Decision Letter
Appeal Number: 7977
Decision Date: August 23, 2021
Associate Dean: Jill Atkinson, Ph.D.
Student Name: Shiyi Huang
Student Email: 17sh104@queensu.ca
Course: ECON 250
Term: Winter
Year: 2021
Category: Request credit (CR) standing in a course or courses
Instructor: Gregor Smith
Dear Shiyi Huang:
I have carefully considered your appeal to receive Credit standing in ECON 250 (W21) and 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 all of the work in the course including the final examination, and achieved a passing grade in the course, but because of illness or other extenuating circumstances beyond their control, earned a substantially lower grade than might have been expected?. Credit standing is only granted in cases where there are well documented and unforeseen extenuating circumstances often which took place after the drop date deadline. In addition, courses must be dropped on SOLUS within the published deadlines. 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 circumstances and documentation indicating that the student??s performance was significantly compromised beyond their control.
I understand that this is a disappointing decision, but your appeal letter outlined several issues that I will address in turn. Problems such as wifi and trouble with technology should be handled at the time they occur. I want to remind you that your instructor accommodated you for technical issues with a deferred final exam which allowed you to have significantly extra study time compared to that of your classmates.
Missing a due date is not an extenuating circumstance, nor is finding statistics a heavy course. While I acknowledge that the mental health difficulties that you have been experiencing for quite some time, as documented, are extenuating and can reasonably be expected to impact your academic work, it is not clear that these difficulties played a role in your grades in ECON 250 specifically, or that they impacted your ability to drop this course by the deadline.
Given the pattern of your grades ECON 250 throughout the Winter term and the other issues you raise regarding this class, it is not clear to what degree that your health issues resulted in these lower grades or that they were due to the difficulty of the math-based material as you report in your letter and due to missing a due date. As I note that you were able to succeed in all of your other Winter 2021 courses despite your ongoing health issues, I must conclude that it was these course-related variables, which are not extenuating, that resulted in the lower grade in ECON 250.
Going forward, I suggest that you inform yourself of the academic regulations concerning deadlines as they are outlined in the Important Dates section on the Arts and Science web page and assess your progress in your courses or discuss your options with an Academic Advisor during week 7. If you find that you have fallen behind in your attendance, readings or assignments, it is your responsibility to drop courses by the end of week 8 each term.
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 Ombudsman (www.queensu.ca/ombudsman) for advice on matters of procedure and on obtaining a representative.
Sincerely,
Jill Atkinson, Ph.D.
Associate Dean (Academic)
20114406Huang (7977)
Decision Date: August 23, 2021
Associate Dean: Jill Atkinson, Ph.D.
Student Name: Shiyi Huang
Student Email: 17sh104@queensu.ca
Course: ECON 250
Term: Winter
Year: 2021
Category: Request credit (CR) standing in a course or courses
Instructor: Gregor Smith
Dear Shiyi Huang:
I have carefully considered your appeal to receive Credit standing in ECON 250 (W21) and 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 all of the work in the course including the final examination, and achieved a passing grade in the course, but because of illness or other extenuating circumstances beyond their control, earned a substantially lower grade than might have been expected?. Credit standing is only granted in cases where there are well documented and unforeseen extenuating circumstances often which took place after the drop date deadline. In addition, courses must be dropped on SOLUS within the published deadlines. 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 circumstances and documentation indicating that the student??s performance was significantly compromised beyond their control.
I understand that this is a disappointing decision, but your appeal letter outlined several issues that I will address in turn. Problems such as wifi and trouble with technology should be handled at the time they occur. I want to remind you that your instructor accommodated you for technical issues with a deferred final exam which allowed you to have significantly extra study time compared to that of your classmates.
Missing a due date is not an extenuating circumstance, nor is finding statistics a heavy course. While I acknowledge that the mental health difficulties that you have been experiencing for quite some time, as documented, are extenuating and can reasonably be expected to impact your academic work, it is not clear that these difficulties played a role in your grades in ECON 250 specifically, or that they impacted your ability to drop this course by the deadline.
Given the pattern of your grades ECON 250 throughout the Winter term and the other issues you raise regarding this class, it is not clear to what degree that your health issues resulted in these lower grades or that they were due to the difficulty of the math-based material as you report in your letter and due to missing a due date. As I note that you were able to succeed in all of your other Winter 2021 courses despite your ongoing health issues, I must conclude that it was these course-related variables, which are not extenuating, that resulted in the lower grade in ECON 250.
Going forward, I suggest that you inform yourself of the academic regulations concerning deadlines as they are outlined in the Important Dates section on the Arts and Science web page and assess your progress in your courses or discuss your options with an Academic Advisor during week 7. If you find that you have fallen behind in your attendance, readings or assignments, it is your responsibility to drop courses by the end of week 8 each term.
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 Ombudsman (www.queensu.ca/ombudsman) for advice on matters of procedure and on obtaining a representative.
Sincerely,
Jill Atkinson, Ph.D.
Associate Dean (Academic)
20114406Huang (7977)
Generated August 23, 2021 at 8:51:31 AM.