have been receiving, I have been able to move away from the issues that resulted in my poor academic performance. This is not a matter of long-term mental health issues but rather traumatizing external events in my life that I have been able to since move away from. The impacts that it had on my academic abilities were isolated to a specific period of time, hence why I haven't felt the same burden on my other courses that did not have a final exam in the month of January.
If given the opportunity, I would like to demonstrate that the final grade I received in ASRT101 is not an accurate reflection of who I am as a student. The student that I was in January of 2022 is not the same student that I am today or was before, and I do not believe that future goals in academia should suffer because of it. The failure of a course on my transcript does not reflect the hardworking, driven, and aspirational student that I am. I ask to be given the ability to show this by removing the course from my transcript and allowing me to gain back those credits through a new elective. Rather than repeating ASTR101 and relearning all the content that I have already been taught, taking a new course would allow me to further my education in a more valuable way. Although if the removal of ASTR101 from my transcript entirely is not possible, I would also like to suggest the possibility of simply retaking the final exam instead of the entire course.
I understand that this letter is a final plea, yet regardless, I believe it is justifiable to warrant a reconsideration of my appeal. I appreciate the time you take to consider my request. Please feel free to reach out with any questions you may have for either myself or my psychotherapist, whose contact information can be made available upon request.
Many thanks,
Alex Nygren
20099001
alex.nygren@queensu.ca
647-740-8200
I am writing to you today in appeal of the decision that was made by Associate Dean, Jenn Stephenson, regarding my request to drop ASTR101.
I believe that the grounds in which the decision was reached are based on a case of misinformation and poor representation on my part of the actual timeline of my extenuating circumstance.
As noted in both my personal appeal letter as well as supporting documentation provided by my psychotherapist, I did begin to experience issues with my mental health in June of 2021 and reached out through Queen's for professional support, prior to beginning ASTR101. Although where I believe the confusion lies is how that was presented in my supporting documentation letter. It was not made clear that despite addressing external mental health issues with a psychotherapist months prior to taking ASTR101, the then present issues had zero impact on my ability to perform at my normal academic level. I utilized this support from time to time over the following months, but it was not until the end of the Fall 2021 semester, after the drop deadline, that my struggles were dramatically heightened by other problems. Near the end of December 2021 was when I first became seriously burdened by the extenuating circumstances in my life. I found myself in deep states of depression, experiencing self-destructive and self-harming feelings and had no ability to focus on all my academics. The events going on in my life took a drastic hold on my mental health and completely encapsulated me, leaving my academics at the time to suffer. This intensified over the winter holiday and carried through into January 2022. In my supporting documentation letter, the statement: Mr. Nygren reported his emotional distress impacted his ability to effectively complete his schoolwork., failed to specify when it was impacting my academic abilities. My academics were not impacted throughout the majority of the Fall semester, and I did not have justified reasoning to drop this course at that time. My academic abilities were only seriously jeopardized in January 2022 when I wrote the deferred ASTR101 exam. I should note that the reason for taking the deferred option was not due to the matter in question but rather a COVID exposure. The burden of my condition on my academics only came in January 2022 when I took the deferred ASTR101 exam. As shown on my strong grades throughout the course, if it were not for the mandatory 50% on the final exam to pass the course, I would have still finished the course in fine standing despite scoring a 40.8% on the final exam. Yet the mental and emotional state that I was in at the time lent me next to no ability to perform on that exam as I normally would have been able to.
Through the aid of my psychotherapist and the continuing treatment that I have been receiving, I have been able to move away from the issues that resulted in my poor academic performance. This is not a matter of long-term mental health issues but rather traumatizing external events in my life that I have been able to since move away from. The impacts that it had on my academic abilities were isolated to a specific period of time, hence why I haven't felt the same burden on my other courses that did not have a final exam in the month of January.
If given the opportunity, I would like to demonstrate that the final grade I received in ASRT101 is not an accurate reflection of who I am as a student. The student that I was in January of 2022 is not the same student that I am today or was before, and I do not believe that future goals in academia should suffer because of it. The failure of a course on my transcript does not reflect the hardworking, driven, and aspirational student that I am. I ask to be given the ability to show this by removing the course from my transcript and allowing me to gain back those credits through a new elective. Rather than repeating ASTR101 and relearning all the content that I have already been taught, taking a new course would allow me to further my education in a more valuable way. Although if the removal of ASTR101 from my transcript entirely is not possible, I would also like to suggest the possibility of simply retaking the final exam instead of the entire course.
I understand that this letter is a final plea, yet regardless, I believe it is justifiable to warrant a reconsideration of my appeal. I appreciate the time you take to consider my request. Please feel free to reach out with any questions you may have for either myself or my psychotherapist, whose contact information can be made available upon request.
