Decision Letter
Appeal Number: 3012
Decision Date: March 15, 2017
Associate Dean: Sue Blake
Student Name: Menakah Yoharaja
Student Email: 11my25@queensu.ca
Dear Ms. Yoharajah:
I have carefully considered your request to have your appeal heard after the 21-day timeline for submission. After reviewing your file I have decided to deny your request.
The appeal timeline is in place to give students sufficient time to respond to an academic decision. The 21-day timeline offers students time to seek academic counseling, to write up and submit an appeal, and to collect the supporting documents necessary to the appeal. Further, the appeal timeline is in place to ensure that decision making takes place in a timely manner, allowing students to continue in their academic programs without ongoing concern for unresolved matters.
To consider appeals outside these timelines can easily compromise fair decision making. The interested parties and the original contexts within which the matter originated may not be available. Over time, instructors, course content, the norms of evaluating course materials, and program structures may and generally do change. Furthermore, the supporting documents necessary to any appeal may no longer be available or their credibility may more easily come into question. Therefore, the inability to reconstruct accurately the circumstances leading to the original matter under appeal can compromise the decision-making process.
Exceptions to this regulation can only be granted in cases where extenuating circumstances beyond a student's control render the student unable to appeal within the specified timeline. The student must be able to show that the extenuating circumstances were ongoing. The student must also be able to demonstrate that these circumstances prevented the student from acting between the time the original decision was received and the time at which the appeal was eventually initiated. Appeals of the regulation governing the timeline for appeals must be submitted in writing. An appeal of this type should include a presentation of the specific reasons for a delay and should include any document which support the reasons for delay.
In reviewing your file, it appears that you submitted two previous appeals asking to waive the deadlines to hear appeals late in relation to the Summer 2013 and Fall 2014 terms and they were both granted. There is no explanation in your current appeal or in either of those appeals as to why you were not able to appeal your courses from 2012/13 at that time. There is also no explanation provided as to why you did not appeal your Winter 2016 courses between the time of your last appeal from March 2016 and now. Lastly, there is no documentation supplied to confirm any extenuating circumstances that prevented you from making an appeal since February 2016. For these reasons, I cannot justify waiving the deadline to hear your late appeal.
If you wish to appeal the Associate Dean€™s decision to the Board of Studies, you must submit an appeal to the Board of Studies within 21 days of the date this decision was sent. Guidelines for appealing to the Board of Studies and the appeal form can be found at: http://www.queensu.ca/artsci/students-at-queens/academic-appeals (click on €œBoard of Studies€) Do not use the on-line application for this process. You may contact Mr. Harry Smith, Office of the Ombudsman for advice on matters of procedure and on obtaining a representative. His office is located in room 421 Robert Sutherland Hall and he can be reached by phone (533-6495) or e-mail (ombuds@queensu.ca).
Sincerely,
Sue Blake
Assistant Dean (Studies)
10055812Yoharaja5
Decision Date: March 15, 2017
Associate Dean: Sue Blake
Student Name: Menakah Yoharaja
Student Email: 11my25@queensu.ca
Dear Ms. Yoharajah:
I have carefully considered your request to have your appeal heard after the 21-day timeline for submission. After reviewing your file I have decided to deny your request.
The appeal timeline is in place to give students sufficient time to respond to an academic decision. The 21-day timeline offers students time to seek academic counseling, to write up and submit an appeal, and to collect the supporting documents necessary to the appeal. Further, the appeal timeline is in place to ensure that decision making takes place in a timely manner, allowing students to continue in their academic programs without ongoing concern for unresolved matters.
To consider appeals outside these timelines can easily compromise fair decision making. The interested parties and the original contexts within which the matter originated may not be available. Over time, instructors, course content, the norms of evaluating course materials, and program structures may and generally do change. Furthermore, the supporting documents necessary to any appeal may no longer be available or their credibility may more easily come into question. Therefore, the inability to reconstruct accurately the circumstances leading to the original matter under appeal can compromise the decision-making process.
Exceptions to this regulation can only be granted in cases where extenuating circumstances beyond a student's control render the student unable to appeal within the specified timeline. The student must be able to show that the extenuating circumstances were ongoing. The student must also be able to demonstrate that these circumstances prevented the student from acting between the time the original decision was received and the time at which the appeal was eventually initiated. Appeals of the regulation governing the timeline for appeals must be submitted in writing. An appeal of this type should include a presentation of the specific reasons for a delay and should include any document which support the reasons for delay.
In reviewing your file, it appears that you submitted two previous appeals asking to waive the deadlines to hear appeals late in relation to the Summer 2013 and Fall 2014 terms and they were both granted. There is no explanation in your current appeal or in either of those appeals as to why you were not able to appeal your courses from 2012/13 at that time. There is also no explanation provided as to why you did not appeal your Winter 2016 courses between the time of your last appeal from March 2016 and now. Lastly, there is no documentation supplied to confirm any extenuating circumstances that prevented you from making an appeal since February 2016. For these reasons, I cannot justify waiving the deadline to hear your late appeal.
If you wish to appeal the Associate Dean€™s decision to the Board of Studies, you must submit an appeal to the Board of Studies within 21 days of the date this decision was sent. Guidelines for appealing to the Board of Studies and the appeal form can be found at: http://www.queensu.ca/artsci/students-at-queens/academic-appeals (click on €œBoard of Studies€) Do not use the on-line application for this process. You may contact Mr. Harry Smith, Office of the Ombudsman for advice on matters of procedure and on obtaining a representative. His office is located in room 421 Robert Sutherland Hall and he can be reached by phone (533-6495) or e-mail (ombuds@queensu.ca).
Sincerely,
Sue Blake
Assistant Dean (Studies)
10055812Yoharaja5
Generated March 15, 2017 at 1:09:21 PM.