Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Appeal Number: 7951
Decision Date: August 6, 2021
Associate Dean: Jill Atkinson, Ph.D.
Student Name: Shaba Nahar
Student Email: 12sn5@queensu.ca

Course: STAT 464
Term: Winter
Year: 2020
Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline

Course: ECON 212
Term: Fall
Year: 2020
Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline

Course: ECON 255
Term: Fall
Year: 2020
Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline

Course: MATH 221
Term: Fall
Year: 2020
Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline

Dear Shaba Nahar:

I have carefully considered your appeal to drop STAT 464 (W 2020), ECON 212, ECON 255, and MATH 221 (F 2020) past the academic deadline. After reviewing your file, I have decided to deny your request.

As you know, courses must be dropped on SOLUS within the published deadlines. The Academic Regulations (Appeal of Academic Decisions, IIIb) stress that exceptions to this will only be waived under extenuating circumstances. 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 circumstances beyond their control. Extenuating circumstances normally involve a significant physical or psychological event that is beyond your control and debilitating to your overall academic performance.

I am certainly sympathetic to your situation, but I want to remind you that the appeals process is not meant to manage a chronic condition. The documentation that you supplied indicates that you would benefit from a reduced course load as well as additional time to complete academic components. I see that you made a smart academic decision to reduce your course load in both the Winter 2020 and Fall 2020 terms and that you utilized Academic Consideration to receive accommodations in your classes on multiple occasions and I want to commend you for that.

I realize that this is a disappointing decision however without an explanation or documentation to explain why you weren??t able to drop these courses before the academic deadline of the term, I cannot grant your request at this time. Going forward, I encourage you to carefully evaluate the impact of your health issues on your courses prior to the academic week 8 drop deadline and drop classes if you find that you cannot keep up with their academic demands.

If you wish to appeal the Associate Dean??s decision to the Board of Studies, information and deadlines can be found at www.queensu.ca/artsci/students-at-queens/academic-appeals (click on ??Board of Studies?). You may contact the Office of the University Ombudsperson for information about student rights and responsibilities as well as guidance on policy and procedure (www.queensu.ca/ombuds).

Sincerely,

Jill Atkinson, Ph.D.
Associate Dean (Academic)