Many thanks,
Alex Nygren
20099001
alex.nygren@queensu.ca
647-740-8200
Documentation
Document: Letter from Psychotherapist.pdf
Decision Letters
History
Originally submitted May 19, 2022 at 10:06:06 PM.
| Field | Reference | Old Value | New Value | Note | User | Date/Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| appeal_category | N/A | Waive the 21-day or one term deadline | Drop a course after the academic deadline | Kerri Andrews | 2022-05-24 2:45:24 PM | |
| course | ASTR 101 | ASTR 101 | Kerri Andrews | 2022-05-24 2:45:24 PM | ||
| term | ASTR 101 | Fall | Kerri Andrews | 2022-05-24 2:45:24 PM | ||
| year | ASTR 101 | 2021 | Kerri Andrews | 2022-05-24 2:45:24 PM | ||
| appeal_category_per_course | ASTR 101 | Drop a course after the academic deadline | Kerri Andrews | 2022-05-24 2:45:24 PM | ||
| status | N/A | Received | Incomplete | Kerri Andrews | 2022-05-24 2:47:16 PM | |
| documentation | N/A | 20099001 letter.pdf | Kerri Andrews | 2022-06-10 10:40:27 AM | ||
| status | N/A | Incomplete | In Review | Kerri Andrews | 2022-06-10 10:41:38 AM | |
| status | N/A | In Review | Denied | Kerri Andrews | 2022-06-28 8:43:26 AM | |
| associate_dean | N/A | Jenn Stephenson, Ph.D. | Kerri Andrews | 2022-06-28 8:43:26 AM | ||
| decision_letter | N/A | N/A | Decision letter sent | Kerri Andrews | 2022-06-28 8:43:39 AM | |
| new_appeal_level_2 | N/A | Level 2 | Level 2 Appeal ID: 82 | 17acn2 | 2022-07-17 10:44:00 PM | |
| appeal_type | N/A | 4 | Pamela Briand | 2022-08-04 9:00:40 AM | ||
| relevant_appeal | N/A | 9195 | Pamela Briand | 2022-08-04 9:00:40 AM | ||
| category_level_2 | N/A | a:1:{i:0;s:12:"course_14193";} | Pamela Briand | 2022-08-04 9:00:40 AM | ||
| letter | N/A | Dear Members of the Board of Studies, I am writing to you today in appeal of the decision that was made by Associate Dean, Jenn Stephenson, regarding my request to drop ASTR101. I believe that the grounds in which the decision was reached are based on a case of misinformation and poor representation on my part of the actual timeline of my extenuating circumstance. As noted in both my personal appeal letter as well as supporting documentation provided by my psychotherapist, I did begin to experience issues with my mental health in June of 2021 and reached out through Queen's for professional support, prior to beginning ASTR101. Although where I believe the confusion lies is how that was presented in my supporting documentation letter. It was not made clear that despite addressing external mental health issues with a psychotherapist months prior to taking ASTR101, the then present issues had zero impact on my ability to perform at my normal academic level. I utilized this support from time to time over the following months, but it was not until the end of the Fall 2021 semester, after the drop deadline, that my struggles were dramatically heightened by other problems. Near the end of December 2021 was when I first became seriously burdened by the extenuating circumstances in my life. I found myself in deep states of depression, experiencing self-destructive and self-harming feelings and had no ability to focus on all my academics. The events going on in my life took a drastic hold on my mental health and completely encapsulated me, leaving my academics at the time to suffer. This intensified over the winter holiday and carried through into January 2022. In my supporting documentation letter, the statement: Mr. Nygren reported his emotional distress impacted his ability to effectively complete his schoolwork., failed to specify when it was impacting my academic abilities. My academics were not impacted throughout the majority of the Fall semester, and I did not have justified reasoning to drop this course at that time. My academic abilities were only seriously jeopardized in January 2022 when I wrote the deferred ASTR101 exam. I should note that the reason for taking the deferred option was not due to the matter in question but rather a COVID exposure. The burden of my condition on my academics only came in January 2022 when I took the deferred ASTR101 exam. As shown on my strong grades throughout the course, if it were not for the mandatory 50% on the final exam to pass the course, I would have still finished the course in fine standing despite scoring a 40.8% on the final exam. Yet the mental and emotional state that I was in at the time lent me next to no ability to perform on that exam as I normally would have been able to. Through the aid of my psychotherapist and the continuing treatment that I have been receiving, I have been able to move away from the issues that resulted in my poor academic performance. This is not a matter of long-term mental health issues but rather traumatizing external events in my life that I have been able to since move away from. The impacts that it had on my academic abilities were isolated to a specific period of time, hence why I haven't felt the same burden on my other courses that did not have a final exam in the month of January. If given the opportunity, I would like to demonstrate that the final grade I received in ASRT101 is not an accurate reflection of who I am as a student. The student that I was in January of 2022 is not the same student that I am today or was before, and I do not believe that future goals in academia should suffer because of it. The failure of a course on my transcript does not reflect the hardworking, driven, and aspirational student that I am. I ask to be given the ability to show this by removing the course from my transcript and allowing me to gain back those credits through a new elective. Rather than repeating ASTR101 and relearning all the content that I have already been taught, taking a new course would allow me to further my education in a more valuable way. Although if the removal of ASTR101 from my transcript entirely is not possible, I would also like to suggest the possibility of simply retaking the final exam instead of the entire course. I understand that this letter is a final plea, yet regardless, I believe it is justifiable to warrant a reconsideration of my appeal. I appreciate the time you take to consider my request. Please feel free to reach out with any questions you may have for either myself or my psychotherapist, whose contact information can be made available upon request. Many thanks, Alex Nygren 20099001 alex.nygren@queensu.ca 647-740-8200 | Pamela Briand | 2022-08-04 9:00:40 AM | ||
| documentation | N/A | Letter from Psychotherapist.pdf | Pamela Briand | 2022-08-04 9:00:40 AM | ||
| status | N/A | Received | ADA Amended Decision | Pamela Briand | 2022-08-08 8:31:39 AM | |
| decision_letter | N/A | N/A | Decision letter sent | Pamela Briand | 2022-08-08 8:36:17 AM |