Decision Letter
Appeal Number: 4575
Decision Date: June 11, 2018
Associate Dean: Johanne Benard, Ph.D.
Student Name: Margo Ilczyszyn
Student Email: 13mei@queensu.ca
Course: ECON 212
Term: Fall
Year: 2015
Category: Request credit (CR) standing in a course or courses
Instructor: Art Stewart
Course: ECON 222
Term: Winter
Year: 2016
Category: Request credit (CR) standing in a course or courses
Instructor: Wenbo Zhu
Course: ECON 223
Term: Fall
Year: 2016
Category: Request credit (CR) standing in a course or courses
Instructor: Anya Hageman
Dear Ms. Ilczyszyn:
I have carefully considered your appeal to receive Credit standing in ECON 212 (F 2015), ECON 222 (W 2016) and ECON 223 (F 2016). After reviewing your file I have decided to deny your request.
As you know, Academic Regulation 10.3.2. states that, Credit standing in a course is reserved for situations in which a student, who has completed and passed all of the work of the course including the final examination, but because of illness or other extenuating circumstances beyond their control, earned a substantially lower grade than might have been expected, normally a grade of C or lower€. Credit standing is only granted in cases where there are well documented and unforeseen extenuating circumstances outside of a student€™s control. The integrity of Arts and Science transcripts in general would be greatly diminished if the Faculty were to effect changes to students€™ records without clear and compelling documentation indicating that the student€™s performance was significantly compromised by extenuating circumstances beyond his or her control.
Extenuating circumstances normally involve a significant physical or psychological event that is beyond your control and debilitating to your overall academic performance. Additionally, these kinds of extraordinary situations are normally supported by documentation from a professional.
Your letter explains that your mental health issues began in the Summer 2015. While I understand that these issues would have likely impacted your academic performance, students are expected to gauge their progress in their courses and make decisions whether or not to drop them by the drop deadline which occurs at the end of Week 8 each term. It appears that you had enough time and information to both seek academic accommodation and make these decisions about your ECON classes by these deadlines. Without an explanation as to why you were unable to drop classes within these deadlines, I cannot reasonably grant your appeal. Furthermore, there is no explanation as to why only these particular courses were affected by your health issues but not any of the other courses you took during those terms which you earned As and Bs in. I understand that you took MATH 121 concurrently with ECON 212 but this is fairly common for students to do and if you felt that you didn€™t have the proper math background to take ECON 212, you should have dropped it by the Week 8 deadline, as all other students are expected to do as well. Lastly, the documentation supplied to support your appeal does not confirm the severity of your mental health issues during these time periods and it does not address the impact that your condition had on these courses in particular.
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,
Johanne Bénard, Ph.D.
Associate Dean (Studies)
10142898Ilczyszyn
Decision Date: June 11, 2018
Associate Dean: Johanne Benard, Ph.D.
Student Name: Margo Ilczyszyn
Student Email: 13mei@queensu.ca
Course: ECON 212
Term: Fall
Year: 2015
Category: Request credit (CR) standing in a course or courses
Instructor: Art Stewart
Course: ECON 222
Term: Winter
Year: 2016
Category: Request credit (CR) standing in a course or courses
Instructor: Wenbo Zhu
Course: ECON 223
Term: Fall
Year: 2016
Category: Request credit (CR) standing in a course or courses
Instructor: Anya Hageman
Dear Ms. Ilczyszyn:
I have carefully considered your appeal to receive Credit standing in ECON 212 (F 2015), ECON 222 (W 2016) and ECON 223 (F 2016). After reviewing your file I have decided to deny your request.
As you know, Academic Regulation 10.3.2. states that, Credit standing in a course is reserved for situations in which a student, who has completed and passed all of the work of the course including the final examination, but because of illness or other extenuating circumstances beyond their control, earned a substantially lower grade than might have been expected, normally a grade of C or lower€. Credit standing is only granted in cases where there are well documented and unforeseen extenuating circumstances outside of a student€™s control. The integrity of Arts and Science transcripts in general would be greatly diminished if the Faculty were to effect changes to students€™ records without clear and compelling documentation indicating that the student€™s performance was significantly compromised by extenuating circumstances beyond his or her control.
Extenuating circumstances normally involve a significant physical or psychological event that is beyond your control and debilitating to your overall academic performance. Additionally, these kinds of extraordinary situations are normally supported by documentation from a professional.
Your letter explains that your mental health issues began in the Summer 2015. While I understand that these issues would have likely impacted your academic performance, students are expected to gauge their progress in their courses and make decisions whether or not to drop them by the drop deadline which occurs at the end of Week 8 each term. It appears that you had enough time and information to both seek academic accommodation and make these decisions about your ECON classes by these deadlines. Without an explanation as to why you were unable to drop classes within these deadlines, I cannot reasonably grant your appeal. Furthermore, there is no explanation as to why only these particular courses were affected by your health issues but not any of the other courses you took during those terms which you earned As and Bs in. I understand that you took MATH 121 concurrently with ECON 212 but this is fairly common for students to do and if you felt that you didn€™t have the proper math background to take ECON 212, you should have dropped it by the Week 8 deadline, as all other students are expected to do as well. Lastly, the documentation supplied to support your appeal does not confirm the severity of your mental health issues during these time periods and it does not address the impact that your condition had on these courses in particular.
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,
Johanne Bénard, Ph.D.
Associate Dean (Studies)
10142898Ilczyszyn
Generated June 11, 2018 at 9:06:40 AM.